First to File: Patents for Today's Scientist and Engineer [Hardcover]

Bridges the gap between the realistic needs and questions of scientists and engineers and the legal skills of professionals in the patent field at a level accessible to those with no legal training
?Written for inventors in lay terms that they can relate to or easily follow
?Lays out the new features of patent law introduced by the America Invents Act of 2012
?Explains the differences between the first-to-invent and first-to-file rules and why the two rules will coexist
?Focuses on the growth of new technologies in industry versus the laws protecting them

List of Figures ix

List of Tables xi

Preface xiii

Introduction xvii

About the Author xix

1. The First-to-File Rule: Evolution and Application 1

1.1 History of the First-to-File Rule in the United States 2

1.2 Whos on First?: The Rule and Its Application 5

1.3 Adapting Business Routines to the First-to-File Rule 7

2. Prior Art before and after the AIA: Two Standards Compared 9

2.1 Prior Art and the First-to-File Rule 9

2.2 But is It Art?: The Art of Prior Art 10

2.3 And is It Prior?: Pre-AIA Law vs. the AIA 11

2.3.1 U.S. Patents and Published U.S. Patent Applications 11

2.3.2 Patents and Patent Applications Other than those of the United States 14

2.3.3 Other Published Literature 16

2.3.4 Commercial Activities 17

2.3.5 Otherwise Available to the Public 21

2.4 A Servant of Two Masters?: The Effective Filing Date and Its Role in Determining the Governing Rule 21

2.5 Conclusion 23

3. Creating Ones Own Prior Art: Self-Imposed BarrilS)