Art. 109 PatA; Art. 69 EPC; Protocol on the Interpretation of Article 69 EPC of 5 October
1973 as revised by the Act revising the EPC of 29 November 2000; Art. 66 para. 1 let. a
PatA; imitation (equivalence), accessibility.
The assessment of accessibility is not to be confused with the assessment of inventiveness.
Starting point for the assessment of accessibility is not the general state of the art, but the patent in suit. Therefore it is not to be assessed whether the replaced feature is inventive in view
of the state of the art. It is rather to be assessed whether, starting from the teaching of the patent in suit, it is evident for the skilled person that the replaced feature