Author: Adam Hirst, J.D Candidate, Class of 2014, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
The Cardozo Intellectual Property Society hosted Mr. Bernard Knight, the current General Counsel of the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), for a discussion of his role as the chief attorney for a large US government agency and recent, significant, changes to patent law, with particular emphasis on the America Invents Act (AIA).
Mr. Knight stated that the AIA is the biggest change in trademark and patent law over the past fifty years. One of the major changes of the AIA was to change U.S. patent law from a “first-to-invent” system to a “first-to-file system.” This change brings U.S. patent law into harmony with the patent law of other developed countries. Mr. Knight also mentioned a number of other reforms included in the AIA: Post-grant review, inter partes review, and fee setting authority delegated to the USPTO that would allow the USPTO to adjust its fees “in the aggregate” to recover the estimated costs of its activities. Mr Knight said that the AIA was implemented in a year without lawsuits being filed against the agency.
(Click here to read the rest.)
The views expressed here are exclusively of the author and do not represent agreement or endorsement by the Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, or Yeshiva University.
