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Abstract: Currently “common knowledge” has become a hot topic in academic research. How to correctly determine common knowledge has become the key to improve the quality of patent examination. This paper introduces the availability bias theory to point out that the common knowledge determining process tends to produce availability bias, give too much weight to the easily conceived technical knowledge, and turn a blind eye to a lot of other information that must be considered, leading to errors in determining common knowledge. In patent examination, the availability of parts, the availability of work methods and the availability of technical problems may lead to the availability bias. In the end, the countermeasures is put forward.
Key word: determining common knowledge; availability bias