Fletcher YoderA manufacturer-sent communication including pricing and shipping information for a product counts as an offer, and therefore activates an on-sale bar for an associated patent.
Federal Circuit finds that a ‘supply contract’ for manufacturing services between a manufacturer and an inventor, more than one year before filing a patent application, does not trigger the on-sale bar of 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) (pre-AIA) as it is not a “commercial sale” under the Uniform Commercial Code.
The Federal Circuit reverses a rejection that was based on a manuscript submitted by the inventor to the U.S. Copyright Office more than one year before the filing of the patent application because the Office did not establish when the manuscript was indexed and publicly accessible.
Factors to be considered in determining the existence of experimentation include customer awareness.