The state of the art is the highest level of development, as of a device, technique, or scientific field, achieved at a particular time. It also refers to the level of development (as of a device, procedure, process, technique, or science) reached at any particular time as a result of the latest methodologies employed.

Origin

The earliest use of the term "state of the art" documented by the Oxford English Dictionary

Oxford English Dictionary

The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press, is the self-styled premier dictionary of the English language. Two fully bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989. The first edition was published in twelve volumes , and...

 dates back to 1910 from an engineering manual by Henry Harrison Suplee (1856-post 1943), an engineering graduate (University Of Pennsylvania, 1876), entitled Gas Turbine: progress in the design and construction of turbines operated by gases of combustion. The relevant passage reads: "In the present state of the art this is all that can be done."

Patent law

In the context of European

European Patent Convention

The Convention on the Grant of European Patents of 5 October 1973, commonly known as the European Patent Convention , is a multilateral treaty instituting the European Patent Organisation and providing an autonomous legal system according to which European patents are granted...

 and Australian patent

Patent

A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....

 law

Law

Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...

, the term "state of the art" is a concept used in the process of assessing and asserting novelty

Novelty (patent)

Novelty is a patentability requirement. An invention is not patentable if the claimed subject matter was disclosed before the date of filing, or before the date of priority if a priority is claimed, of the patent application....

 and inventive step

Inventive step and non-obviousness

The inventive step and non-obviousness reflect a same general patentability requirement present in most patent laws, according to which an invention should be sufficiently inventive — i.e., non-obvious — in order to be patented....

, and is a synonym of the expression "prior art

Prior art

Prior art , in most systems of patent law, constitutes 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...

". In the European Patent Convention

European Patent Convention

The Convention on the Grant of European Patents of 5 October 1973, commonly known as the European Patent Convention , is a multilateral treaty instituting the European Patent Organisation and providing an autonomous legal system according to which European patents are granted...

(EPC), "[the] state of the art shall be held to comprise everything made available to the public by means of a written or oral description, by use, or in any other way, before the date of filing of the European patent application" according to . Due account should be taken of as well, but merely for the examination of novelty.

The expression "background art" is also used in certain legal provisions, such as (previously ), and has the same meaning.

History

The origin of the concept of "state of the art" mainly took place in the beginning of the twentieth century . Although scientists and literary people who worked on different art-related subjects had already done some sort of work, real application of the concept behind this term was in a book on gas turbines published in 1910 . The term "state of the art" was first used in literary work and over time its usage increased in all fields where art has a significant role. In this relation it has been quoted by the author that "Although eighteenth century writers did not use the term, there was indeed in existence a collection of scientific and engineering knowledge and expertise that can be identified as the state of the art for that time." In the earlier writings and the literary work of 19th century, there is no evidence of use of the term ‘state of the art’. It can be considered as a recently coined concept as it was not used anymore to provide a description of information and practices. For the time, the concept of state of the art can be used for the inclusion of new knowledge and expertise in the present world.

Definitions

The concept of “State of the Art” is defined as, “The level of knowledge and development achieved in a technique, science”. According to this definition, the state of the art is basically a unique art including the specific knowledge of the people who provide a particular unique framework. There are several synonyms of the phrase “State of the art” such as advancement, stylish, artistic work, modern and several other words and phrases. In other words, the “State of the art is defined as, the incorporation of new ideas and the most up to date knowledge in order to make advancements in the already existing knowledge”. According to this definition, State of the art is the process with which a new unique idea is incorporated in any field of technology, literature and architecture. In general language, state of the art is defined as the development of new techniques and procedures by expert people in a particular field.