Public disclosure
Public disclosure is any non-confidential communication which an inventor or invention owner makes available to one or more members of the public, revealing the existence of the invention and enabling an appropriately experienced individual ("person having ordinary skill in the art") to reproduce the invention. In the U.S., public disclosure of an invention results in the loss of patentability of the invention after a period of one year. In other countries, public disclosure may result in the immediate loss of invention patentability unless a patent application has already been filed, and disclosure may be considered to include oral as well as written communication.