8.3.2 Awareness of the totality of the pertinent prior art

In T 1464/05 the board stated that, according to established doctrine, the notional person skilled in the art referred to in Art. 56 EPC 1973 was assumed to be aware of the totality of the prior art pertinent to the relevant area of technology and in particular of everything made available to the public within the meaning of Art. 54(2) EPC 1973. The different means by which the state of the art was made available to the public ranked equally with each other. The notional skilled person was supposed to be aware of all the features of the prior use in suit that had been made available to the public. Thus, although it would be unrealistic to assume that all skilled members of the interested public would have been aware of the features made available to the public by the prior use, the notion of the skilled person under Art. 56 EPC 1973 ensured that any obvious development or application of the features of the public prior use by any particular skilled member of the interested public who had gained information on the features made available to the public by the prior use was treated under Art. 56 EPC 1973 as such, i.e. as obvious with regard to the state of the art, irrespective of whether or not other members of the interested public had actually become aware of the features of the prior use.