Your Wait to Patent a Product may get Easier

The country has been talking about finding a way to overhaul the US patent system for decades now. Well, nothing much has ever come of all that intent and all that talking; it appears though as if reform just might take place this year. The patent reform bill has just passed the Senate floor; if it actually becomes law, as it is expected to, it will be the first major overhaul to the US patent system in 60 years. Why exactly do we need any kind of reform to these laws that allow inventors the patent product or an idea?

One reason is that the number of inventors and other creative types filing to patent a product or anything else these days come in at a half-million every year. The patent office has a backlog of about three-quarters of a million applications; if you go in, application in hand, you are looking at a four-year wait for your approval out of the patent office. This is an economy that needs new jobs. Each patent application gathering dust at the patent office is a whole new industry gathering dust - and so many people languishing without jobs.

To help clear all this up, the new reform bill has a number of ideas. So far, the patent office hasn't had any money of its own. All it had was what the government's annual budget gave it. Under the new law, the patent office is going to start charging its own fees for every application. An application to patent a product that is simple to review will attract a small fee; an application to patent a product that is complicated will attract a bigger fee. The millions of dollars that the patent office will collect in fees can be used by the office to hire more staff to process applications more quickly. This way, any person coming in with an application can hope to see a patent within a year of this having submitted it. It will be a great way to put more jobs into people's hands more quickly.

Today, the US patent law grants patents that those were first to invent and not to those who are first to file. Ours is not the way it's done all over the world. When a patent office tries to concern itself with "who really got there first" in the privacy of their own lab, it becomes very difficult to maintain any sense of order. People begin to turn up out of nowhere to claim that they made an invention first. Proving one's story can be a great deal of legal trouble for whoever it is that files first. It can be very costly to defend a patent.

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