American Patent Law Change

[Kelly_Bramble]

Looks like our president is going to sign the "America Invents Act" today. So, all you inventor types might take notice. I think one of the most important changes is the "first to file" rule vs. our current "first to invent" rule.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_Invents_Act for a summary..

[PinkertonD]

Kelly, I don't get it. Maybe I am missing something but that seems to invite frivolous claims. I recall some years back some bottom-feeders Patented the shopping cart idea long after it was in use. They then harassed small web-stores for a license fee or extended litigation to contest it. I believe that Patent was revoked.

I read where this new Law will help clear the back-log of 700,000 Patents Pending but I can't see how. Having worked on more than 26 Patents world wide, I have never yet seen a Patent that did not get rejected on the first pass. How will anyone being able to lodge a Patent on anything that isn't or hasn't yet been Patented going to help the back-log?

Fortunately the Law has 18-months before it becomes Law and hopefully saner heads will prevail, but I fear not.

The old system was wonderful for small companies as they had 11-months and 30-days to lodge after offering it to the Public. That gave them almost 12-months to assess product acceptance and then lodge if it seemed worth it. Now anyone will be able claim the Patent as their own, the day it is first seen in Public.

Someone care to explain to me how this new Patent Law is good for other than big business and Lawyers? An inventor will now have to lodge before releasing it.

[Kelly_Bramble]

I agree Dave, looks like a shift in rules to benefit big-business-money. It has been my perception for some time now that economic and business political policy in the US favours big business.

[PinkertonD]

When this becomes Law I am going to get together a small bunch of investors to Patent the procedure of turning right at a stop light after first stopping. We will call it Turn Right At Stoplight on Halt (TRASH)

I estimate the average driver does this about 50 times a year, so we will be generous and say 30 times. We will get the 50 States DMV to collect a penny for each use of our Patented TRASH procedure which will equal 30-cents per year per vehicle. We will give the DMV a 10-percent payment for collecting and direct depositing to our bank account, leaving us with 27-cents per vehicle.

With 200,000,000 vehicles Registered each year in the US, we will be getting 200,000,000 x $0.27 = a cool $54-million. The DMVs will be getting $6-million spread between the 50 States each based on the number of Registrations per State. What's not to like??

Next we will go after the direct deposit procedure and make it our own.