What The New Patent Reform Act Means For Innovation

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The America Invents Act moves the onus from merely "inventing" a patentable idea first to becoming the person who actually files for an innovation first.

If the subtlely of this eludes you, then here's what the big hopes are for the act: By making this structural change about who gets assigned a patent, U.S. law will line up better with international law (which may simplify global-scale IP problems). It may simplify red tape, let the USPTO tackle a massive backlog of patent applications that're snarled in existing red tape, and it could disable a class of patent troll who documents an idea but never applies for a patent until someone else does, replicating their invention. The legal ownership of a patent is conferred on the entity that's the first to file for the innovation. Since this costs money, an inventor has more of an incentive, after having a radical idea, to file a patent and then try to turn it into something that can earn revenue. Whereas the inventor who merely dreams up a neat idea but does nothing with it has less recourse to cry foul at a later date. The idea is to stimulate more genuine innovation, and prevent too much money and time being wasted in court cases that in no way advance the state of technology or the revenue-earning potential of the U.S. Supporters have claimed the reduced red tape and boosted innovation could create up to 200,000 jobs.


What The New Patent Reform Act Means For Innovation