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Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, October 18 2012 @ 05:14 PM EDT |
Correct. "first to file" as opposed to "first to invent".
In the US, you can (currently) be second to file and still
get a patent, if your application says that you invented at
an earlier date (up to one year) than is claimed by the
competing inventor.
Under first-to-file, you can be first to file and still NOT
get a patent, if it wasn't novel (i.e., somebody else
invented it first [and published or started selling the
invention, anywhere in the world]).
The new US law is actually not really first-to-file: if you
publish the invention yourself, you can get the patent via a
later filing (up to one year) even if somebody else files
first.
That's certainly an improvement over the old system of
"trust me, I invented this exactly 364 days ago."
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