Patent Novelty and Statutory Bar

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Patent Novelty and Statutory Bar
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The Statutory Setting for Novelty 102

• 101 says patents are for NEW subjects
• 102 says persons are presumptively ENTITLIED to
  patents UNLESS
• Invention was KNOWN or USED here before INVENTION
• PATENTED or described in PRINT here or elsewhere
  before INVENTION
• Tend to be matters outside inventors control

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Statutory Bar under 102

• Events that if they occur more than 12 months
  prior to APPLICATION bar grant of a patent
• Such as, Invention was patented or described here
  or abroad , or in PUBLIC use or on sale in this
  country more than 12 months prior to application
• Another example abandonment
• Tend to be matters within inventors control
• Practical effect file within 12 months of
  invention

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Three Case Examples

• Borst a disclosure sufficient to enable one
  skilled in the art to reduce the invention to
  practice is enough to make it known
• Pfaff -- conceptual completeness is the trigger
  for patentability, not reduction to practice, so
  12 month on-sale bar runs from conceptual
  completeness
• TP Labs experiments are not public use

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Next Class Nonobviousness