The state of the art ( SOTA or SotA, sometimes cutting edge, leading edge, or bleeding edge) refers to the highest level of general development, as of a device, technique, or scientific field achieved at a particular time. However, in some contexts it can also refer to a level of development reached at any particular time as a result of the common methodologies employed at the time.
The term has been used since 1910, and has become both a common term in advertising and marketing, and a legally significant phrase with respect to both patent law and tort Legal liability.
In advertising, the phrase is often used to convey that a product is made with the best or latest available technology, but it has been noted that "the term 'state of the art' requires little proof on the part of advertisers", as it is considered mere puffery.
Origin and history
The concept of the "state of the art" originated at the beginning of the 20th century.
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 – after 1943), an engineering graduate (University of Pennsylvania, 1876), titled
The 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" refers to
useful art, rather than
performing arts or
.
[George Washington used the term in a letter to Lafayette (29 January 1798). Washington distinguished commerce from by stating, "While our commerce has been considerably curtailed, for want of that extensive credit formerly given in Europe, and for default of remittance; the useful arts have been almost imperceptibly pushed to a considerable degree of perfection". Other literary sources are collected in the United States Patent and Trademark Office's Supplemental Brief in In re Bilski, p. 11 n.4 (useful arts are manufacturing processes).]
Over time, use of the term increased in all fields where this kind of art has a significant role.
Despite its actual meaning, which does not convey technology that is ahead of the industry, the phrase became so widely used in advertising that a 1985 article described it as "overused", stating that "it has no punch left and actually sounds like a lie".[ Executive (1985), Vol. 27, p. 56.] A 1994 essay listed it among "the same old tired clichés" that should be avoided in advertising.
Legal importance
Patent law
In the context of European and Australian patent law, the term "state of the art" is a concept used in the process of assessing and asserting novelty and inventive step,
[Under the European Patent Convention: and .] and is a synonym of the expression "prior art".
In the European Patent Convention (EPC), "the state of the art shall be held to comprise everything made available to the public by means of a written or oral description, by use, or in any other way, before the date of filing of the European patent application" according to . Due account should be taken of as well, but merely for the examination of novelty.
The expression "background art" is also used in certain legal provisions, such as (previously ), and has the same meaning.
Tort liability
The state of the art is important in the law of
tort legal liability, specifically in the areas of
negligence and product 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".
With respect to product 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.
For example, "under 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".
This defense is available throughout the European Community under the Product Liability Directive, art. 7(e). Pursuant to this article:
In the United States, the state of an industry is "merely evidence of due care rather than a controlling factor",
See also
External links
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Regarding the patent law concept, see for example:
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: "State of the art"
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: "State of the art"
