Menu
May 10, 2017

The On-Sale Bar for Patents Could be Available for Private Sales under AIA

Patent Law Book

Last week, in Helsinn Healthcare SA v. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc., the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“CAFC”) ruled that the America Invents Act’s on-sale bar provision renders patents invalid if the invention was sold prior to patenting, even if the sale did not publicly disclose the invention. The on-sale bar invalidates a patent if the claimed invention is sold more than a year prior to the filing of the patent application. Prior to the AIA, federal courts held that all sales, confidential and public, triggered the on-sale bar. The AIA, effective on patents filed after March 16,… Read more