• Under § 102(c) of the Patent Act, abandonment bars a patent on that invention. But abandonment of an imperfect form of an invention does not bar a patent on a later-perfected form. Unless publicly known, an abandoned invention is not prior art to a later inventor. Under § 102(g) of the Patent Act, abandonment of the same invention by a first inventor also prevents the first inventor from blocking the second inventor’s patent application in an interference. Cf. ABANDONED APPLICATION.
abandoned invention
An invention that an inventor has either deliberately stopped trying to exploit, or else acted in a way that precludes claiming the invention in a later patent.
