New Patent Rules: If You Snooze You Lose

This past weekend the “Leahy-Smith America Invents Act” went into effect. It includes the “First to File” act, here’s what it means.  Today if you file a patent, someone else can declare that they had the idea first, and they are allowed to show proof that they had the idea first.  If they can prove it, they can deny you the right to the patent. According to Wired:

“Under the old system, if you kept lab notebooks … you could prove you were the first inventor even if you were not the first to file, so you didn’t necessarily have to be the first to get to the patent office,” he says. “Now, with a few exceptions, you need to be the first. If two people come up with the same invention, and they often do … it’s not going to matter if you can prove you were the first inventor if you weren’t the first to file.”

So if you have an invention– file, file file!

Read more at wired.com.