This post is part of our continuing series discussing a US House of Representatives working draft of patent legislation, by Marcus Thymian, Jennifer Swartz, and Dennis Crouch.
Under the current statute, an employer has quite a bit of trouble filing a patent application when the inventor refuses to sign a declaration or is otherwise unavailable.
In order to file the application without the inventor’s help, the statute (35 U.S.C § 118) requires a proof that such action is “necessary to preserve the rights of the parties or to prevent irreparable damage.”
The proposed changes make it easier for the company to file the application without the inventor’s assistance. Specifically, the proposal allows an assignee (or a person owed an obligation to assign) to apply for a patent after showing that the action is “appropriate.”
The PTP Patent Reform Library
This post contains the PTP Patent Reform Library as of June 8, 2005. A .pdf of The Patent Act of 2005 is available for viewing and downloading in the Legislative Materials section Background Information The following resources are considered by ma…
The PTP Patent Reform Library
This post contains the PTP Patent Reform Library as of June 8, 2005. A .pdf of The Patent Act of 2005 is available for viewing and downloading in the Legislative Materials section Background Information The following resources are considered by ma…
The PTP Patent Reform Library – June 1, 2005
This post contains the PTP Patent Reform Library as of June 1, 2005. Background Information The following resources are considered by many to be the primary catalysts behind the current patent reform movement: The NAS Report A Patent System f…
Patent Reform Bill Shopped
The House Subcommittee on Intellectual Property circulated a discussion draft a Patent Reform Bill. Since it’s just a draft, it’s not worth over-analyzing at this point but it is interesting to get a glimpse at the topics that may be…
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