Inventor Challenges New US Patent Law

Courthouse News Service:

An inventor claims in court that the America Invents Act of 2011 violates inventors’ rights, by replacing the “first to invent” patent system with a deficient “first to file” rule.

Mark Stadnyk and his company MadStad Engineering sued the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, its director, David Kappos, and the United States of America, in Federal Court.

Stadnyk says the America Invents Act (AIA), which took effect last year, is “special interest legislation” that favors big corporations at the expense of small businesses and individual inventors.

Under the new law, Stadnyk says, the first one to file a patent application gets exclusive rights to an invention, even if the applicant is not the original inventor.

“The AIA, signed into law by the president on Sept. 16, 2011, is a radical change that threatens the U.S. economy and American jobs,” the complaint states. “It discards the ‘first-to-invent’ patent system crafted by the Constitution’s founders – a system that led the world in science, technology, and industry for more than two centuries – and substitutes a failed ‘first-to-file’ system.

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