The U.S. is on the verge of the largest shift the patent system has seen in decades as President Barack Obama prepares to sign a bill that will transform the process from a first-to-invent system to a first-to-file system.
The "America Invents Act," six years in the making, passed the Senate last week in a sweeping 89 to 9 vote accepting the bill, having won House approval in a similarly large landslide in March.
A nine-month post-patent review period allowing challengers to file complaints could help stem the rising tide of costly patent lawsuits that companies often use as weapons against competitors in order to win market share, patent attorney David Dykeman told MassDevice.
This new avenue for challenging patents comes amid a rising tide of “patent trolls,” holdings companies with enormous war chests of patents that businesses can buy in to to protect them against lawsuits or to wield in litigation filed against competitors.
Click here to learn more about the high cost of patent litigation and how the America Invents Act might (or might not) help in MassDevice’s podcast interview with patent attorney David Dykeman.
Or pick from other segments of the interview:
- Main page: Patent attorney David Dykeman breaks down the America Invents Act
- Background on the America Invents Act
- Winners and losers under patent reform
- Pitfalls and windfalls under patent reform
- “File early, file often”
- The post-grant challenge period
- Patent trolls and infringement lawsuits under patent reform
- The Supreme Court’s hand in shaping patent law
- In-house initiatives at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office
- Meet David Dykeman