FEBRUARY 1999
Falling from grace
In a recent decision, the Supreme Court has tightened patent filing rules to encourage early filings.
However, argues Robert H Fischer, companies that need to market
development-phase products could find subsequent patents are
declared invalid.
The United States patent laws provide that a person cannot
patent an invention that was on sale in the United States more than
one year prior to the US application filing date. Accordingly, if a
product embodying an invention is offered for sale in the US, the
inventor has a one year grace period to file a patent application
on the invention. After that one year passes, the invention is said
to be time-barred and the right to obtain a patent is lost.
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