What conduct makes novelty destroying information publicly available

In finding (2:1) that the primary judge had wrongly held that most of the claims in Damorgold’s patent were invalid because they lacked novelty, the Full Court confirmed that the novelty test under the 1990 Act is stricter than the old law.[1]

Damorgold’s patent relates to a mechanism for raising and lowering a blind. As characterised by Bennett J at [6], claim 1 was a combination of some 27 integers.

The Full Court upheld the primary judge’s finding that a Mr Horner had imported into Australia and shown to some potential customers a product which embodied all the integers in the relevant claims of Damorgold’s patent notwithstanding the imperfections in the evidence.

Although Mr Horner had been showing the product to potential customers to solicit sales, the evidence was that he did not in fact sell any. Nor did he leave any samples with anyone.

Mr Horner only showed the product to his potential customers in its assembled form. It was not possible, however, to tell how the product worked in its assembled form. To ascertain the internal componentry and how all the parts worked together, it was necessary to dissassemble it – to pull the product apart. And that was never done.

Section 7(1)(a) in the form applicable [2] provided that a claim in a patent was taken to be novel unless it was shown not to be novel in light of prior art information made publicly available in a single document or through doing a single act.[3]

The trial judge considered that a potential customer could have asked to see how the product worked and, if they had done so, Mr Horner would have shown them or allowed them to disassemble it; disassembly (and re-assembly) would have been easy. Therefore, his Honour held the novelty destroying information was made publicly available.

On appeal, Bennett J and Yates J held that the requirement in 7(1)(a) that the information be made publicly available meant the question was what information did the prior use communicate (or make available) to the public. As the demonstrations to the public in the assembled form did not disclose the internal workings of the product, the information communicated to the public did not disclose all the integers of any claim. Therefore, the attack on novelty failed.

Bennett J pointed out at [11] that different consequences flowed from whether the prior art relied on was a document or an act:

The question is whether an act can be identified that did in fact make the information being the integers of the invention publicly available. This is not the same requirement for anticipation by prior publication, which is satisfied if the information is in a document which is publicly available. (emphasis supplied)

In his opinion concurring with Bennett J, Yates J was at pains to stress that nothing he said should be taken as dealing with the situation where there had in fact been a sale or a sample had been given to and retained bya potential customer.

In dissent, Jessup J agreed with the primary judge that the appropriate question was what information would have been conveyed by the use.[4]

Damorgold Pty Ltd v JAI Products Pty Ltd [2015] FCAFC 31


  1. As I was junior counsel for the appellant, this post will aim just to identify the court’s ruling.  ?
  2. The applicable prior art base was the form before the amendments made by the Patents Amendment Act 2001 so acts of prior use had to be done in Australia.  ?
  3. Bennett J’s emphasis.  ?
  4. For example at [61], [64], [68] (emphasis supplied).  ?

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