f) Instruction manual

T 55/01 concerned the public availability of an instruction manual, bearing a publication date, for the satellite receiver of certain makes of television set. The board observed that televisions were mass-produced consumer products which were rapidly distributed to the market without any obligation of confidentiality. It held that no further evidence was necessary to prove that televisions were actually sold to specified customers and that the handbook accompanying them was made available to the public within a period of about four months between their established production date and the priority date of the patent in suit, thereby taking into account the fact that events on the mass market such as the appearance of new television products were readily accessible to everybody, in particular to competitors, who would normally observe the market carefully. Hence, the balance of probabilities was the applicable standard of proof in cases such as this, as distinct from T 472/92.

In T 2105/12, concerning the public availability of a user guide and a testing guide for the same diabetes management system, carrying a copyright date (2002) which predated the earliest priority date (2006) of the patent in suit by about four years, the board concluded that like case T 861/04 (copyright of television user manuals), the present case concerned a device which was free to be marketed. Therefore, as in decision T 861/04, the board found it highly unlikely that it would have been kept in stock for about four years following Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval.

See also T 1262/15 for a detailed discussion on public availability and date thereof, concerning an instruction manual.