Alan, you seem to be still slow on the uptake. (Which typically is my part here at Apug...)
Let me give you two examples to show what I meant:
-) Someone invented the "hamdrive", a combination of hammer and screwdriver.
Here invention and final product are identical, moreover the invention is obvious to anyone.
The inventor already has marketed his product before applying for a patent. No patent office would grant such patent.
-) Someone invented a way to make a certain substance he markets before applying for a patent. Its molekular composition is identical to substances already on the market. The competitors all employ raffination, destillation etc. to make it. He found a way to synthesize it. Here invention and final product are split, the invention not even detectable by analysis.
These two examples show the two extremes of the range we are talking about. ,
In Germany the border between making public or not of an invention lies somewhere inbetween these extremes.