What Every IP Manager Needs to Know About Major Changes to U.S. Patent Law

October 25, 2011

Herzliya, Israel

IPR InHouseIPForum

Earlier this month, President Obama signed into law a major overhaul of the U.S. patent system. The new legislation includes the most significant patent reforms of the last fifty years, and will touch on many aspects of your practice. Changes include a switch in priority from first-to-invent to first-inventor-to-file; a series of new mechanisms to challenge issued U.S. patents; mechanisms for challenging pending U.S. patent applications; changes in definitions of prior art; a new derivation proceeding in the PTO; reduced patent fees for qualifying entities; changes to the marking statute; changes to the willful infringement defense, and more. Lawyers from Finnegan, in cooperation with IPR’s In-House IP Forum, will explain the practical implications of each change to your day-to-day practice. This event, which includes coffee breaks and a light dinner buffet at the conclusion of the program, is offered free to charge to in-house IP managers and in-house personnel responsible for IP.

Please join our panelists for a half-day seminar as they discuss:

• The potential impact of the American Invents Act on patents and innovation;

• The “first-inventor-to-file” system and how it differs from the first-to-file system;

• New filing strategies in a post-Hilmer doctrine era;

• The new grace period and how to apply the new definition of prior art;

• Post-grant review (Opposition);

• Inter partes reexamination v. inter partes review;

• Supplemental examination; and

• Possible strategies for ex parte reexamination, inter partes review, post-grant review, and their interplay with concurrent

litigation