[Stoves] New US Patent law change

Fri Sep 9 09:25:55 CDT 2011

Dear Friends

This is from Engadget.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/09/us-senate-passes-patent-system-reform-bil
l-obama-expected-to-si/ 

The comments below seem to have missed or completely misunderstood the
introduction of third party rights. It allows uninvolved parties to have a
patent declared invalid (should not have been granted in the first place).
For stoves, this would usually mean showing that the invention was not new
because of 'prior art' (someone already did it). The strange thing is that
the original inventor is not protected - whoever gets to the patent office
first gets the patent, not the first inventor. This is harmful to people who
invent something and do not bring it to the patenting stage (which requires
that you publicly reveal in detail how it works).

An advantage of this is that someone who invents a better gasifier air
injection hole shape, for example, takes more risk by not patenting it right
away, which starts the 20 year clock ticking sooner. A good example of
deliberate delaying is Big pharma which runs the full patent time on some or
other painkiller then brings out a safer, more effective (plain better)
replacement with fewer side effects that was discovered 18 years previously
and kept secret. If someone else discovers it on their own, they can patent
it now, without having to deal with/pay/'accommodate' those who also
discovered it and kept it off the market.

Regards

Crispin 

US Senate passes patent system reform bill, Obama expected to sign into law

By  <http://www.engadget.com/editor/amar-toor> Amar Toor
<http://www.engadget.com/editor/amar-toor/rss.xml> Description:
http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.engadget.com/media/writer_rss.gifposted
Sep 9th 2011 3:31AM

<http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/09/us-senate-passes-patent-system-reform-bi
ll-obama-expected-to-si/> Description:
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2011/09/us-patent-certificate.
jpgThink it's time to change
<http://www.engadget.com/2006/05/24/patent-system-changes-in-the-works/>
our patent system <http://www.engadget.com/tag/patent+troll/> ? So does
Congress. Yesterday, the Senate approved the America Invents Act by an 89-8
vote that could bring about the most drastic changes to the US Patent and
Trademark Office (USPTO) in five decades. Under the bill, which the House
approved back in June, patents would be awarded not to the first person to
invent a technology, but to the first one to actually file with the USPTO,
bringing US policy in line with protocol adopted in most other countries. It
also calls for a streamlined application process and would allow the USPTO
to charge set fees for all apps. The revenue generated from these fees would
go directly to a capped reserve fund, allowing the office to retain the
lion's share of the money, rather than funneling much of it to Congress, as
had become the norm.

Supporters say this extra revenue will give the USPTO more power to chip
away at its backlog of some 700,000 patent applications, while a new
third-party challenge system will help eliminate patents that should've
never received approval in the first place. Opponents, meanwhile, criticized
the bill for not eliminating fee diversion altogether (an amendment that
would've placed more severe restrictions was ultimately killed, for fear
that it would jeopardize the bill's passage), with Washington Democratic
Senator Maria Cantwell questioning the legislation's impact on small
businesses, calling it "a big corporation patent giveaway that tramples on
the rights of small inventors." But Senator Patrick Leahy, a Vermont
Democrat who sponsored the bill, argued that yesterday's approval marks a
major and historic inflection point in US patent policy:

The creativity that drives our economic engine has made America the global
leader in invention and innovation. The America Invents Act will ensure that
inventors large and small maintain the competitive edge that has put America
at the pinnacle of global innovation. This is historic legislation. It is
good policy.

The America Invents Act will now make its way to President Obama's desk,
where it's expected to receive his signature. For more background on the
legislation, check out the links below.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/09/us-senate-passes-patent-system-reform-bil
l-obama-expected-to-si/ 

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