Legal Definitions - experimental-use exception

The experimental-use exception is a principle in patent law that allows an inventor to publicly test or use their invention for more than one year before filing a patent application, without losing their right to obtain a patent. Normally, if an invention is used publicly for over a year before a patent application is filed, it becomes "prior art" and cannot be patented, meaning the inventor would lose their chance to secure a patent.

However, this exception recognizes that some inventions require extensive real-world testing and refinement to ensure they work as intended, identify flaws, and make necessary improvements. For the experimental-use exception to apply, the public use must be genuinely for experimental purposes, such as gathering data, testing durability, or refining the design, rather than for commercial gain or simply demonstrating the invention to the public.

Here are some examples illustrating the experimental-use exception:

• Example 1: Medical Device Testing

  Dr. Anya invents a novel robotic arm designed to assist in complex surgeries. To ensure its safety and effectiveness, she collaborates with a hospital to conduct trials where the robotic arm is used in actual, non-critical surgeries (with full patient consent and ethical approvals). This rigorous testing process, which involves public use within the hospital setting, takes 18 months to gather sufficient data on its precision, reliability, and ease of use for surgeons, allowing her to identify and correct several design flaws. After these improvements, she files for a patent.

  This scenario illustrates the experimental-use exception because the public use of the robotic arm in the hospital was essential for testing and improving the invention's functionality and safety, not for commercial sale or mere demonstration. Without this real-world testing, the invention could not have been perfected.

• Example 2: Agricultural Equipment Field Trials

  An engineer named Ben designs an innovative drone system for precision crop spraying. To thoroughly test its performance, he lends prototypes to several large farms for over a year, allowing them to operate the drones during multiple planting and harvesting cycles. During this period, Ben collects extensive data on battery life in varied weather conditions, spray accuracy across different terrains, and the durability of components under continuous field use. Based on this feedback, he makes significant design changes and enhancements before filing his patent application.

  This situation qualifies for the experimental-use exception because the public use of the drone system on the farms was purely for experimental purposes – to rigorously test its performance in real agricultural conditions and gather critical data for improvement, not to generate revenue from the prototypes.

• Example 3: Advanced Construction Material

  Clara invents a new type of self-healing concrete designed to automatically repair minor cracks. To prove its efficacy and durability, she uses this concrete to construct a publicly accessible test section of a sidewalk in a controlled urban environment. For two years, she continuously monitors how the concrete reacts to different weather conditions, pedestrian traffic, and minor damage, allowing her to refine the chemical composition and application methods based on real-world performance data.

  Here, the public exposure of the sidewalk was a necessary experiment to validate the concrete's self-healing properties and overall durability in a real-world setting, which is crucial for a construction material. This public use was for testing and improvement, not for commercial deployment of the final product.