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You are here: Home / Archives for Patent application process / Before filing a patent application / First to File

First to file

The first to file rule dictates the inventor who first filed a patent application on the invention with the USPTO will be awarded the patent. Browse related articles below.

What is the difference between the first inventor to file and the first to invent rules in the United States?

January 13, 2023 by James Yang

The difference between the first inventor to file and the first to invent rule in patent law is whether the Patent Office looks to the filing dates of the respective patent applications or the dates of the invention to determine who is awarded the patent. Under the first inventor to file rule, the Patent Office looks to the filing dates of the respective applications. The … [Read more...]

What is the First Inventor to File (FITF) provisions of the America Invents Act (AIA)?

September 17, 2022 by James Yang

What is the first inventor to file rule

What is the first inventor to file (FITF) rule for patents? The first inventor to file (FITF) rule in patents means that between two inventors, the Patent Office will grant a patent to the one who first filed a patent application regardless of when they conceived the invention. For example, assume the second inventor to file conceived the invention on January 1 but filed on … [Read more...]

What is a priority date?

July 13, 2022 by James Yang

What is a priority date

A priority date is the earliest date on which an inventor can establish a date of invention.  The inventor with the earlier priority date is awarded the patent.  Typically, the priority date of a patent application is its filing date.  If the patent application claims priority over other earlier filed patent applications, the priority date is the earliest filed provisional, … [Read more...]

File a patent application before telling others about the invention

November 3, 2015 by James Yang

Inventors often ask if they can tell others about the invention before filing a patent application.  They want to get feedback from others (i.e., friends, investors, licensees, customers) to see if their is good enough to warrant the high cost to hire a patent attorney.  After all, if no one willing buy the product, then why waste money on legal fees.  I would feel the same way … [Read more...]

Pitfalls of one year grace period under the FITF rules

September 9, 2015 by James Yang

Under current U.S. patent laws, the first inventor to file (FITF) a patent application on an invention is awarded the patent.  This means that if two individuals separately file patent applications on the same idea, then the person who first filed its patent application in the U.S. Patent Office will be awarded the patent.  The Patent Office merely looks to the filing dates of … [Read more...]

Be wary of marketing invention before filing a patent application

November 26, 2014 by James Yang

File patent application before marketing

Entrepreneurs typically undertake a number of efforts in order to sell a product.  They demonstrate their products to the public and one-on-one to buyers.  They may engage in cold calls to set up customer meetings, place informational content on a website to provide more information about the product and attach files to e-mails.  These efforts can be broadly categorized as a … [Read more...]

Dangers of 1 yr grace period under first-inventor-to-file system

November 7, 2014 by James Yang

In 2013, the United States transitioned from a first-to-invent system to a first-inventor-to-file system under the America Invents Act. A basic difference between the two systems is that the first-to-invent system focuses on the inventor’s date of conception, whereas the first-inventor-to-file system primarily relies on the filing date of the patent application to determine who … [Read more...]

Junior filer wins patent under first to invent but not first to file

March 2, 2014 by James Yang

Sanofi v. Pfizer (Fed. Cir. November 5, 2013) illustrates one situation in which the older, pre-America Invents Act (AIA), first-to-invent rules benefited a junior filer, and the patent was awarded to the junior filer. Under the current first inventor to file rule, the senior filer would have been awarded the patent. In this case, Sanofi first filed a patent application on … [Read more...]

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