Everything which has been made available to the public before the relevant date anywhere in the world by means of written disclosure and which can be of assistance in determining whether the claimed i [..]

In patent law, all technology and publications available before the date of invention or anything available about the invention more than one year prior to filing the application. A patent will not is [..]

is a legal term referring to information previously disclosed to the public in any form (e.g. publications, documents, written articles, devices known, on sale, or used by the public, etc.) and any place (inside the national territory and outside) relating to the invention before its priority date.

Previously used or published technology that may be referred to in a patent application or an examination report.

the processes, devices, and modes of achieving the end of an alleged invention that were known or knowable by due diligence before and at the date of the invention ;also : the knowledge or ...

Prior art is a term used in patent law to broadly describe the entire body of knowledge from the beginning of time to the present. Prior art is everything publicly known before the invention, as shown [..]

Refers to disclosures and publications in the field of the …

The existing body of technological information against which an invention is judged to determine if it is patentable as being novel and unobvious. It must be early enough in time to be cited against t [..]

"what went before" - publications, earlier patents, public use or sale - anything which is relevant to the patentability of an invention because it shows that the invention was known [..]