Patent Reform Act 2011 in my blog
Patent Reform Act 2011
Coming before Congress in the near future is a new bill that will actually dramatically change U.S. patent law. This bill was previously referred to as the Patent Reform Act of 2011, but it’s now known as the America Invents Act of 2011 because this new name obscures the actual purpose of the bill. If this bill passes, the sweeping modifications in patent laws will actually do more to slow down new American inventions than help them.
The leading sponsors of the America Invents Act are Republicans and large businesses. The people who are in position to lose the most are small business owners, new startups and small university offshoot companies. Furthermore, it’s estimated that the bill will cost society around $1 billion dollars simply because of the options that will be removed from the patent system.
The international firms have seen to it that this bill puts U.S. patent law in-line with the patent laws of other countries. The issue is that the U.S. is responsible for twice as many patents than these other countries, partly due to the fact that our existing laws work so efficiently. It is unfortunate that American little organizations haven’t got enough cash to be heard by Congress.
Patent Reform
The America Invents Act makes several specific modifications to current patent law. The foremost of these is that it repeals the grace period that has benefited small and independent inventors for years, bringing numerous new innovations to America and the world. This will cause inventors working on similar inventions to race to the patent office. This race will lead to patents being issued for imperfect and even untested inventions.
Independent inventors have used the grace period as a means to perfect their inventions and present them to investors for commercial funding. Major multinational 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 firms to swoop in and claim them for their own.
Other changes to patent law are highlighted below:
• Requirements to act without deceptive intention are eliminated.
• Art is redefined.
• Trade secrets don’t have to be patented.
• The best mode doesn’t have to be revealed.
• Companies may re-patent inventions constantly even if never used or implemented.
• Large banks possess the authority to claim business method patents infringe on them. No other sector has this power.

