By January, 1995, the GATT Treaty was ratified by Congress and implemented into the U.S. patent system. The changes to the U.S. patent system and to individual inventor's rights are dramatic. Many inventor organizations and individuals made strenuous objections to Congress, with no effect. The issues at hand were the change from the U.S. "first to invent" system to the widespread foreign system of "first to file.ΓÇ¥ This change did not take effect! However, a change from a 17 year utility patent term from date of issuance of the patent to a 20 year term that starts when the patent application is submitted to the patent office did take effect. There are many other small but distinct changes in the treaty, but suffice it to say, it was not a well liked move on the part of the government. Many people feel it was done under extreme foreign pressure and even some pressure from big business. The new patent law will not make getting a patent any easier, only make the rights that are granted more vulnerable to attack. The 20 year term of the GATT Treaty patent is misleading because it starts from the date of filing. This means if it takes more than 3 years to get a patent issued, that your protection will last a shorter time than the old patent term.
The "first to file" proposal was beat down in Congress because it really would be a great injustice to the small inventor. The first application in the door would have, like in the European system, received priority over another application even if the second application could have shown years of "reduction to practice" work prior to going to the patent office. What this could have lead to was the filing of many more incomplete patents just to be the first on record to file. This is OK for large companies with the financial ability to file many applications, but it would have hurt the small inventors who would have been forced to choose between making a complete patent application or getting the filing done ASAP without the best preparation. This new practice would have, like in Japan and Europe, also opened the door to "bracketing," a common technique used overseas by large companies to isolate a patents value by filing many small patents around the initial concept. This prevents the original inventor from getting the widest possible coverage for his (or her) invention.
Consult your patent attorney for more details on how GATT will effect your rights and future earnings.
