Novelty is basically a copyright test. If any invention is known to the people at the time of filing or in case of priority claim, then is not claimed as a copyright. The inventor or the successor is protected by giving them some grace period in title for making a novelty from a publication in certain countries like United States and Japan. According to novelty, an application can be validly filed in case of publishing the invention by the inventor or the successor. Now the publication will be considered as novelty but the filing must be in between the grace period for that. Normally 6 to 12 months are given to the inventor as a grace period for novelty.

In many European countries, when the invention is made available to the public, the filing or the priority date has the effect of barring for novelty. The invention can be presented to the public in the form of written publication, sales, public demonstration or use and it can be described as absolute novelty. Patentability is very important for the invention in order to make it novelty because it might happen that the invention you have chosen might exist somewhere in the world already and you can be in trouble in this case.

There is another thing which important and it is local novelty. This novelty is only in the form of publication, sales or uses. All this takes place within jurisdiction and it can be novelty destroying. If someone fail to appear with the already invention for novelty in between the grace period then this invention is awarded to that particular person or body. The date of priority is also very important in novelty. Priority year has been defined by Paris Convention for the protection of industrial property but it is entirely different from grace period. Normally the priority year starts with the filing novelty and grace period starts with before filing.