Word.ws English Dictionary

prior art

prior art noun: in most systems of patent law, all information that has been made available to the public in any form before a given date that might be relevant to a patent's claims of originality, and to which the patent application is compared to determine if it in fact describes a new invention.

Noun

prior art (uncountable)

  1. In most systems of patent law, all information that has been made available to the public in any form before a given date that might be relevant to a patent's claims of originality, and to which the patent application is compared to determine if it in fact describes a new invention.
    • The significance of this language in section 102(e)(2) is that a PCT application can serve as prior art even though the applicant never files in the United States.2022, Craig Allen Nard, The Law of Patents, Aspen Publishing, →ISBN

Synonyms of prior art

Questions about prior art

What does prior art mean?
Prior art means in most systems of patent law, all information that has been made available to the public in any form before a given date that might be relevant to a patent's claims of originality, and to which the patent application is compared to determine if it in fact describes a new invention.
What part of speech is prior art?
Prior art is a noun.

Words near prior art in the dictionary

  1. prionosis
  2. prions
  3. prionsialia
  4. prionuria
  5. prior
  6. prior art
  7. prior authorization
  8. prior claustral
  9. prior conventual
  10. prior knowledge
  11. prior probabilities

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: prior art (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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