Opinion ID: 399125
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Third Prototype

Text: 12 In addition, we do not think that the third prototype reduced the invention to practice. Although the third prototype later proved to be a successful device, it was not completed before the critical date. The parties cite no cases from this Circuit allowing exceptions to the general rule that uncompleted articles are not reduced to practice, and the evidence does not seem to support the application of such an exception here even if we accept the cases from other Circuits. See generally the cases discussed in Annot., 25 A.L.R.Fed. 486, at § 11 (1975). Appellants' finalized design had not been unequivocally offered for sale as a satisfactory product: they had ordered the construction of only six third-prototype syringes and intended to display these later at a trade show, but they had not begun any sales. 7 This evidence simply does not seem strong enough to impose the reduced to practice label on the uncompleted third prototype, at least not in summary judgment.