
3.2 What Lies Beneath
33
commercial gain (say, as a trade secret) does not preclude patenting the invention
years later.
3.2.9 No sale
An invention is not patentable if it has been for sale or has been oered for sale for
more than 1 year anywhere in the world in a manner that discloses the invention.
Put dierently, from the date of a sale or oer for sale, one has up to 1 year to le
a patent application, at which point the invention becomes unpatentable.
e relevant part of the patent laws that was updated by the AIA is 35 USC
§102(a)(1) states that (emphasis added):
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless—
(1) the claimed invention was patente ...