Under lock and key – Private sales may not qualify as public disclosure

Recently, the Federal Circuit affirmed a PTAB decision finding that a private sale of a product did not constitute a public disclosure by the inventor of the product. The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act provides exceptions for certain disclosures that would otherwise be considered prior art under 35 U.S.C. § 102. Specifically, 35 U.S.C. § 102(a)(1) provides, in part, that a person is not entitled to a patent if the claimed invention was in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention. One such exception is the pre-filing grace period (safe harbor) provision of 35 U.S.C. § 102(b)(2)(B), which provides that disclosure in a patent or patent application shall not be prior art if the disclosed subject matter was, prior to the effective filing date of the patent or application, publicly disclosed by the inventor or a third party who derived the disclosure from the inventor. The Federal Circuit held that a private sale does not satisfy this requirement and could not be relied on to disqualify prior art, demonstrating the narrowness of this pre-filing grace period provision.

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