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Stakeholders Provide Suggestions to Prepare for Changes in Practice after Patent Reform

BNA Patent, Trademark & Copyright Journal
September 2011

Related Professionals: Modi, Naveen , McNeill, Rebecca M.

Media Mention

The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, which is awaiting President Obama’s signature, ended six years of debate introducing major changes to a the U.S. patent system. Finnegan partner Naveen Modi remarked, “The new law will include several provisions that overhaul the current regime. This is an important time in U.S. history, and we’re excited to be a part of it.” In addition to changing the U.S. to a first-to-file system, adding pre-grant and post-grant challenges to a patent’s validity, the act eliminates the best-mode defense and insulates patentees from charges of inequitable conduct through a supplemental examination procedure. Of these changes, Finnegan attorney Rebecca McNeill said that good patents should hold up while bad patents “won’t serve as a cloud to disincentivize people from moving in a new technology.