State of the art

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Origin and history[edit]

The origin of the concept of "state of the art" took place in the beginning of the twentieth century.[3] The earliest use of the term "state of the art" documented by the Oxford English Dictionary dates back to 1910, from an engineering manual by Henry Harrison Suplee (1856-post 1943), an engineering graduate (University of Pennsylvania, 1876), titled 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". The term, "art", itself refers to the useful arts, skills and methods relating to practical subjects such as manufacture and craftsmanship, rather than in the sense of the performing arts and the fine arts.[4]



Legal importance[edit]

Patent law[edit]



Tort liability[edit]

The state of the art is important in the law of tort liability, specifically in the areas of negligence and products liability. With respect to negligence, "an engineer may defend against a claim of negligence by contending that he met the standards of his profession and the state of the art".[11] With resepct to products liability, manufacturers generally have strict liability for any injury caused by defects in their products. However, in some jurisdictions a manufacturer may raise as a legal defense the assertion that their product represents the "state of the art", and that the manufacturer therefore could not have made the product any safer in light of the knowledge available at the time.[12] For example, "[u]nder German law, the producer can also raise the state of the art defense: general tort law does not hold him liable if he could not know or discover the defect for lack of fault, and the Product Liability Statute expressly provides for this defense".[13] This defense is available throughout the European Community under the Product Liability Directive, art. 7(e). Pursuant to this article:


In the United States, in those state that follow the common law, the state of an industry is "merely evidence of due care rather than a controlling factor",[15] but a number of states have State-of-the-Art statutes that "make a manufacturer's compliance with technological feasibility an absolute defense to a products liability suit".[15] Because the state of the art is constantly advancing, the ability of manufacturers to claim that their products are "state-of-the-art" tracks their potential liability when these products are defective. As an industry journal explained in the 1980s:

Remote control rear view mirrors, disc brakes, automatic slack adjusters for drum brakes and sealed lighting systems are just a few examples of products that have advanced the state of the art. When one of these gains a degree of industry acceptance, it begins to bridge a legal gap between what is state of the art from a design standpoint, and what is state of the art from a usage standpoint. This could place a carrier in a vulnerable position in the not too distant future.[16]

See also[edit]


  2. ^ Jack Smith, "Is 'State of the Art' Patently Ill Defined?", Los Angeles Times (June 15, 1988).
  3. ^ [1],
  9. ^ Sreenivasulu, N. S.; Raju, C. B. (2008). Biotechnology and Patent Law: Patenting Living Beings. Manupatra. p. 95. ISBN 9788189542313. "The European Patent Convention uses the term 'state of the art' which is equivalent to prior art (...)" 
  10. ^ Decision T 11/82 of 15 April 1983 of the Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Office

External links[edit]