National Academies Advocates a Major Policy Change to US Patent System

National Academies, a private umbrella organization for providing advice to the US government and the general public, recently published its report on the US Patent system entitled: A Patent System for the 21st Century. The report makes several recommendations for improving the patent system. In particular, the US is urged to move to a first-to-file system, under which the person who first filed an application would be entitled to a patent for the invention in priority to all other parties - as is the case in every other major patent jurisdiction. Currently, the US has a first-to-invent system under which a patent is granted to the person who first made the invention. This would be one step in a move to greater international patent harmonization, in particular with the European Union and Japan and, this, the report argues, would facilitate further trade, investment and innovation. Furthermore, the report urges that the patentability criteria for an invention - that it not be obvious to an ordinary person skilled in the art - should be "assiduously observed" by the US Patent Office and the US courts, especially in the new areas of business methods and genetics. The report also calls for the introduction of an open review procedure at the US Patent and Trademark Office for recently issued patents available to third parties (similar to an opposition proceeding before the European Patent Office). These measures are aimed at producing higher quality patents and reducing the cost and effort involved in any subsequent court proceedings concerning such patents. To effect the changes, the report echoes recent calls by other commentators for increased government funding of the US Patent Office. For another report on this subject, see: http://www.legalmediagroup.com/default.asp?Page=1&SID=14084. For the full report, see: http://www.nap.edu/books/0309089107/html/. Summary by: Peter K. Wang