Enlarged Board of Appeal
  broadens concept of
            ‘prior art’ 
     in G 1/23

Inventions are patentable, according to the EPO, if they are new and inventive with respect to the prior art. According to the EPO, prior art includes everything that has been disclosed before the filing date of a patent application, for instance through publication, use or sale. The central question in G 1/23 was whether a commercially available product, whose internal composition is unknown and not reproducible, also belongs to the prior art.