Interference No. 103,146
In Pfaff v. Wells Elecs. Inc., 48 USPQ2d 1641, 1646-
47 (US Sup. Ct.)(1998) the Court stated:
[T]he on-sale bar applies when two
conditions are satisfied before the
critical date. First, the product must be
the subject of a commercial offer for sale.
An inventor can both understand and control
the timing of the first commercial
marketing of his invention. The
experimental use doctrine, for example, has
not generated concerns about indefinite-
ness, and we perceive no reason why
unmanage- able uncertainty should attend a
rule that measures the application of the
on-sale bar of § 102(b) against the date
when an invention that is ready for
patenting is first marketed commercially .
. . .
Second, the invention must be ready for
patenting. That condition may be satisfied
in at least two ways: by proof of reduction
to practice before the critical date; or by
proof that prior to the critical date the
inventor had prepared drawings or other
descriptions of the invention that were
sufficiently specific to enable a person
skilled in the art to practice the
invention. In this case the second
condition of the on-sale bar is satisfied
because the drawings Pfaff sent to the
manufacturer before the critical date fully
disclosed the invention [footnotes
omitted].
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