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Patent Reform Bill Passes Senate
First time accepted submitter nephorm writes "The Senate passed the first major overhaul of the nation's patent law in more than a half century by passing the America Invents Act. The legislation won overwhelming approval in an 89-9 vote. From the article: 'The America Invents Act switches the U.S. patent system from a first-to-invent to a first-to-file nation. It also sets up a new regime to review patents and gives the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office more flexibility to set and spend fees paid for by inventors to get patents and businesses to register trademarks.'"
The ignorance you show to how the patent system should work and how it does work is unfathomable. The current patent system cannot flat out reject a patent, they can only send back for revision.
"No, they can't. If you have been selling it on the market, it's prior art. No one can patent it. Even if that's not the case, first-to-file systems generally have "prior use" defenses. I cannot invalidate your patent by proving that I have been using it before you patented it, but I am exempt from licensing it from you."
Yes, unfortunately they CAN, have you read the bill? It was written specifically for large corporations who funded it. They also cannot "exempt" anyone from licensing, they can provide a zero cost license, if they choose, however since you're a competitor, they legally can't since that would go against their legal requirement to obtain profits year over year.
Real patent reform is not likely in this politically conservative and financially motivated environment. There is a reason that the large companies agree with this legislation. It stagnates the economy and limits challenges to their size.