Disclosures on the internet are generally regarded as part of the state of the art within the meaning of Art. 54(2) EPC. Information disclosed on the internet or in online databases is considered to be publicly available as of the date it was publicly posted (Guidelines G‑IV, 7.5 – November 2018 version).

In T 877/90 an oral disclosure was regarded as having been made available to the public if, at the relevant date, it was possible for members of the public to gain knowledge of its content and there was no bar of confidentiality restricting their use or dissemination of such knowledge (see also T 838/97).

T 877/98 raised the question whether a German patent had become publicly available upon notification of the grant decision if the application had not been published previously. The board took the view that the patent had not become available until publication of grant in the patent bulletin; only from that point on was the file open for inspection. It thus endorsed the view of the German Federal Patents Court (decision of 23.12.1994, 4W(pat)41/94, BlfPMZ 1995, 324).

In T 842/91 the subject-matter of the claimed invention was included in a book to be published. Shortly before the priority date, the patent proprietor gave permission to the publisher to disclose the contents of the book The board held that although the patent proprietor had clearly given the publisher permission to make the claimed subject-matter available to the public, this could not of itself amount to actually making it available.