S73: How will the recent changes in US patent laws affect the biotechnology industry? What you need to know

The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, effective in part September 16, 2011 and more recently March 16, 2013, brings U.S. patent law into greater harmony with the rest of the world. It will, however, have significant repercussions for inventors and patent owners.  The new laws provide a “first-to-file” system changing the historical “first-to-invent” system in the U.S. which changes strategies for building a patent portfolio to protect platform technologies and products.  Further, the new laws provide a limited defense against patent infringement for the commercial use of certain inventions by others. This defense applies to a commercial use in the U.S. by a person, acting in good faith, of certain process or process-related inventions, either in connection with an internal commercial use or an actual arm's length sale or other commercial transfer of a useful end result of the commercial use. This portion of the Act took effect immediately upon the signing of the Act into law on September 16, 2011.  We will discuss these and other changes to the U.S. patent laws and how they impact a company’s intellectual property strategies.