U.S. Supreme Court Holds Secret Sales Remain Prior Art

The U.S. Supreme Court recently handed down its much-anticipated decision in Helsinn Healthcare S. A. v. Teva Pharms. USA, Inc., Case No. 17-1229 (U.S. Jan. 22, 2019). The issue in Helsinn was whether confidential or secret sales remain prior art after the America Invents Act (the AIA) amended § 102(a) of the Patent Code to define prior art as anything “patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.” The court unanimously concluded that the AIA did not remove confidential or secret sales from the prior art.