The German Federal Supreme Court Decides about a Novelty of a Substance Composition

In a decision of October 23, 2012 (X ZR 120/11) the German Federal Supreme Court decided that a substance composition which is available on the market is not new if it can be analyzed by the skilled person and reproduced without undue effort. If the composition is complex and cannot be easily identified, it is nevertheless novelty destroying if the skilled person can develop a limited number of plausible hypotheses about the possible composition and if he/she can verify these hypotheses by means of available tools for analysis.