Protecting Your Brand in China
What the First-to-File Patent Change Means (And What IP Strategists Should Do About It)
The Corporate Law Report: First-to-File Patents, Hiring for Cultural Fit, Roth Conversions Post-Fiscal Cliff, and Global Corporate Insights
In one of the first decisions regarding derivation proceedings under the America Invents Act (AIA), the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the Patent Trial & Appeal Board’s finding that an application...more
GLOBAL HEALTH SOLUTIONS LLC v. SELNER - Before Stoll, Stark, and Goldberg (sitting by designation). Appeal from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. The Federal Circuit affirmed the Board’s rejection of a derivation challenge,...more
In the U.S., patent rights generally go to the first inventor to file — not the first to invent. Filing early secures your place in line. But the type of application you choose (provisional vs. non-provisional) can...more
The Federal Circuit’s recent decision in Global Health Solutions LLC v. Selner is its first review of a rare patent dispute resolution process under the America Invents Act (AIA). The decision serves as a warning that proving...more
In its first precedential review of an AIA derivation proceeding, the Federal Circuit held that to prove derivation, a petitioner has the burden of showing that the petitioner conceived the claimed subject matter and...more
Global Health Solutions LLC v. Selner, Appeal No. 2023-2009 (Fed. Cir. Aug. 26, 2025) - In our Case of the Week, the Federal Circuit conducted its first review of a derivation proceeding under the America Invents Act that...more
The United States patent system underwent a significant change with the enactment of the First-Inventor-to-File (FITF) provision of the America Invents Act, which became effective on March 16, 2013. The FITF provision...more
This case addresses certain implications of the Laehy-Smith America Invests Act (AIA), namely whether patents with a filing date after March 16, 2013 (pure AIA patents) may be part of an interference proceeding under pre-AIA,...more
A patent is eligible for post-grant review (“PGR”) only if the patent is subject to the first-inventor-to-file provisions of the AIA. In Tricam Indus., Inc. v. Little Giant Ladder Sys., LLC, the PTAB explained that...more
Today, technology companies are conceptualizing new ideas and improving upon those ideas at a blistering pace. Previously, under the United States’ first-to-invent patent system, such companies could afford to wait until new...more
Did you know that the individual often credited with popularizing karaoke did not reap the financial rewards of his invention to the extent possible? It's true—Japanese musician Daisuke Inoue invented karaoke in Kobe, Japan...more
Today’s patent practice is rapidly transforming. The practice is undergoing sea changes in patent eligibility, enforcement strategies, and damages. Now more than ever, innovative companies need to adopt best practices to...more
In Inguran, LLC v. Premium Genetics (UK) Ltd., the USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) instituted Post Grant Review (PGR) proceedings in a patent granted from an AIA transition application based on its finding that at...more
With the enactment of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA), the U.S. patent system moved to a “first inventor to file” approach for examining all applications having an effective filing date on or after March 16, 2013....more
U.S. patent applications filed after March 16, 2013, when the “First-Inventor-to-File” portion of the America Invents Act (AIA) took effect, have started to be published. Thus, it is a good time for applicants to consider...more
In this final post of our trilogy, we present a third scenario where the first-to-file regime under AIA offers previously unavailable opportunities for disqualifying certain prior art references....more
Our previous post discussed the need for invoking the first-to-file regime in order to maximize the value of certain pre-AIA applications that claim foreign priorities. Here, we present another scenario where the different...more
The first-to-file provisions of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA) took effect on March 16, 2013. The predominant view among patent practitioners is that applicants should in general keep their pre-AIA patent...more
On March 16, 2013, the final (and most significant) portion of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA) took effect, and the United States broke from a first-to-invent regime to a first-inventor-to-file (FITF) regime. Of...more
When should a patent application be filed? Should it be filed prior to submission of a manuscript or abstract for peer-review or just prior to publication? In highly competitive technologies, it is prudent to file as soon as...more
In This Issue: - AMERICA INVENTS ACT FINAL IMPLEMENTATION: FROM FIRST-TO-INVENT TO FIRST-TO-FILE: The America Invents Act (“AIA”), which went into effect September 16, 2011, introduces some of the most...more
Now that the first-inventor-to-file provisions of the America Invents Act (AIA) have taken effect, stakeholders should understand how to preserve the first-to-invent status of patent applications that were filed before March...more
Now that we are less than one month away from implementation of the First-Inventor-To-File provisions of the America Invents Act (AIA), stakeholders are considering whether to file new patent applications now, to secure...more
On March 16, 2013, the "first-to-file" provisions of the America Invents Act ("AIA"), will take effect, replacing the current first-to-invent system. Here we provide specific recommendations to optimize protection of your...more
The recently enacted America Invents Act (AIA) introduces major changes to the U.S. patent laws, with some significant provisions taking effect on March 16, 2013. These provisions provide several compelling reasons to file...more