I’m hammering home a petrifying patent pitfall that often hits inventors hard: the 12-month on-sale bar. Let’s look to the sad tale of inventor Lawrence Pfaff and his failed patent for an electronic socket. He missed his application deadline by just 11 days after the first day he offered his invention for sale. Waiting for 12 months and 11 days after that initial on-sale date destroyed his ability to obtain any patent rights.
In the US, you have a one-year grace period from the date of your first public disclosure (selling, offering to sell, or publishing) to file your patent application. Missing that deadline means your potential patent rights become ghostly. You won’t be able to receive a patent, and that means you won’t be able to stop others from making or selling it.
Filing before public disclosure is the silver bullet to protect your invention. Using non-disclosure agreements, or NDAs, can help you keep your invention private until you’re ready to make it public and have legal remedies if anyone who signed it violates the terms.
Intellectual property is one of the most terrifyingly useful tools you have. If you’re a creator or other entrepreneur ready to build a frighteningly powerful brand and business, you need to know how to use it. You don’t have to face the darkness alone, though.
I help entrepreneurs across the U.S. make smart, legally sound decisions about their intellectual property. I’m an attorney in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, but I serve intellectual property clients nationwide.
If you’d like to consult with me, please book a consultation online at kingpatentlaw.com or by calling my office at 312-596-2222 or 217-714-8558.
Please check out the other posts and pages on my website for more information on intellectual property and business law issues. I’m also on most major podcast platforms as “Know Your Rights: Your Intellectual Property and Business Law Playbook” (video on YouTube, Spotify, and Substack only) and on most social media as @kingpatentlaw.
