In the third stage the question to be answered is whether there is any teaching in the prior art as a whole that would (not simply could, but would) have prompted the skilled person, faced with the objective technical problem, to modify or adapt the closest prior art while taking account of that teaching, thereby arriving at something falling within the terms of the claims, and thus achieving what the invention achieves.[GL/ISPE A13.08.8; GL/ISPE A13.08.9; ]
Source: http://www.epo.org/law-practice/legal-texts/html/guidelinespct/e/g_vii_5_3.htm
Date retrieved: 17 May 2021