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.
One of the major shifts in the patent reform overhaul includes a nine-month post-application review period, during which challengers can make their case against a patent.
The idea is to create a sort of “peer-review” process for patents to make sure that survivors are high quality patents, as well as to give companies recourse to voice a complaint without heading directly to a federal court.
Click here to learn more about how the post-patent review period is changing the game 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
