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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-CA link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><h4 style='line-height:22.5pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black;letter-spacing:-.6pt'>Dear Friends<o:p></o:p></span></h4><h4 style='line-height:22.5pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black;letter-spacing:-.6pt'>This is from Engadget.<o:p></o:p></span></h4><h4 style='line-height:22.5pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black;letter-spacing:-.6pt'><a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/09/us-senate-passes-patent-system-reform-bill-obama-expected-to-si/">http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/09/us-senate-passes-patent-system-reform-bill-obama-expected-to-si/</a> <o:p></o:p></span></h4><h4 style='line-height:22.5pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black;letter-spacing:-.6pt'>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).<o:p></o:p></span></h4><h4 style='line-height:22.5pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black;letter-spacing:-.6pt'>An advantage of this is that someone who invents a better gasifier air injection hole shape, for example, takes more risk by <i>not</i> 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.<o:p></o:p></span></h4><h4 style='line-height:22.5pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black;letter-spacing:-.6pt'>Regards<o:p></o:p></span></h4><h4 style='line-height:22.5pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black;letter-spacing:-.6pt'>Crispin <o:p></o:p></span></h4><h4 style='line-height:22.5pt'><span style='font-size:22.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black;letter-spacing:-.6pt'>US Senate passes patent system reform bill, Obama expected to sign into law<o:p></o:p></span></h4><p class=MsoNormal><span class=caption6><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>By <a href="http://www.engadget.com/editor/amar-toor"><span style='color:#111111;text-decoration:none'>Amar Toor</span></a> </span></span><a href="http://www.engadget.com/editor/amar-toor/rss.xml"><i><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#111111;mso-fareast-language:EN-CA;text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=11 height=10 id="Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:image001.gif@01CC6EDA.A2383420" alt="Description: http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.engadget.com/media/writer_rss.gif"></span></i></a><span class=caption6><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>posted </span></span><span class=posttime><i><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#111111'>Sep 9th 2011 3:31AM</span></i></span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/09/us-senate-passes-patent-system-reform-bill-obama-expected-to-si/"><span style='color:blue;mso-fareast-language:EN-CA;text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=250 height=217 id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image002.jpg@01CC6EDA.A2383420" alt="Description: http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2011/09/us-patent-certificate.jpg"></span></a>Think it's time to <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2006/05/24/patent-system-changes-in-the-works/">change</a> our <a href="http://www.engadget.com/tag/patent+troll/">patent system</a>? 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.<br><br>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:<o:p></o:p></p><p>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.<o:p></o:p></p><p>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.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/09/us-senate-passes-patent-system-reform-bill-obama-expected-to-si/">http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/09/us-senate-passes-patent-system-reform-bill-obama-expected-to-si/</a> <o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>