Patent Bar Exam Prior Art Search 2

Question 1

Under AIA 35 U.S.C. § 102(a)(1), a patent is not available if the claimed invention was described in a printed publication before the effective filing date. Which of the following best describes when a document qualifies as a 'printed publication'?

Accepted Answer

Any document sufficiently accessible to the relevant public, regardless of format or location

Answer

A 'printed publication' requires only that the document be sufficiently accessible to the relevant public, including online postings, conference papers, and foreign publications.

Question 2

An inventor publicly used an invention in the U.S. one year and two months before filing a patent application under post-AIA law. Which statutory bar applies?

Accepted Answer

The public use is prior art under § 102(a)(1) and the one-year grace period has expired, barring the patent

Answer

Under AIA § 102(a)(1), a public use more than one year before the effective filing date bars patentability, even by the inventor herself.

Question 3

When conducting a prior art search, a patent practitioner finds a U.S. patent that issued after the application's filing date but has a filing date before it. Under AIA § 102(a)(2), this reference is prior art only if:

Accepted Answer

The reference patent was filed by a different inventive entity and not excluded by § 102(b)(2)

Answer

Under § 102(a)(2), a U.S. patent application filed before the effective filing date is prior art if it was filed by a different inventive entity and is not otherwise excluded under § 102(b)(2).

Question 4

A prior art search reveals a non-English foreign patent published two years before the U.S. application's filing date. How should this reference be treated under AIA § 102?

Accepted Answer

It is prior art because § 102 does not require the reference to be in English

Answer

Under AIA § 102, foreign-language publications are prior art if they were publicly accessible before the effective filing date, regardless of translation status.

Question 5

Which USPTO database is specifically designed for searching U.S. patent full-text documents and allows Boolean keyword searching with field codes?

Accepted Answer

USPTO Patent Full-Text and Image Database (PatFT/AppFT)

Answer

USPTO's PatFT (issued patents) and AppFT (published applications) databases support full-text Boolean searches using field codes such as ACLM, ABST, and TTL.

Patent Bar Exam Practice Test

Patent Bar Exam Practice Test

Patent Bar Exam Prior Art Search 2