Patent Reform Act 2011 in my blog
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Patent Reform Act 2011
Coming before Congress very soon is a new bill which will significantly change U.S. patent law. This bill was once referred to as the Patent Reform Act of 2011, but it is now known as the America Invents Act of 2011 because this new name obscures the true purpose of the bill. If this bill passes, the significant modifications in patent laws will actually do more to obstruct new American inventions than help them.
The top sponsors of the America Invents Act are Republicans and large firms. The people who stand to lose the most are small company owners, new startups and small university offshoot companies. Furthermore, it’s estimated that the bill will cost society over $1 billion dollars due to the options that will be taken away from the patent system.
The international corporations have seen to it that this bill places U.S. patent law in-line with the patent laws of other nations. The issue is that the U.S. is responsible for twice as many patents than these other countries, partially due to the fact that our existing laws work so effectively. It is unfortunate that American little businesses do not have enough cash to be heard by Congress.
Patent Reform
The America Invents Act makes several specific adjustments to current patent law. The foremost of these is that it repeals the grace period which has benefited smaller and independent inventors for a long time, bringing numerous new innovations to America and the world. This leads to inventors working on similar inventions to race to the patent office. This race will lead to patents being issued for imperfect and maybe untested inventions.
Independent inventors have used the grace period as a means to perfect their inventions and show them to investors for commercial funding. Big international firms don’t need to worry about this because they fund all of their inventions internally. The new bill will create a great risk for inventors to irrevocably lose the patents on their inventions, allowing the big businesses to swoop in and claim them for their own.
Other changes to patent law are highlighted below:
• Requirements to act without deceptive intention are removed.
• Art is redefined.
• Trade secrets do not have to be patented.
• The very best mode must not be revealed.
• Companies may re-patent inventions frequently even if never used or implemented.
• Large banks have the authority to claim business method patents infringe on them. No other sector has this power.






