Since 1790, patents were granted in the United States to inventors who could prove they were the first to conceive an invention. The America Invents Act of 2011 (AIA) replaced a two-century old American patent law rule, the “first-to-invent” with a modified version of the international patent law rule, the “first-to-file.” Effective March 16, 2013, the United States implemented a new system that gives priority to the first inventor to file a patent application with the Patent Office.
Unlike other first-to-file systems, the U.S. patent system provides a first-to-file system with a qualifier — “the first-inventor-to-file.” Simply put, if two people independently develop the same invention and both file a patent application for the same invention, the first inventor who filed the application will receive a patent for that invention.
