Q. Now that passage of the America Invents Act (patent reform) is all but certain – it’s only awaiting the President’s signature – what will be the immediate and long-term effects of first-to-file?
Bob Stoll, Commissioner for Patents
A. The administration, the Department of Commerce, and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office support the passage of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, (“AIA”), recognizing that such monumental patent reform will enhance and encourage innovation that improves American competitiveness, economic prosperity and job growth.
The USPTO views the proposed transition of the U.S. to a first-inventor-to-file system as an essential feature of any patent reform legislation.
The transition will, near and long term, simplify the process of acquiring rights while maintaining a one-year grace period that protects innovators. It will ultimately reduce legal costs, improve fairness, objectivity and transparency and support U.S. innovators seeking to market their products and services in other countries.
It is clear that the current first-to-invent system almost never benefits the independent inventor. This is especially the case where the independent inventor would be expecting a benefit when they are the first to invent but not first to file.
In the past seven years, of more than 3 million applications filed, only 25 patents were granted to small entities that were the second inventor to file but were able to prove they were first to invent.
Of those 25, only one patent was granted to an individual inventor. Therefore, it seems clear that the fear that first inventor to file will only benefit large patent owners is unfounded and inconsistent with the facts.
Further, the cost of proving who was first to invent, under the current system, is prohibitive to small businesses and independent inventors. It costs an average of $400,000 to $500,000 in legal fees to engage in interference proceedings to determine who invented first.
Those costs can double if a case is appealed.
Most independent inventors simply do not have the resources to participate in these proceedings.
So the facts demonstrate that the current system of first-to-invent actually favors those with deep pockets and works to the disadvantage of small companies and independent inventors with limited resources.
By contrast, under the legislation, a $110 provisional application will establish effective rights to an invention, securing first-inventor-to-file status with no risk of subsequent disputes.
The USPTO believes that the near- and long-term effects of certainty, predictability and reduced costs of the first-inventor-to-file system will benefit all stakeholders, both small and large entities, regardless of the area of technology.
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Tags: America Invents Act, first-to-file, patent reform, U.S. Patent and Trademark Commission
The agents of banks, huge multinationals, and China are at it again trying to brain wash America.
“patent reform”
Just because they call it “reform” doesn’t mean it is.
The patent bill is nothing less than another monumental federal giveaway for banks, huge multinationals, and China and an off shoring job killing nightmare for America. Even the leading patent expert in China has stated the bill will help them steal our inventions. Who are the supporters of this bill working for??
Patent reform is a fraud on America. This bill will not do what they claim it will. What it will do is help large multinational corporations maintain their monopolies by robbing and killing their small entity and startup competitors (so it will do exactly what the large multinationals paid for) and with them the jobs they would have created. The bill will make it harder and more expensive for small firms to get and enforce their patents. Without patents we cant get funded. Yet small entities create the lion’s share of new jobs. According to recent studies by the Kauffman Foundation and economists at the U.S. Census Bureau, “startups aren’t everything when it comes to job growth. They’re the only thing.” This bill is a wholesale slaughter of US jobs. Those wishing to help fight this bill should contact us as below.
Small entities and inventors have been given far too little voice on this bill when one considers that they rely far more heavily on the patent system than do large firms who can control their markets by their size alone. The smaller the firm, the more they rely on patents -especially startups and individual inventors. Congress tinkering with patent law while gagging inventors is like a surgeon operating before examining the patient.
Please see http://truereform.piausa.org/default.html for a different/opposing view on patent reform.
http://docs.piausa.org/
This does seem like it give big companies another tool to say or fake papers in some way that they were the first to file, when the indevidual intentor does not have the resources to fight them!
What he fails to mention is that disputes over who was the first to invent is a rare event. Out of the hundreds of thousands of patent applications filed every year, very few of them are involved in an interference proceeding. (52 cases in FY2010)
The first to file provisions help major companies by removing the uncertainty of inventorship, which, although rare, is very expensive for them. Usually, inventorship disputes occur between major companies or universities where there was some technology transfer. Independent inventors typically do not get into disputes over who was the first to invent.
America has been the leader in innovation. One important reason is our patent law that allows innovators (such as scientists) to openly discuss their innovations while keeping a one-year grace period in which to file a patent. Such open collegiality has driven innovation when an inventor in one field hears about a new technology in another field and realizes that it could be modified slightly to create an invention in their field. The first-to-file law will mean that innovators will have the pressure that exists in the rest of the world to keep their mouths shut. Now America will be closed-lipped like everywhere else and we will lose a key to our uniquely innovative society.
The AIA is definitely a Disadvantage to Small Independent Inventor’s and Believe that we should be targeted as group that is “Small disadvantage Business” in order to compete for patents and market share in persueing grants and loans as well as special guidelines and credits for these inventors under the Capital Gains tax as we know it today. I’m am asking all independent inventors to remember the big business party and use their tactic against them of “Just Respectfully Disagree” on election day and reverse some of the damage done by the Republican party hiding behind a Tea Party. Let us open up and stop being the silent majority, let show them how we feel, don’t give them your vote and show them the Middle Class and the Poor still exist and we have the Power because we in our numbers are not powerless.
http://www.targetmartone.com
or
http://www.international-society-of-productdesign-engineers.ws or you can join us on facebook.com,
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