If an inventor sells an invention one day after a provisional application is filed but misses the nonprovisional filing date by 1.5 months, can they still obtain a patent?

In this scenario, the key consideration is the relationship between the public sale of the invention and the deadlines for filing a nonprovisional application. Under the pre-AIA (America Invents Act) rules, if an inventor makes the invention available to the public through sale, it triggers a one-year grace period during which they must file a patent application. However, if the inventor fails to file a nonprovisional application within that one-year window, the public sale creates an absolute bar to obtaining a patent for that invention.

Since the inventor in this case sold the invention one day after filing the provisional application but missed the nonprovisional filing date by 1.5 months, the nonprovisional application was filed outside the one-year grace period allowed after the public sale. This means the sale effectively disqualifies the invention from patent protection, as the inventor did not file the required nonprovisional application within the allowed timeframe.

In summary, because the public sale occurred and the inventor did not file within the grace period, this creates a statutory bar to patentability under the pre-AIA rules, making it impossible for the inventor to obtain a patent for that invention.