The America Invents Act (AIA) effective March 16, 2013 is the first major revision of US patent law for about 60 years and it introduces some fairly significant changes.  The law switched the U.S. rights to a patent from the previous “first-to-invent” system to a “first inventor-to-file” system for patent applications filed on or after March 16, 2013 so as to go in line with the rest of the world.

The law also expanded the definition of prior art used in determining patentability. Actions and prior art that bar patentability under the Act include public use, sales, publications, and other disclosures available to the public anywhere in the world as of the filing date, other than publications by the inventor within one year of filing (inventor’s “publication-conditioned grace period”), whether or not a third party also files a patent application. The law also notably expanded prior art to include foreign offers for sale and public uses. Applicants that do not publish their inventions prior to filing receive no grace period. It is strongly recommended that those interested in the prior art provisions in the AIA refer to the Comprehensive Training of Prior Art under the AIA (Power Point Guide in pdf format).

The AIA refers to the new jargon as “First-Inventor-to-File (FITF)”. This new jargon operates differently from the “First-to-Invent” (FTI) previously in effect in the U.S. and the various “First-to-File” (FTF) in place in the rest of the world. Different outcomes can occur under each of these three different jardons, depending on whether and how two different inventors publish or file patent applications.

The AIA added a micro entity status to the existing largen and small entity. A micro entity includes an independent inventor with a previous calendar year gross income of less than 3 times the national median household income who has previously filed no more than four non-provisional patent applications, not including those the inventor was obligated to assign to an employer. A micro entity also includes a university or an inventor under an obligation to assign the invention to a university. A micro entity is entitled to a 75% reduction in many of the patent fees payable to the US Patent Office during prosecution of a US patent application.