6 ms·

This Act changes the U.S. from a First to Invent system to a First to File.

• ebiester 15y ago
  First to file doesn't mean anything if there's prior art.
  • alanX 15y ago
    Prior art has very little to do with denying patents in the U.S.
    • Symmetry 15y ago
      Unfortunately true, but it does make it really hard to sue you.
• monochromatic 15y ago
  Under a first to file system, you still have to be an inventor. If you're trying to patent something that you copied from someone else, you're not an inventor. And even if you didn't derive your work from theirs, you still have a problem with prior art.
• msbarnett 15y ago
  Prior art still invalidates patents in first-to-file systems. First to file only means that, if you filed for a patent on some thing after someone else who also filed to patent it, you definitely don't get the patent (in a first-to-invent system, whichever of you can show the oldest documentation of invention gets the patent).