A proposed rule and a request for comments regarding the Leahy-Smith
America Invents Act (AIA) have been published in the Federal Register.
According to the summary of the proposed rule, Changes To Implement the First Inventor To File Provisions of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act,
the act "amends the patent laws pertaining to the conditions
of patentability to convert the United States patent system from a
'first to invent' system to a 'first inventor to file' system; treats
United States patents and United States patent application publications
as prior art as of their earliest effective United States, foreign, or
international filing date; eliminates the requirement that a prior
public use or sale be ‘‘in this country’’ to be a prior art activity;
and treats commonly owned or joint research agreement patents and patent
application publications as being by the same inventive entity
for purposes of novelty, as well as nonobviousness." See more at http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-07-26/pdf/2012-18121.pdf .
The request for comments pertains to examination guidelines to implement
the first-to-file provisions of the AIA. See details at http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-07-26/pdf/2012-17898.pdf.