On September 16, 2011, President Barack Obama signed into law the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA), which will foster innovation and spur job creation in the United States. This Act sets into motion the most comprehensive overhaul to our nation’s patent system since 1836.
Patent attorneys, agents and the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) are deciphering the changes that the new law will make to the US patent system. Some of the changes are effective now, while others are to be phased in over the next several years.
The changes include:
- First-inventor-to-file and Prior Art Under New Sections 102 and 103
- Inter Partes Review and Post grant Review
- PTO Fees and Funding
- Transitional Program for Business Method Patents
- Expansion of Prior User Rights
- Virtual and False Marking
- Joinder of Parties
The change from first to file to first to invent, which will become effective in 2013, will eliminate the 12 month grace period that allows an inventor to use, sell or offer to sell prior to filing a patent application.
Under the PTO Fees and Funding change, the USPTO will have the authority to set its own fees and they may not be diverted by Congress to non-USPTO areas.
It will indeed take some time to sort out and present all of the changes that the new AIA will provide.
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