An invention shall be considered new if it does not form part of the state of the art. The state of the art shall consist of everything which, before the filing date of patent application or where priority is claimed, before the priority date, has been published or was in public use in the Republic of Lithuania or abroad. An invention shall not be considered new if although unknown from the state of the art it had been described in an application for patent of a different applicant having an earlier filing date and published in the Official Bulletin of the State Patent Bureau later or on the same date, that the state of the art had been established.