Engineering News

See Wikipedia for Patent Troll

While many try to claim this won't really affect the US patent system much, the reality is that (taking one example), had this new system been in place a few decades ago, the ownership of the patent for the laser would have been Charles Townes, who is commonly credited with its invention. He invented the maser (and got a Nobel for his work) and the laser (along with Arthur Schawlow) and filed first.

Shortly afterward, Gordon Gould who coined the name LASER (who by the way, had sought advice on optical pumping mechanisms from Townes) filed a protest with the patent office citing his notebooks that pre-dated one key aspect of Townes' work. After tens (maybe hundreds) of millions of dollars in lawyer fees and numerous law suits, Gould won. Or perhaps it is more correct to say, his lawyers won.

This is one example where 'first to invent' took precedent over 'first to file'. The new law is a game-changer in the world of patents. While there may be some reasons to adopt the system used in many other countries, this goes against a couple centuries of US patent law, and in law precedence is treated with a lot of consideration in judges' rulings.

To learn more, there are many articles on line about Gould, Patlex, and Towns.