How does the 2001 Patent Reform Act affect inventors and entrepreneurs?

Text Transcript

Stuart Gutwein, Business Law Attorney: The biggest impact of the Patent Reform Act was it shifted the system from a first-to-invent to a first-to-file. So what this means is that businesses are now encouraged to do what they always should have been doing, which is seeking patent protection for their inventions. So in the past businesses would let their projects develop for 8 to 12 months and then file for patents. The new system encourages businesses to seek that protection earlier. So what this means for businesses is that they need to make sure that they’ve got good processes in place to encourage and incentivize employees to disclose patentable ideas.

One of the biggest overlooked items of the Patent Reform Act is the remedies available under the Act. In the past, businesses, patent owners, were limited in the remedy to federal court litigation, which can be a long, drawn out, expensive process. The Reform Act does two things: it one opens up other remedies, other administrative remedies, so that means that cost associated with those remedies are less. The other thing it does is in some instances it allows the parties to remain anonymous.