Does a secret sale of a patented invention that occurred before the filing of a patent application count as invalidating prior art? That question was the recent focus of oral arguments before the Supreme Court recently in the case of Helsinn Healthcare S.A. v. Teva Pharmaceutical USA. Before the passage of the America Invents Act (“AIA”) in 2011, the question had been well settled. Section 102 of the Patent Act, defining conditions for patentability, stated that a person was entitled to a patent for an invention unless the invention was “in public use or on sale in this country, more… Read more
Tag: US Supreme Court
SCOTUS Clarifies Long Established Patent Exhaustion Doctrine
On Tuesday, May 30th, in its decision in Impression Products, Inc. v. Lexmark International, Inc., the U.S. Supreme Court provided clarity to the long-established patent exhaustion doctrine in connection with the resale of patented products, stating that a patent owner can no longer control its patented product under patent law after the authorized sale regardless of post-sale restrictions, but may restrict further sales of the product through other areas of law such as contract law. Patent exhaustion is a U.S. common law patent doctrine that limits the extent to which patent holders can control an individual article of a patented… Read more