The American Inventors Protection Act (AIPA) is a
United States federal law
The law of the United States comprises many levels of Codification (law), codified and uncodified forms of law, of which the supreme law is the nation's Constitution of the United States, Constitution, which prescribes the foundation of the ...
enacted on November 29, 1999, as Public Law 106-113. In 2002, the Intellectual Property and High Technology Technical Amendments Act of 2002, Public Law 107-273, amended AIPA.
AIPA contains significant changes to American Patent Law. AIPA added
* An "earlier invention" defense for
business method patent
Business method patents are a class of patents which disclose and claim new methods of doing business. This includes new types of e-commerce, insurance, banking and tax compliance etc. Business method patents are a relatively new species of pate ...
s – 35 U.S.C. §273;
* Publication of US patent applications for foreign published applications – 35 U.S.C. §122;
* Patent term restoration for delays caused by the
Patent and Trademark Office – 35 U.S.C. §154;
* The
Request for Continued Examination (RCE) patent prosecution procedure; and
* Disclosure requirements for
invention promotion firms.
Political considerations
Large corporations generally supported the bill.
Independent inventors generally opposed the bill.
Edward Robinson "They Saved Small Business When corporate America tried to seize the patent system from independent inventors, this Boston couple came to the rescue.", Fortune Small Business Magazine, April 1, 2000
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See also
* Patent Reform Act of 2005
References
Further reading
The American Inventor’s Protection Act: A Legislative History
Wake Forest Intellectual Property Law Journal
J. Richardson and K. Sibley, THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND COMMUNICATIONS OMNIBUS REFORM ACT OF 1999: an Overview for IP Practitioners
North Carolina Journal of Law & Technology
United States federal patent legislation
Acts of the 106th United States Congress
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