New patent law brings U.S. in line with world

After six years of efforts to reform our nation’s patent law, Congress and President Obama enacted the America Invents Act in September. The new patent law provides several substantial changes to existing U.S. patent law that many businesses need to consider when protecting their intellectual property.

Significantly, the new law will transform the U.S. patent system from a first-to-invent system to a first-to-file system. Under first-to-invent, someone who first conceived an invention could receive patent protection, even if someone else actually filed a patent application first. This prioritization system led to expensive, though infrequent, interference proceedings, where patent applicants provided evidence…