Patent Law

Article: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/220301

Summary: President Obama signed a law that will implement a new patent filing system. This system will take over the old one that was slow and inefficient. It hopes to decrease wait times while updating the old computer systems as well. Currently, the old system has roughly 700,000 applicants backlogged.

In short, the old system was determined as "the first to invent," and now it is changing to "the first to file."

The downside is that more small business owners must pay a higher fee to receive a patent while the bigger companies have no problems with paying an upfront fee to be the first to file.

This will decrease "garage" invention companies that start small and give power to the bigger companies.

Also, the patent office has the right to challenge an application at any time which will cause more delays and even higher fees.

Twitter Summary: President Obama signed a law that will change the old system of filing patents to a new and improved version.

Opinion: Yes it might be more efficient, but the fact that less small business will evolve from this doesn't sit well with me. I also don't like the bigger and more competitive companies getting larger and more profitable. They can easily take advantage of the new system while paying the up-front fees with out blinking an eye. It doesn't give much hope for small inventor and their intangible property.

-Coleton Thielmann

Article: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/220301