By David Gornish (December 13, 2018, 10:56 AM EST) -- A substantial aspect of a patent attorney's practice involves advising clients about whether their inventions are sufficiently unique over the prior art to merit a patent. The term "prior art" essentially refers to types of information or activities that predate a given patent's filing date, as set forth in the Patent Act. Prior art is the primary evidence by which patentability is measured. If an invention lacks novelty or is obvious in view of the prior art, the invention is not patentable. On the other hand, if a given activity or piece of information is not prior art, it is effectively inadmissible for the purpose of demonstrating that the invention is obvious or lacks novelty. Therefore, in any patentability assessment, determining what qualifies as prior art is a threshold question....