The 2012 ASHS Annual Conference

On September 16, 2011, President Obama signed the America Invents Act into law and the most significant reform of the patent laws in the past 50 years began to take effect. The America Invents Act makes major changes to all aspects of patent law, but in this session the focus will be on the aspects most important to inventors.  Specifically, this presentation will focus on understanding the changes made to move the United States from a first-to-invent to a first-to-file system and the changes to the definitions of prior art and the effects of these changes on patentability of inventions.  For inventors used to filing foreign applications, the changes are meant to harmonize the laws in the United States with those in most other countries of the world.  For those inventors used to relying on the one year grace period provided in current United States law, the changes will be significant.  These changes are scheduled to take effect on March 16, 2013, so the time to prepare for these changes is now and strategies will be discussed for adapting to these changes.