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ARTICLE · 26 MARCH 2013

Will The New Patent Process Bring Hard Days For Inventors?

Fox Rothschild LLP
Fox Rothschild LLP
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The America Invents Act changes the U.S. patent application process from a "first-to-invent" system to a "first-inventor-to-file" system after March 16.

United StatesIntellectual Property
Jianming Jimmy Hao, Ph.D.
Jianming Jimmy Hao, Ph.D.
Gerard Norton
Gerard Norton
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The America Invents Act (H.R. 1249) changes the U.S. patent application process from a "first-to-invent" system to a "first-inventor-to-file" system after March 16. The act redefines the boundaries of prior art for patent applications and applies a post-grant review process, which took effect in September for business method patents, to all patent applications after Saturday. 

Since the bill was signed into law, concerns about its impact have surfaced among patent attorneys and in-house counsel, as well as those that do the actual inventing. Will the act speed up the patent review process and reduce the backlog of applications pending at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office? Will the new law bring U.S. patent law in line with the rest of the world? Or are hard days ahead for innovators? A sampling of news and analyses of the act and its progress by ALM reporters and contributors should help sketch out the landscape that lies ahead. 

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