Over a forceful dissent by Judge Newman, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled that a determination of whether a patent barring offer for sale has been made must be based on contract law principles, but predicated on standard practices within the applicable industry. The Court also invalidated patent claims under § 102(b) based on pre-grant publications of foreign applications having common inventorship with subject patent but published more than one year prior to the application filing date. Lacks Industries, Inc. v. McKechnie Vehicle Components USA, Inc., Case Nos. 01-1371, -1395, -1396 (Fed. Cir. March 13, 2003).
Lacks Industries (Lacks) accused McKechnie of infringement of certain claims directed to automobile wheel chrome-plated cladding, including method claims of its U.S. Patent No. 5,597,213 (the `213 patent). The district court adopted a special master’s finding that certain claims of the `213 patent were invalid due to an offer for sale, which
