“As the nation’s economy struggles to reduce persistent unemployment and avert a double-dip recession, the Senate on Thursday passed a sweeping overhaul of the American patent system that supporters touted as essential to job-creation but that critics decried as a strike against innovation and a sellout to big business,” John Schmid reports for the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel. “‘My prediction is that fewer new companies will be started and many universities will find it too expensive to patent technologies arising from their research,’ said Carl Gulbrandsen, managing director of the patent licensing arm of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.”
“The view in Washington was diametrically different: The Senate overwhelmingly approved the America Invents Act by a vote of 89-9, making it a rare piece of major economic legislation to achieve bipartisan support,” Schmid reports. “The bill, already passed by the House, was to be sent immediately to President Barack Obama, who has been a strong supporter.”
Schmid reports, “Among those lobbying aggressively for the legislation have been some of the biggest names in American technology, including Apple Inc., Intel Corp., Google Inc., Dell Inc., eBay Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc.”
“It terminates the long-standing practice of honoring the ‘first to invent’ rule and replaces it with a ‘first to file’ system, which would grant patent rights to whoever gets to the Patent Office first,” Schmid reports. “Groups such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the National Small Business Association argue this change disadvantages small players who need time to develop prototypes and line up business partners before spending money on the patent process.”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Good for Apple in 2011, bad for Apple in 1976?
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
House approves U.S. patent system overhaul bill – June 24, 2011
U.S. House of Representatives unveils fundamental patent overhaul – March 30, 2011
I’m not a patent expert, but is there any language in the bill that would curtail the ‘patent squatter’ and ‘patent troll’ behaviors?
Wow! This is bullshit! So only big corps with huge bankrolls and patent attorneys can protect their ideas!?! That is NOT American! What am I missing?
This is bullshit spin by the same mindset that tells you other lies about why were in shit as a country.
Patents can be filed cheaply and by anyone without any of the said business alliances. Any small, individual or private inventor will tell you so. Prototypes are an essential part of any invention and are necessary as basis due diligence,since ideas are NOT patentable. Thea into make this appear as anti small inventors is BS.
If you have idea now, be careful. You may have the idea but that idea can be run on by a funded person(s). Big business and those funded will have an advantage.
I disagree with your BS statement.
Ideas have never been patentable.
Yes they are, that is all the majority of Software Patents are really.. ideas… You can get a software patent with nothing more than a flowchart and explanation of your “Invention”. I’m sorry a flowchart is nothing more than a map for how something *might* work. Its like an overview.
You do not have to write a single line of code or even make a prototype.
That is how half of these patent trolls operate with patents so broad that they make everyone liable if they do simple things like create a hyperlink to data in a database.
Its god damn ridiculous and it is helping make the USA a poor place to run a technology company imho.
NO THEY ARE NOT.
You ignorant.
Ideas are NOT patentable.
…The attempt to make this appear as anti small inventors is BS.
I don’t know how it is in the States, but here in Germany it takes all of 2 weeks to file a worldwide patent or trademark claim (if the wording of the claim is correct, mind you) and costs roughly €200 Euros, or $300 dollars. I can’t imagine it being any different in the States.
There are a few ways to do it here and they’re not that expensive, but some would insist that registration of a patent that has the potential of yielding a fortune should be free because – we the parasites are entitled…were a nation of whiners that are closet mooches, who selfishly take all they can while condemming and erroding the foundation that gives.
Dunno what nation you’re from but it sounds like a bitter one full of angry/negative blog posters. And I bet there’s no coffee there. I bet I could make a mint selling (and patenting) Prozac in *your* “nation”.
What part of ‘WE’ did you not understand D?
Man you just summed up the root cause of our biggest problems as a nation.
Well said sir! well said indeed.
i agree. This doesn’t seem to address any of the major problems with patents at all, especially weaponization of patents. It is typical of the government once again succumbing to lobbyists, being clueless about the ramifications and unintended consequences of legislation.
The legislative branch of the federal monster needs a non-partisan assessment group to listen to and deeply analyze whether legislation is needed, and then after it is written whether or not it actually addresses the issues. Not to mention an end to the practice of riders. They should have to publish their findings. In addition, before legislation is passed into law, projected cost spreadsheets should be ade available online as well so people can know what this crap actually costs, and which morons are responsible for it.
Government…
We’re here to get in your way as much as possible.
Oh….
We’re here to take as much money from you as possible too.
Think??? I don’t think you’re capable.
Breeze is a commie, Maobama, Lemming. You’re the one that doesn’t think. The country is in deep trouble thanks mainly to liberals and RHINOs. Screw you.
Wow, your comment is about as informative and helpful as this one is. IE…not at all.
Thank you, Eddie, for your insightful and cogent analysis, anchored in an objective understanding of the Anerican political process and the dynamics of modern market economies.
Not.
Eddie…. fu** Off.
Who has ran this country in the ground the priovious years before Obama, Your d- flunky George Bush..
Do you think things happen imedatly in government, it can take years for the effect to be felt and we are seeing it now, thanks to a idiot drunk George bush.
But then again you bozos take no responsibility for any actions your so called hero leaders make, only thing your good at is pointing fingers and sitting on you fat asses.
No the liberal congress ran the country into the ground the last 2 years of the Bush presidency. Fannie and Freddie warnings and attempts to keep the liberals policies out of those institutions has been going on for decades. Liberal policies have completely effed up the country. Period. Look at Detroit as a shining example. Screw all of you liberal, anti-freedom, pieces of garbage. We hate you.
Spoken like true trailer trash, you ought to audition for the Jerry Springer show.
Look in the mirror you scum bag, liberal drone.
Annoy A Liberal = Work Hard, Be Happy, Be Successful
The Jerry Springer show is full of liberal, Obama voters you idiot.
You people are pathetic. The problem is you’re too stupid to argue with, but so dogmatic in your thinking to even have the slightest glimpse of your mental deficiency. Then again, it shouldn’t be much surprise. You name-callers celebrate stupidity and can rarely muster more than an I’m-rubber-and-you’re-glue-esque mud-slinging. Why don’t you people secede already? We’ll keep CA, NY and Chicago and watch you intellectual detectives try to operate a country WITH NO MONEY!
*defectives…not detectives.
Genius is an idiot, liberal, turd.
Sheesh! Hate, hate, hate.
The ultra-rich will keep laughing all the way to their offshore banks as long as they can keep fueling our division with the propaganda you’re swallowing. This frothing-at-the-mouth liberal hate serves no purpose other than to allow the powerful to keep a$$ fucking the vast majority of people in this country.
RHINOs 😀
That’s RINO, dipshit.
The US patent system manages to make ours here in the UK look sensible, something I used to think impossible. Why doesn’t the US government simply tax everyone a little bit more and just hand the money to lawyers? It has the same effect as what you’ve got now, yet would allow people to actually get on with innovation in the meantime.
“First to file” makes eminent sense to me. How else can an agency or court adjudicate claims between one party who’s done something definitive and someone else “still working on it”?
Those who say this move crimps innovation by small inventors should consider the reverse perspective. Why should a major company put in the time, effort and money if he can be trumped by some schmuck who simply had a similar idea but never took it all the way? Ideas are always “out there” in any culture, developing in parallel but independent streams. Maybe a “race to file” is the incentive these small innovators need.
Exactly… Tons of time and money are currently wasted on courts trying to determine who “invented” the work which could be first to create a prototype or first to create a viable schematic such that an “ordinary person skilled in the art” could reproduce the invention or whatever other formula the Judges cone up with. First to file is simpler and by the way in line with just about every other patent system world wide. Why not require a filing in order to secure a 20yr gov backed monopoly?
Pretty much any law the federal government passes these days is a sellout to big business.
way to go 3rd graders.
I can’t see how this does anything but help big businesses in getting patents.
Personally, going from “first to invent” to “first to file” seems pretty un-American to me.
If you are a true inventor, you will get your “secret” invention patented just as soon as it is patentable – that’s in every inventor’s main interest. Even if you just got a previsionary patent, which costs ‘ pennies’ to apply for, it would allow you then be protected while you looked for business partners, sponsors or buyers.
What exactly is wrong with that protection for the little guy?
Not a damn thing .
The patent system is not broken, it’s Washington that is broken.
Oh yeah, I forgot, it’s meant make the party with the most lobbyists win.
What joke!
Apple did not patent anything in 1976, so it is not useful to make the comparison.
Terrible Bill. If I invent something and put it on the web, and some big corporation sees it and thinks it’s a great idea, they can patent it and be the “first-to-file”.
I may not have filed for a patent because I am an inventor and barely have money to pay my own bills much less a patent attorney and process.
This bill guarantees that any ideas invented by the “little guy” that look interesting, can be patented by any big corporation that is interested in “owning” that idea!
All of a sudden, I may not even be allowed to use my own product, because some “big guy” just looked at what I invented and decided to patent it. All of a sudden by me using my own invention, I am now infringing on their Patent, because they were the first to file a patent for my Idea.
I can no longer say “hey, look, this product has been previously been invented prior to their patent”.
This is a terrible sellout to big business. Usually I support Obama (here comes the flame war), however I’m losing interest in both sides. This country has become “Government of the Corporation, By the Corporation, and for the Corporation”.
Don’t you know how to read? You don’t need an attorney to get a provisional patent which is good for a year and extendable for another year. It’ s cost are negligible and if you can’t consider the cost of doing business (ie: inventing) a reasonable expense that you have to incur, you ain’t such a much.
How is it that people with absolutely no knowledge or desire of being knowledgable about matters have such absolute and superlative statement and conclusions about these very same matters?
You need to invent a reality transfusion machine and hook up – pronto.
breeze, it is you who are delusional. any amateur that files his own patent will essentially be buying a worthless piece of paper. there is a reason patent attorneys exist. They are experts in writing solid patent language or, on the flip side, finding loopholes in others’ patents. The truth is that the company that buys the best lawyers usually wins a patent dispute in the end. … and you can halt your immature insults any time. it only makes you look like the a-hole here.
I guess you have a problem reading and comprehending to huh?
The people who were complaining about the “little guy” vs the big money are hardly anything but amateurs, if that. The alternatives I suggested were for the little guy. I’ve used patent attorneys and the above mentioned provisional patent filing, at different times for different reasons. If you know what you’re doing ( which is learnable) and know how to take care of business you can navigate with the protection the provisional patent affords you, till you get to your destination, be it a deal, a patent or a joint venture. The narrow mindedness and tunnel vision you display here is typical of the misinformation that is at the source of everyone’s anger.
@Breeze
First of all I spent 2 years working on a Patent back in 1986-87 before I finally gave up. After spending almost $10,000 (which is an awful lot back in the day) I finally gave up. There was so much more involved than just filling out a form.
It was almost totally consuming, and I wasn’t spending time on my business of writing software. I finally shut down operations, and part of the failure of my business was my failed attempt, wasted time, and wasted money of the patent process.
I know more about this subject than you know, and it is clear from your comments you haven’t got a clue. What makes you so smart and so knowledgeable about Patent law and the process. — tell us, I am sure we’d all love to know !
Well, I’ve had several inventions that I spent many years on and applied for patents in all of the ways I’ve mentioned, from the basic everyman’s patent to working with multiple patent law firms.
I too had what sounds like a very similar experience to yours with one of my products, which was a consumer electronics device and spent over 10k on legal fees only to find out that my lawyer didn’t get it and screed up the paperwork after I spent more than two years developing the product. The patent process cost me the timeliness of the invention and ultimately exhausted it…
I learned a lot about the alternatives and decided to take care of potential business opportunities by privately selling or partnering my patentable products, while under minimal protections I mentioned.
The other time I used a patent lawyer I did most of the paperwork myself and had him do the representations and filings.
I don’t know how you can conclude that you know more about patent law from your one time experience…I’d say delusions of grandeur…?
@Breeze
No not delusions of grandeur, it was that your first post sounded like we just have a simple form to file and we’re done. You sounded very inexperienced. Now your current post sounds exactly like my original point. This is not a simple process and I believe most small businesses like mine and yours have had and will have limited success with the whole patent process.
I think my product, a software screen generation and compiler product that was co-published by the now defunct LIfeBoat Associates, inc (I wonder if anybody still remembers them) failed for several reasons, but big on the list was the time and money I wasted chasing a patent.
I can’t only blame that for my failure, but I can honestly say had I not chased the Patent route, my odds of success might have gone up from certain failure to a definite 50/50 shot at success.
I wasted almost a full 6 months of time at a critical point in my products publishing cycle doing homework for my Patent lawyer when I should have been doing something else.–and I mean REALLY should have been doing something else.
Each time I’d give my lawyer the documentation he asked for, he’d charge me another $500 and then give me yet another homework assignment. This was never ending. I don’t know if he was just wasting my time for pay, or if the process is really this complex all the time, but I’ve heard from others that my experience is not that unusual.
It has been many years since then, and I am about to release a new software product in 2012. This time I am taking the opposite approach. 100% Trade secret and protect my software as much is possible, but some of the “Innovation” won’t be in the software algorithms, but rather in the way it is used which will become readily apparent.
My biggest fear is that some big company will say “Cool idea, let’s patent that idea before he does!” What protections will this new patent law have for me ?
Because the devil is in the details, if you have a specific implementation of and idea it needs to be detailed and protected first, then there’s no clogging up the legal system, it’s clear as to who filed first. Get it preliminarily registered, however you feel secure and protected and proceed under this protection to get proper filing and approval. The new law just removes obstacles that clog up then entire process. You could always say that money solves most problems in a material world but when has that ever been different and why should that be an excise to hate?
Good luck with your product.
breeze
Friday, September 9, 2011 – 4:54 pm ·
Because the devil is in the details, if you have a specific implementation of and idea, it needs to be detailed and protected first, then there’s no clogging up the legal system, it’s clear as to who filed first.
Get it preliminarily registered, however you feel secure and protected and proceed under this protection to get proper filing and approval.
The new law just removes obstacles that clog up the entire process. You could always say that money solves most problems in a material world but when has that ever been different and why should that be an excuse to hate?
Good luck with your product.
Ideas in the public domain cannot be patented. Patents are to protect novel ideas.
@SouthRoad,
Your fears are completely unfounded. The first to file original art will get the patent, but it still must be original art – not something already publicly published.
@Nevermark
If I am interrupting this sentence correctly :
“It terminates the long-standing practice of honoring the ‘first to invent’ rule and replaces it with a ‘first to file’ system”
That sounds like to me that if you are not the first to invent, but are the first to file, then my fears stand .
I was anti-Obama before it was cool.
The dogs are sure barking this morning! Have you guys ever considered switching from caffein and sugar to Valium?
They need to go right to Prozac.
Won’t this create a paradise for patent trolls? I imagine meetings in patent troll companies after the legislation “now what can we patent that already exist on the market and that no one thought of patenting before”.
OH DEAR! Jobs UNSURPRISINGLY to NON crApple Fagbois (ie IQs into double figures) DIED TODAY!!!!
Right now the internet’s quaking with speculation about Steve Jobs’ possible death—all sparked by a single tweet. But rumors from news desks and people dumping AAPL stock are making us wonder: is this it?
It’s reminding us a lot of the media rumors that swirled up right before Patrick Swayze died of pancreatic cancer. It’s extremely hard to keep the lid on the death of a celebrity—today more than ever, thanks to websites like ours.