Common general knowledge
LEDs 36.Mr Knight said that at around the filing date of the Patent in January 2004, LED lamps for signboards were being introduced in place of halogen lamps because the former were more reliable. His evidence was that the LEDs could be grouped within a spotlight, behind a lens. This was consistent with a brochure published by Horizont. It was a Swiss brochure, but the experts both treated it as if it were a sound guide to what was known in the UK in January 2004. The date March 2000 appeared on one page, which was taken to be its date of publication, almost 4 years before the Patent’s filing date. The brochure referred to ‘new’ LED spotlights for use in traffic signs. 37.Mr Knight said that by January 2004 there was talk of LED spotlights which could emit alternatively amber or red light, but he could not recall seeing one by that date. 38.One way of creating a two-colour spotlight was by installing two sets of single colour LEDs within it. Mr Knight thought that because the idea of two-colour LED spotlights was known in January 2004, a designer of traffic signboards (which did not include him) would have known how to achieve that result as part of his common general knowledge. 39.Dr Meseberg gave evidence in cross-examination, in relation to one of the items of prior art, that it would have been technically easy in January 2004 to use LEDs of different colours within one spotlight. This is consistent with Mr Knight’s expectation. I find that Mr Knight’s expectation was correct. The concept of an LED spotlight which could emit alternative colours and a way to create it were part of the common general knowledge.