BOARDS OF APPEAL
Decisions of the Technical Boards of Appeal
Decision of the Technical Board of Appeal 3.2.1 dated 25 February 1997 - T 136/95 - 3.2.1
A correction needs to be made to point 3.3, second paragraph, in the English translation of the above decision published in OJ EPO 1998, 198 f, as follows:
The skilled person to whom reference must be made for the purpose of assessing identity of invention is the same as the person whose point of view forms the basis for assessing inventive step or deciding whether the description discloses the invention in a sufficiently clear and complete manner (Art. 83 EPC). He possesses a general knowledge of the technical area in question. However, he is not familiar, unlike in the assessment of inventive step, with all the prior art, but only with those elements of it which form part of his general knowledge, and it is on the basis of this knowledge, or by carrying out simple operations derived from it, that he may infer whether or not there is identity of invention.