United States Transitions To A 'First-Inventor-To-File' Patent System

Re:United States Transitions To A 'First-Inventor-To-File' P... by gcr on Wednesday March 13, 2013 @02:12PM (#5370078)

I'm confused by their example. How does this change the rules of public disclosure?

Before this law, public disclosures prevent the inventor from giving patents. In a conference I attended, the scientists were very careful to avoid publicly disclosing the details of their inventions for fear of removing their ability to file for a patent. But the brief blurb in the article mentions that if inventor A publically discloses their invention before inventor B files, then inventor A gets the patent.

Could someone clarify?

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Re:United States Transitions To A 'First-Inventor-To-File' P... by gamblor956 on Wednesday March 13, 2013 @02:14PM (#5370092)

Publicly disclosing an invention does not prevent a patent...it simply puts a deadline for filing (1 year under the old rules, not sure under the new rules) starting with the date of disclosure. Thus, the purpose of avoiding disclosure is to prevent giving yourself a deadline.

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