This is a public disclosure of, for example, an invention or design that has occured before the filing date of an application for an intellectual property right, such as a patent. Typically, it is a written disclosure but it could equally be an oral disclosure. What constitutes ‘prior art’ very much depends on the intellectual property right in question and the jurisdiction or official body which governs the application process.
Once identified, prior art can be used to prevent the grant of a patent application, or it can be used to invalidate the patent post grant.
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