Sale of Your Product Can Prevent Patenting: How to Avoid the On-Sale Bar
February 15th 2002By Tom Brody, DNAX Research Institute, pp. 38-42. Early sale or offers to sell an invention may result in the rejection of a patent application under 35 U.S.C. 102(b). Such a rejection is called "the on-sale bar," and it permanently prevents patenting of an invention.