Wherefore art?
Sir: Anthony Mann's, and your, dislike of the phrase 'state of the art' (Letters, 18 July) must be fuelled by the fact that advertisers use it in almost the reverse of its original meaning.
It stems from the law on patents. In writing an application for a patent, the recommended tactics are (or were) first to describe what everyone skilled in their relevant craft or industry knows can be done. This is the 'state of the art'. One then describes one's own invention as an unexpected improvement and innovation, which is therefore entitled to the protec- tion of the law against copying by less inventive practitioners. So to describe a product as 'the state of the art' implies that it is not unique, but commonplace.
J. D. Renwick
4 St Augustine's Park, Ramsgate, Kent
Previous page
