BACK in 1966, when Beatlemania was at its height, a commission appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson said it was time for the US to change its unique patenting system. From now on, it said, patents should not necessarily go to the original inventor, but to the person who applies first to have the invention patented, just as happens everywhere else in the world.
On Monday, almost four decades on, this sentiment was echoed by the US National Research Council in a report entitled A patent system for the 21st century. 鈥淭he US should conform its law to that of every other country and accept the first-inventor-to-file system,鈥� it concludes.
Embracing the international patent system will make it easier to resolve disputes over whose patent prevails, without the need for expensive court cases. This would benefit all US inventors, says the report, including small businesses.
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Until now, this is the group that has fought hardest to retain the 鈥渇irst-to-invent鈥� system, on the grounds that it protects them from big companies. But according to the report, recent evidence suggests the opposite is true. Large firms ensnare small competitors in complex, costly legal proceedings over disputed patents, and there is no evidence that changing the system would make things worse.
The US should also take steps to stop inventors maintaining so-called 鈥渟ubmarine patents鈥� 鈥� patents that are kept secret, only to surface during a dispute. And patents filed outside the US should be accepted as 鈥減rior art鈥�, invalidating later patents within the country, the NRC says.
But the US is doing something right. The report recommends that other countries should adopt the US 鈥測ear-of-grace鈥� provision, which allows academics to file a patent up to a year after publishing results relating to an invention.