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Public Use Must Be for Intended Purpose of Invention to Trigger § 102(b) Bar

Client Alert | 1 min read | 05.31.07

In Motionless Keyboard Company v. Microsoft Corporation (No. 05-1497; May 29, 2007), the Federal Circuit affirms the district court’s decision of non-infringement but reverses the decision of invalidity. The two patents at issue, directed to an ergonomic keyboard, were developed by an independent inventor, who “traversed the patent system on a limited budget.” The district court held that both patents were invalid as the inventor demonstrated prototypes of his invention more than one year before the respective patent applications were filed.

On appeal, the Federal Circuit states that the public-use bar of 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) does not apply to either patent. The demonstration of one invention was protected by a non-disclosure agreement. With respect to the demonstration of the other invention, the panel holds that the prototype “was never connected to be used in the normal course of business to enter data into a system.” The panel distinguishes the instant facts from those in the Supreme Court’s 1881 decision in Egbert v. Lippman and concludes that “the disclosures in this record do not rise to the level of public use.”

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Client Alert | 2 min read | 02.07.25

Federal Government Appeals Order Blocking Enforcement of the CTA’s Beneficial Ownership Information Rule and Seeks Stay Pending Appeal, but Fate of CTA Remains Unclear

As we have previously reported, enforcement of the Corporate Transparency Act’s (the CTA) Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting rule (the BOI Rule) remains blocked nationwide as the result of an order from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Smith v. U.S. Dep’t of the Treasury. On January 7, 2025, the Smith court granted a motion for preliminary injunction enjoining enforcement of the CTA against the named plaintiffs and their related entities, while also issuing a nationwide stay of the effective date of the BOI Rule. This occurred before the Supreme Court stayed a separate nationwide injunction of the CTA and stay of the BOI Rule in Texas Top Cop Shop v. McHenry....