Both the European Patent Convention and the Patents Act 1977 require an invention to involve an inventive step in order to be patentable, namely if it is not obvious to a person skilled in the art, having regard to the state of the art. However, a recent Supreme Court decision, Actavis Group v ICOS Corporation, has advocated a broader understanding of "invention", thereby giving rise to further implications in statutory construction, claim construction and the underlying policies of the UK patent regime.