The issue before the Court was the approach to be adopted when conflicting patent applications were filed. Held ­ The Court set out the two basic approaches:(i)in the "prior claim" approach, the claims of the later application were compared with the claims of the earlier one;(ii)in the "whole contents" approach, the claims of the later application were compared with the disclosure of contents of the later one. The Court considered the history of the South African legislation relating to patents. Section 25(7) of the Patents Act57 of 1978 provided that the state of the art of an invention comprised "matter" contained in an application for a patent. In several provisions of the Act, there was a clear dichotomy between the invention claimed and the"matter" supporting the claim. The use of the word "matter" indicated that the subsection was not restricted to the claim of an application. The Court concluded that the Act adopted the "whole contents" approach. This approach had not been replaced with the "prior claim" approach when the Act was amended in 1983. The appeal was upheld with costs.