In September, President Obama signed into a law the first major overhaul of the U.S. patent system since 1952. Passed in a rare display of bipartisanship—there were only nine “no” votes in the Senate—the America Invents Act transforms how patents are obtained, challenged, and valued in acquisition, licensing and litigation.
The law’s most significant change moves the United States away from a “first to invent” system to the “first inventor to file” approach used by most other nations. The former awards a patent based on when an invention is conceived, not necessarily when an inventor files a patent for it. The latter awards a patent to the first person who files for it. In making the transition, Congress hoped to diminish costly court battles to determine who invented what and when.