The sweeping patent reform law enacted last month is expected to create new classes of intellectual property winners and losers as game-changing provisions kick in during the next 18 months.
Lawyers expect radical shifts in application-filing rules to raise malpractice risks for patent prosecutors, kill a specialty based on determining who’s the first inventor and spawn a new specialty around the post-grant review system allowing third parties to challenge patents. Litigators anticipate more hurdles for plaintiffs and the demise of contingency patent litigation.
