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.
While the bill languished in Congress for the past six years, the Supreme Court began taking an unprecedented interest in the patent system, issuing a flurry of decisions in the past few years that have had sweeping implications.
Patent attorney David Dykeman highlighted a few recent cases in the life sciences space, including historic decisions in personalized medicine and genomics, that put patent system issues on the front page.
Click here to learn more about the Supreme Court’s role in shaping patent decisions 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