Novelty under the AIA (first inventor to file)
AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 decides what counts as prior art for applications with any claim effectively filed on or after March 16, 2013. Work every question from the claim's effective filing date: what was public before it, what U.S. patent documents were effectively filed before it, and which 102(b) exception removes them.
Patentability: 101, 102, 103 and 1124 min read5 sections
Every AIA novelty question turns on one date: the effective filing date of the claim under attack. It is the actual filing date unless the claim is entitled to an earlier U.S. benefit date (35 U.S.C. 119(e), 120, 121, 365(c)) or foreign priority date (119(a), 365(a)) whose application supports it under 112(a). In a continuation-in-part, claims to new matter take the CIP's own date (MPEP 2152.01).
Then decide which law applies. One claim with an effective filing date on or after March 16, 2013, at any time, makes the whole application an AIA application; transition applications must say so under 37 CFR 1.55 or 1.78 (MPEP 2159.02-2159.04).
| 102(a)(1) | 102(a)(2) | |
|---|---|---|
| What | Anything patented, published, in public use, on sale or otherwise public | U.S. patents, published U.S. applications, WIPO publications designating the U.S. |
| Date that counts | The date it became public | The date it was effectively filed (102(d)) |
| Who made it | Anyone, including the inventor | Must name another inventor |
| Exceptions | 102(b)(1)(A) and (B), within one year | 102(b)(2)(A), (B) and (C), no time limit |
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Applications that contain, or contained at any time, a claim with an effective filing date on or after March 16, 2013, and applications claiming benefit of such an application. Source: MPEP 2159 (9th ed., Rev. 01.2024), checked 12 Oct 2026.
Not if it was made one year or less before the effective filing date: 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(1)(A) excepts it. A disclosure more than a year earlier is prior art under 102(a)(1). Source: MPEP 2153.01(a), checked 12 Oct 2026.
