Law360, New York ( April 8, 2016, 4:44 PM EDT) -- It has been 170 years since Congress first used the statutory phrase "printed publication" to describe a key component of the prior art. The Congress has reused that same statutory phrase without modifying its evolving court-interpreted meaning despite dramatic changes in the methods of information reproduction, storage, retrieval and dissemination, including entry into the Internet age. That court-interpreted meaning has generally been broad and flexible. This article highlights the evolution of the meaning of "printed publication," describes the detailed analytical framework that can be applied to determine whether a reference qualifies as a printed publication and discusses the key fact issues when a printed publication dispute arises....