From the course: Understanding Intellectual Property (2014)

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Who can obtain patent rights?

Who can obtain patent rights?

From the course: Understanding Intellectual Property (2014)

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Who can obtain patent rights?

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There's been a lot of talk about the America Invents Act. The big change is this. Up until recently the first to invent in the United States was the one entitled to the rights to an invention. Now, the first to file is entitled to the rights. This is a pretty big shift. What this means is that if you're an inventor and you were keeping track of your invention And keeping it secret and you were going to wait until you were at a certain point to file a patent, you could do that. You could wait years in some cases and still have the priority of invention. You'd be able to prove with your lab notebooks and materials that you had invented something many years ago. And that way, in the intervening years, even if other filed patents, you'd be able to reach back to your earlier invention as your priority date. Now, that's not the case. The first to file gets priority. Even if you invented it earlier, the first to file will have priority. This is to incentivize people to go ahead and file…

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