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Guest Post by Profs. Masur & Ouellette: Public Use Without the Public Using

Patently-O

What is it that makes a usepublic” for purposes of the public use bar? Does it matter whether the person doing the using is a member of the public, as opposed to the inventor? Or does it matter whether the use is itself in public, as opposed to taking place in secret behind closed doors?

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Federal Circuit Narrows AIA Grace Period: Public Disclosure Must Make Invention ‘Reasonably Available’

Patently-O

Kaijet highlights the narrowness of the pre-filing grace period (safe harbor) provision under the America Invents Act (AIA) and serves as a reminder that there are a number of patents that would have been valid under the pre-AIA patent system may no longer be valid under the current law. Sanho Corp. 2023-1336 (Fed. July 31, 2024).

Invention 111
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Public-Use Bar: What Startups Need to Know

IP Watchdog

Many startups are aware of how the on-sale bar interacts with these pressures and the associated need to file patent applications on any technology prior to offering or placing it on sale. However, fewer startups are aware of the public-use bar and how activities pursued with the goal of growing their businesses may unwittingly invoke it.

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Patent Law Canons and Canards: Bonito Boats

Patently-O

For our patent law course today, the students read the Justice O’Connor unanimous opinion in Bonito Boats, Inc. The Florida courts had refused to enforce the law because it conflicted with Federal Patent Law. The Florida courts had refused to enforce the law because it conflicted with Federal Patent Law. 141 (1989).

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How Does One “Use” Flowers?

Patently-O

The utility patent at issue covers a petunia plant. Here, the Federal Circuit has affirmed that the claims are invalid based upon a pre-filing trade-show display of the ornamental plant — holding that the display counted as a “public use.” The oddity of this utility patent is that it claims an ornamental plant.

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Under Lock And Key – Private Sales May Not Qualify As Public Disclosure

JD Supra Law

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. 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.

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Never too late: if you missed the IPKat last week

The IPKat

Patents Benjamin unpacked a patent royalties dispute between the University of Oxford and a student inventor, where the English High Court explained which categories of students should be treated as consumers for the purposes of consumer protection law, and why. We can’t believe it’s already February.