T 0412/91 (Alloy steel powder/KAWASAKI) vom 27.02.1996

Novelty - prior disclosure - erroneous (yes)
Inventive step (yes)

T 77/87, OJ EPO 1990, 280, defined the state of the art for the purposes of Article 54 EPC as including what had been made available to the skilled person as a matter of technical reality, and on that basis excluded from the state of the art a feature of a cited abstract shown to be wrong by reference to the patent on which it was based, and to which the abstract referred. Later decisions reflect that fact that published matter may also be excluded from the state of the art if it is so implausible in the eyes of the skilled reader that he would reject it as erroneous, or where, as in the present case, the same conclusion is based on the combined effect of internal contradiction and a readily accessible relevant external disclosure.