Lough v. Brunswick Corp.
United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
86 F.3d 1113 (1996)
Lough (plaintiff) designed a corrosion-resistant boat seal assembly, built six prototypes, kept one for his own boat, gave four to friends without any follow-up, and installed the last in a customer's boat without further contact; more than a year after distributing these prototypes, he applied for and received a patent, and Brunswick (defendant), which redesigned its own seals based on Lough's invention, argued the patent was invalid because the invention had been in public use more than a year before filing. The jury found for Lough, and the district court denied Brunswick's motion for judgment as a matter of law.
Whether, for purposes of the statutory bar to patent validity known as the public-use bar, experimental use of an invention is considered public use.