Centripetal Networks, Inc. v. Cisco Systems, Inc.

The patent statute provides that “[a] person shall be entitled to a patent unless . . . the invention was . . . described in a printed publication . . . in this country, more than one year prior to the date of the application for patent in the United States.” 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) (pre-AIA). This provision has long been interpreted by the courts to require that a document that predates the patent application by over a year is deemed a printed publication only if it is readily available to interested members of the public through generally available medium. The question presented is: Can a document qualify as a printed publication if it is stored on a passwordprotected website, not accessible to the public, and available only to customers who pay over $25,000 dollars to purchase related software?