one-year rule

Definition of "one-year rule"
  1. A former requirement mandating the filing of a patent application within a year of the invention's public use, sale, offer for sale, or public description by the inventor, failure of which resulted in the invention entering the public domain, ineligible for a patent
How to use "one-year rule" in a sentence
  1. Before 2013, if inventors broke the one-year rule, their inventions would become public domain.
  2. The one-year rule was commonly known as the on-sale bar when applied to sales.
  3. Post-2013 changes to patent laws significantly altered the scope of the original one-year rule.

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