What constitutes prior art under 35 U.S.C. § 102(a) as it relates to the effective filing date?

Under 35 U.S.C. § 102(a), prior art refers to information that is publicly available before the effective filing date of a patent application. The correct answer indicates that for an invention to be considered prior art, it must have been made public before the filing date of the claimed invention. This public disclosure can take many forms, such as publications, presentations, or even acts of public use or sale.

This provision is essential for assessing whether a claimed invention is novel and non-obvious in relation to what has previously been disclosed. The effective filing date serves as a cutoff point, meaning that any public availability of related inventions before this date can impact the patentability of the new claim.

In contrast, a patent filed after the effective filing date does not constitute prior art since it did not exist at the time that is relevant for assessing novelty. Similarly, inventions made by the inventor themselves are not considered prior art under this section because they do not represent external disclosures impacting the patentability of their own later filings. Lastly, while inventions marketed internationally could potentially be considered prior art in certain contexts, they would generally need to have been made public before the effective date, aligning this concept with the notion of public availability rather than merely international marketing.