In re Hall
United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
781 F.2d 897 (Fed. Cir. 1986)
Relevant factsFree
Hall filed a patent application in February 1979, but a protester submitted a copy of Peter Foldi's dissertation, deposited at a German university library in November 1977, as prior art; a university representative could state only that the dissertation was "most probably" available for general use by early December 1977. The patent examiner rejected Hall's application under the printed-publication bar, and the Patent Office Board of Appeals affirmed.
IssueFree
Whether an invention is patentable if it was described in a printed publication more than one year prior to the date of the patent application.