Private Sales Can Create Patent Risk Without Public Disclosure

It may qualify as prior art yet still fail to count as the kind of public disclosure that protects an inventor against a later third-party disclosure.

A sale can matter under patent law in two different ways. It may qualify as prior art yet still fail to count as the kind of public disclosure that protects an inventor against a later third-party disclosure. The Federal Circuit's recent decision in NCS Multistage, Inc. v. Nine Energy Service, Inc., No. 2025-1000, 2026 WL 2683059 (Fed. Cir. Sept. 14, 2026), illustrates that distinction and the risk a sale can create for companies that begin commercial activity before filing a patent application.

The court held that NCS' nonconfidential sale to one customer did not publicly disclose the invention because the product's relevant technical features were not accessible to the public. NCS therefore could not use that earlier transaction to disqualify a third-party's later sale and public use from the prior art record. The result is a