Companies interested in protecting their inventions should be aware of major changes that are coming to U.S. patent law. The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, signed into law by President Obama in September 2011, represents the biggest changes to U.S. patent law in more than 50 years. Although it was enacted in 2011, its most sweeping changes come into force beginning in March 2013.
Out With First-to-Invent, In With First-to-File
For two hundred years, the U.S. patent system has awarded a patent to the first person to invent a new process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter. There was no need to rush to file a patent application in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office because if two different inventors came up with the same invention, the patent was awarded to the first person who invented it, not the first person who filed a patent application. This is fundamentally different from the way the rest of the world operates.
