House Passes Patent Overhaul Bill

narramissic writes "ITworld reports that the House of Representatives has passed a bill that promises to overhaul the US patent system. 'The Patent Reform Act, supported by several large tech vendors including Microsoft Corp. and IBM Corp., would allow courts to change they way they assess damages in patent infringement cases. Currently, courts generally consider the value of the entire product when a small piece of the product infringes a patent; the bill would allow, but not require, courts to base damages only on the value of the infringing piece."

Comments

Re:Reform == good. First to file == bad.

[k_187]

No, lets say you come up with something cool. After the first date that you reduce your invention to practice, you have one year to file it with USPTO (assuming no other circumstances). If Big Company X comes along during that period, and creates the same invention, and files before you; your claim of invention will take precedent. However, under a first to file system, in the above scenario; you're screwed. Prior art will still invalidate a patent (although it will arguably not come up during prosecution under first to file). First to file puts extra emphasis on filing as soon as possible.