So my understanding they can put some information (but not their whole invention) and get recognized for the patent.

The move your described, you don't tell anyone anything and still have the rights... And that means i may be investing a lot of work on something only you will be able to profit from because i didn't know you invented it.

Basically this stops people from having the cake and eating it too.

Too bad about China.

They only had a very limited protection before. First year of use, only shown in public in certified trade shows IIRC.

This is how patents work, they require publication to enrich the knowledge pool and the return for that publication is time-limited government granted monopoly.

If SpaceX can demonstrate prior use then no later filed patent can, if the law is correctly applied, prevent their continued working of that specific invention.

The point is to put pressure on inventors to file, that's one of the two major purposes of the patent system (the other being to ensure due compensation of inventors).

It wouldn't necessarily prevent a patent from being obtained, but it would protect SpaceX from being found in violation. I know this from first hand experience.

Anyway, another thing that many people miss on the "first to file" issue is that it's the first INVENTOR to file. So, employee can't leave company, steal the invention, then file if employee was not the inventor.

The law really is only changing in the situation where two people invent the same thing, independently of one another. Under the current law, if both inventors file, only one is entitled to the patent - the inventor who actually invented it first (perhaps determined in an interference proceeding in the patent office or perhaps in court). Each inventor would try to prove the date of invention through documentation (keep those lab notebooks - or that git repo, or the old svn or cvs repo backed up!). Whoever successfully proves an earlier date of invention wins.

Under the new law, it's just who filed first. If two people file for the same invention, there will be a "derivation" proceeding in the patent office to determine whether one of the inventors "derived" his/her invention from another (ie, is that person actually the inventor).

The period to file was supposed to be important though in non-conflicting applications. It allowed, for example, potential applicants to seek investment in various ways without fear of a specified disclosure causing loss of priority. Do you know how much inventors availed themselves of that ability?

Do you specialise in software patents?

Although I do write software patents for some clients, my practice is more broad than that. I deal with patent, trademark, and copyright (intellectual property) issues, as well as contracts regarding software, books, art, and ip issues. I also handle litigation about all of those issues.

If you think that you have a poor understanding of the law.

So, on most legal blogs, you'll see something that says "I'm not the reader's lawyer."

When you combine this with Trade Secret law you protect yourself from one of your employees taking your technology, starting a new company and patenting it (potentially coming in under the 1 year mark).

First-to-File only comes into play when multiple entities file for overlapping patents, it simply finds in favor of the first to file for a provisional patent. This avoids a mess of trying to determined who came up with the idea first, which was always a contest of who documented first.

[1] You could still be in violation and not know it as provisional patents are non publicly disclosed for 18 months, so in reality there is technically a 2.5 year window where you can't be absolutely sure someone else has filed.