Private Sale Gets No Safe Harbor From §102(b)(1)(B)

In NCS Multistage Inc. v. Nine Energy Serv., Inc., No. 25-1000 (Fed. Cir. Sep. 14, 2026), the Federal Circuit vacated the district court’s judgment of infringement and no invalidity of U.S. Patent No. 10,465,445 (the “’445 patent”) and remanded for a new trial.

NCS sued Nine alleging infringement of the ’445 patent, which covers a tool used to insert a casing string pipe to the bottom of an oil wellbore. At the district court, Nine argued that a tool embodying the ’445 asserted claims was sold by a third-party to Apache in August 2012, before the patent’s alleged February 2013 priority date.¹ NCS countered that its July 2012 sale to Tundra constituted a public disclosure, rendering the Apache sale ineligible as prior art under the safe harbor of 35 U.S.C. § 102(b)(1)(B).