What You Need to Know About Public Disclosure in IP

Any non-confidential document or presentation that describes an invention is considered a public disclosure. In simple words, we can say that any non-confidential communication from an inventor or the owner of an invention to one or more members of the public that reveals the existence of the invention and makes it possible for someone with the necessary expertise to reproduce it is considered a public disclosure.  

Publications in printed or electronic form, abstracts, oral or poster presentations at conferences and other papers (master’s thesis, doctoral dissertations, etc.), and other similar activities are examples of public disclosure. In the event that an inventor has publicly shared the idea, disclosed inventions may still be patented in some nations thanks to a “grace period,” which permits an inventor to file a patent application within a certain amount of time after making the invention public, because the earlier disclosure is not taken into account in that patent application as a prior art. In essence, a grace period gives 6 or 12 months following a public disclosure for filing a patent application. The grace period may vary from nation to nation. The public disclosure made by an inventor within the grace period is not regarded as prior art for the application, although this only pertains to the inventor(s) or person who is eligible to file for the patent, and not to independent disclosures made by third parties.

Utility Model Grace Periods and other IP Rights Grace Period 

• Other intellectual property rights, such as registered designs and utility models, have grace periods in some jurisdictions. For instance, Registered Community Designs have a 12-month grace period (European Union). Therefore, even if a patent cannot be granted due to an earlier disclosure, other intellectual property rights for particular invention types may still be registrable. Utility models are rights similar to patents, but they differ from patents in that they frequently do not undergo an examination for novelty and creative step (non-obviousness) upon filing, have a reduced or non-existent need for an inventive step and have a shorter life (10 years for the above states). 

  The European Patent Convention countries in the table below operate a grace period for utility models. 

TimeLine for Grace Period of Some Countries