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Celanese (P) filed a petition before the United States International Trade Commission (ITC), alleging that Anhui Jinhe Industrial Co., Ltd. (D), and other entities were importing Ace-K (an artificial sweetener) made using a process that infringed P's patents. The asserted patents each have an effective filing date of September 21, 2016, and are thus governed by the America Invents Act (AIA). It is undisputed that P's patented process was in secret use in Europe before the critical date of September 21, 2015, i.e., one year before the effective filing date of the asserted patents. It is also undisputed that P had sold Ace-K made using the patented process in the United States before the critical date. D moved for a summary determination of no violation of 19 U.S.C. § 337 on the ground that the claims at issue were invalid under the on-sale bar provision, 35 U.S.C. § 102(a)(1). D claimed because P sold Ace-K more than one year before it applied for the asserted patents, those sales triggered the on-sale bar. P did not dispute that under pre-AIA precedent, sales of products made using a secret process triggered the on-sale bar, precluding the patentability of that process. P argued that the AIA changed pre-AIA law such that its pre-2015 sales of Ace-K made using its secret process would not trigger the on-sale bar. The Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) rejected P's argument, concluding that the prior sales triggered the on-sale bar and that the AIA did not overturn settled pre-AIA precedent. This was backed up by the Supreme Court’s decision in Helsinn. The ALJ concluded that the AIA did not alter the pre-AIA rule that 'a patentee's sale of an unpatented product made according to a secret method triggers the on-sale bar to patentability.' The ALJ granted D's motion for a summary determination of no violation. P appealed to the ITC. The ITC denied the appeal and P appealed.

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