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Obama To Sign 'America Invents Act of 2011' Today

ideonexus writes "President Obama will be signing the 'America Invents Act of 2011' into law today at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Va. The bill will transition America from a 'first-to-invent" to a 'first-to-file" country, but critics argue that the bill fails to address the more important problem that 'nobody can tell what a patent covers until they've spent months or years working it out, often in the courts.'"

6 of 244 comments (clear)

  1. Re:America Invents? by GameboyRMH · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Like the PATRIOT act. The title is an ironic opposite of what the act actually does.

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  2. I don't get "First to File" by gameboyhippo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    How about first to do both. You would have to have an invention before you can file. Otherwise, I'm patenting time travel.

  3. You still have to have invented it by tepples · · Score: 5, Informative

    The old way: You have to have invented the product or process and reduced it to practice, you have to file a patent application, and you have to have invented before other inventors.
    The new way: You have to have invented the product or process and reduced it to practice, you have to file a patent application, and you have to have filed before other inventors.

    The purported advantage of the new way is that it's a lot easier to prove having filed first than to prove having reduced it to practice first.

  4. Re:America Invents? by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 5, Insightful

    First to file.

    Now.

    Raise filing fees and barriers to protect incumbent interests.

    Why not? In Amerika today, money has already become the right to vote, and the right to speech.

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."
  5. Re:America Invents? by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 5, Informative

    He ALSO signed a continuation of Emergency Powers.

    How Nice.

    Funny this little occurrence receives so little attention, when, of these invoked powers, The Washington Times wrote on September 18, 2001:

    Simply by proclaiming a national emergency on Friday, President Bush activated some 500 dormant legal provisions, including those allowing him to impose censorship and martial law.

    I guess there wasn't enough NewSpeak in that article for the WT to preserve it from their Memory Hole. Here it is on the Wayback:
    http://web.archive.org/web/20010918184425/www.washtimes.com/national/20010918-1136.htm

    Now, back to Barry's continuation of the legacy:

    Notice of September 9, 2011

    Continuation of the National Emergency With Respect to Certain Terrorist Attacks

    Consistent with section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act, 50 U.S.C. 1622(d), I am continuing for 1 year the national emergency previously declared on September 14, 2001, in Proclamation 7463, with respect to the
    terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the continuing and immediate threat of further attacks on the United States.

    Because the terrorist threat continues, the national emergency declared on September 14, 2001, and the powers and authorities adopted to deal with that emergency must continue in effect beyond September 14, 2011. Therefore, I am continuing in effect for an additional year the national emergency that was declared on September 14, 2001, with respect to the terrorist threat.

    This notice shall be published in the Federal Register and transmitted to the Congress.

    (Signed, BO)

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."