Article 56 EPC

Article 56 of theEuropean Patent Convention (EPC) addresses the requirement of inventiveness for patentability. It states that an invention is not considered new if it is obvious to a person skilled in the relevant technical field, based on prior knowledge or existing information (prior art). In other words, for an invention to be patentable, it must involve an inventive step that isn't an obvious improvement or development over what was already known. This ensures patents are granted only for genuinely innovative contributions that advance the technology in a non-obvious way.