Obama Signs Patent Overhaul Legislation

[nsane.forums]

U.S. President Barack Obama has signed the America Invents Act, the first major overhaul of the U.S. patent system in about 50 years.

U.S. President Barack Obama has signed the America Invents Act, the first major overhaul of the U.S. patent system in about 50 years.

The America Invents Act, passed 89-9 by the U.S. Senate last week, would allow new challenges to patents granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. It allows third parties to file a challenge to a patent within nine months of it being awarded.

The new law also creates a new challenge for finance-related business-method patents by companies that have been sued or accused of infringing them. The new mechanism for challenging business-method patents will apply retroactively to those patents, and the law opens an eight-year window for the USPTO to review business-method patents.

"Reforming the U.S. patent system will enable businesses of all sizes to obtain clearer and more reliable intellectual property rights in a more expedient fashion, so they can attract investments, develop their products, and hire employees sooner," U.S. government CTO Aneesh Chopra wrote on the White House blog. "By transitioning to a simpler, more objective, and more inventor-friendly system of issuing patents, the new act helps ensure that independent inventors and small entities have greater clarity and certainty over their property rights and will be able to navigate the patent system on a more equitable footing with large enterprises."

The America Invents Act allows the USPTO to set fees for patents, and it will allow the agency to keep all of its patent fees, instead of having some money to back to the U.S. treasury. Congress has diverted about US$900 million from the patent office over the past two decades.

Those provisions will generate money the USPTO needs to address a backlog of about 1 million patent applications, said supporters, including sponsors Senator Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, and Representative Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican.

Several large tech companies, including Intel, Apple and Microsoft, have called for patent reform in recent years, and lawmakers have been trying to pass a bill for nearly six years. Earlier this year, the Senate stripped out limits on patent lawsuit damages that some large tech companies had supported.

The law streamlines the patent review process at the USPTO and it would change U.S. patent rules by giving a patent to the first person to file for it, not the first person to create a new invention. Changing to a first-to-file system puts the U.S. in step with most other countries.

Some opponents of the bill have said it favors large patent holders over small inventors. The first-to-file provision will create a race to the USPTO and disadvantage small inventors who may not have the money to immediately file a patent application, said opponents, including Senator Maria Cantwell, a Washington Democrat.

The new law modernizes the U.S. patent system, said Mark Elliot, executive vice president at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Global Intellectual Property Center.

"The legislation will help ensure that the USPTO is adequately staffed, efficiently operated, fully funded to reduce backlog, and process patent and trademark applications in a high-quality and expeditious fashion," he said in a statement. Reducing the backlog of patents at the USPTO "is essential to encouraging innovation and bolstering the U.S. economy."

View: Original Article

[myidisbb]

nothing more then another obama lie on more taxes. this piece of shit law itsnt wortht he paper its printed on. no thank you.

[shought]

nothing more then another obama lie on more taxes. this piece of shit law itsnt wortht he paper its printed on. no thank you.

You seem awfully pre-determined about anything Obama has done, does or will ever do ;)

(I don't know enough about the subject matter to state that you're wrong or right, but the above is just how it seems to me.)

[myidisbb]

nothing more then another obama lie on more taxes. this piece of shit law itsnt wortht he paper its printed on. no thank you.

You seem awfully pre-determined about anything Obama has done, does or will ever do ;)

(I don't know enough about the subject matter to state that you're wrong or right, but the above is just how it seems to me.)

one big azz mistake america has done everything he and his admin can do to convert us to china communism. he is thee worst president ever in the history of the usa. he beats out jackson.

this bill that he just sign into law is worthless. doesnt do anything about software patents and sets up another nasty tax on fliers.

trust me i didint like some of what bush sign either but this being 3 years into bho 1 term presidency its all his doing. his whole life been a fake lie period. liberalism, progressive, communism is a cancer to freedom. senator clinton should been president but she didnt have the balls to attack this creep

[shought]

If I'm not mistaken they did have 'the balls' to attack 'this creep', but that was one of the reasons why Obama won the elections; the more republican slander campaigns were launched against Obama the more he rose in the polls.

I don't think it matters whether you have a democrat or republican president because the US pretty much runs itself anyway. Big corporations and lobbying groups call the shots and the president might be able to stop certain 'wishes' (of these corporations or lobbyists) for a few years, but eventually they will get what they want. Over the years US presidency turned into symbolism...

In some smaller countries democracy might be relatively effective and the will of the people might be (vaguely) represented by the government, but please don't fool yourself into believing that any government (democrat or republican) represents the voice of the people. They represent the voice of the large corporations' checkbooks and their own checkbooks :(

[myidisbb]

If I'm not mistaken they did have 'the balls' to attack 'this creep', but that was one of the reasons why Obama won the elections; the more republican slander campaigns were launched against Obama the more he rose in the polls.

I don't think it matters whether you have a democrat or republican president because the US pretty much runs itself anyway. Big corporations and lobbying groups call the shots and the president might be able to stop certain 'wishes' (of these corporations or lobbyists) for a few years, but eventually they will get what they want. Over the years US presidency turned into symbolism...

In some smaller countries democracy might be relatively effective and the will of the people might be (vaguely) represented by the government, but please don't fool yourself into believing that any government (democrat or republican) represents the voice of the people. They represent the voice of the large corporations' checkbooks and their own checkbooks :(

no

mccain being a rino sucked at the campaign. clinton didnt go after obama. anytime you attack obama they cry race

[toyo]

shought's principal idea was that both parties are serving the same masters. Don't deceive yourself in believing that one political group or another can bring you a better life - that's just one of the ways the puppeteers use to turn your attention away from the real issues. The system is flawed at its core.