• Under U.S. law, an inventor is given a one-year grace period — beginning on the date of any public use, sale, offer of sale, or publication by the inventor or the inventor’s agent — in which to file a patent application. After that, the patent is barred. Canada and Mexico also give the first inventor or the inventor’s assignees a one-year grace period for filing, but they bar a patent for the first inventor if the invention is independently developed and disclosed by someone else during that time.
— Also termed absolute-novelty requirement. Cf. BAR DATE.
