U.S. Senate Approves America Invents Act

On March 8, the U.S. Senate passed by a margin of 95-5 a major piece of patent reform legislation (S.23), which the Senate titled the "America Invents Act." If enacted into law, key provisions of the Senate bill would change how the United States Patent and Trademark Office ("PTO") evaluates priority of inventorship, establish a new framework for third-party involvement in pending and newly issued patents, alter the requirements for filing patent applications, and change the scope of claims and defenses that can be brought in litigation. Key provisions of the Senate bill include:

• Transition of the United States to a First-to-File System. Perhaps the most significant change in the Senate bill is that it would award patent rights to the inventor who is the first to file a patent application even if somebody else made the invention first but filed their patent application after the first filer. Under current U.S. patent law, the first inventor is entitled to a patent,