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But there is this US 3516422 A. Publication number US3516422 A Publication type Grant Publication date Jun 23, 1970 Filing date Jun 26, 1967 Priority date Jun 26, 1967 Inventors Alworth Kathleen M, Bechtold Arthur W Original Assignee Chemway Corp
I have another question regarding disclosure of US 2016020603. If inventor discussed or sold invention on social media, Facebook for example would that be the date of disclosure? Here are a few links.
Patent US3516422 likely expired in 1987. Anyone can practice exactly what is disclosed in that patent. However, there is no guarantee there aren't other more recent patents that also may relate to a product. As you found there is a patent application US20160206031. This is an application, not yet a patent. It may or may not ever become a patent and even if it does, the claims may be changed or narrowed from what is in the application. In this case US3516422 is considered prior art to US20160206031. There is very likely to be other prior art too.
From what I can see, US20160206031 is different from US3516422. In the case of the US3516422 there is a substrate glued to the eyelid to which a magnetic false eyelash is the attached through magnetic attraction. With US20160206031 there are two separate magnetic false eyelashes placed on either side of the users natural eyelash. The magnetic force keeps the two magnetic lashes clamped to the natural lash.
I deduced from your comments from your closed question that you had a similar product and received a request to stop selling your product from the owners of US20160206031. You should consult with a patent attorney as first, US20160206031 is not an issued patent and may never become one and second it is possible that your product doesn't actually infringe on that application. A patent attorney is best able to provide guidance.
With regards to your second question, the application was filed on July 16th, 2015 and has a priority date of January 19th, 2015 so any publication after that (and I believe up to a year before) won't invalidate the patentability. If you can find a publication before January 19th of 2015 it may be grounds for invalidation.
Please understand that I am not an attorney, so please don't construe my answer as legal advice. Definitely consult with a patent attorney for that.
I see only two short questions here so I'll make a short answer too.
Is it the only patent of its kind? No. Obviously not, you proved that already, but generally there will always be more than one. And if not, it's only an “not yet“.
Does social media count as disclosure? Yes. Any disclosure which could reach at least one person of the public (who is not obligated to keep the invention secret) counts. Even if nobody ever saw it, if they could have, it counts.
I might add that the US has a grace period of one year where disclosures of the inventor don't impede patentability. They do however impede patentability for almost every other country.
