Federal Circuit Rules on Scope of AIA On-Sale Bar

The Federal Circuit ruled on Monday that precedent governing the on-sale bar in patent law was unaffected by the enactment of the AIA. Reversing a lower court decision that interpreted the AIA as requiring an invalidating sale to publicly disclose the details of the invention, the Federal Circuit held that the AIA on-sale bar continues to apply “even when there is no delivery, when delivery is set after the critical date, or, even when, upon delivery, members of the public could not ascertain the claimed invention.”