USPTO Director's New Blog

On Nov. 10 David Kappos, the new Commerce Under Secretary and USPTO Director, launched a blog to get feedback from the Intellectual Property (IP) community. His first blog entry discusses the Independent Inventors Conference held at USPTO last week, initiatives geared toward small entity inventors, and proposed patent reform legislation including moving to a first to file system.

Kappos says the first to file system represents only a minimal change and would still protect the inventor:

The new system would not create a situation where someone could steal an idea and win a race to the patent office. That person would not be an inventor and would not be eligible for a patent in the first place. Keep in mind that there are stiff penalties in place to protect against that. So the real issue involves the case of simultaneous non-collaborative invention that is currently resolved through the interference system.

He goes on to say that only ".01 percent of all patent applications could be affected by a change to first inventor to file."