Patents - 35 USC Section 102

01/19/04

Sec. 102. Conditions for patentability; novelty and loss of right
to patent

A person shall be entitled to a patent unless -
(a) the invention was known or used by others in this country, or
patented or described in a printed publication in this or a foreign
country, before the invention thereof by the applicant for patent,
or
(b) the invention was patented or described in a printed
publication in this or a foreign country or in public use or on
sale in this country, more than one year prior to the date of the
application for patent in the United States, or
(c) he has abandoned the invention, or
(d) the invention was first patented or caused to be patented, or
was the subject of an inventor's certificate, by the applicant or
his legal representatives or assigns in a foreign country prior to
the date of the application for patent in this country on an
application for patent or inventor's certificate filed more than
twelve months before the filing of the application in the United
States, or
(e) the invention was described in (1) an application for patent,
published under section 122(b), by another filed in the United
States before the invention by the applicant for patent or (2) a
patent granted on an application for patent by another filed in the
United States before the invention by the applicant for patent,
except that an international application filed under the treaty
defined in section 351(a) shall have the effects for the purposes
of this subsection of an application filed in the United States
only if the international application designated the United States
and was published under Article 21(2) of such treaty in the English
language; (!1) or
(f) he did not himself invent the subject matter sought to be
patented, or
(g)(1) during the course of an interference conducted under
section 135 or section 291, another inventor involved therein
establishes, to the extent permitted in section 104, that before
such person's invention thereof the invention was made by such
other inventor and not abandoned, suppressed, or concealed, or (2)
before such person's invention thereof, the invention was made in
this country by another inventor who had not abandoned, suppressed,
or concealed it. In determining priority of invention under this
subsection, there shall be considered not only the respective dates
of conception and reduction to practice of the invention, but also
the reasonable diligence of one who was first to conceive and last
to reduce to practice, from a time prior to conception by the
other.

Last modified: April 19, 2006