114-S926 Grace Period Restoration Act of 2015

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The summary below was written by the Congressional Research Service, which is a nonpartisan division of the Library of Congress, and was taken from https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/114/s926/summary.

Legislation
Title 114-S926 Grace Period Restoration Act of 2015
Congress 114
Sponsor Sen. Baldwin, Tammy (D-WI)
Committee(s) Senate Judiciary, Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship
Related 114-HR1791 Grace Period Restoration Act of 2015
Status Died
© edegan.com, 2016

See also: https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/926

Summary

  • Amends federal patent law to revise the one-year grace period under the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA) that prohibits certain pre-filing disclosures made during the year preceding the effective filing date of a claimed invention from being considered prior art that would make the claim ineligible for a patent based on lack of novelty or obvious subject matter grounds. (A disclosure that is prior art generally means that a patent cannot be issued for a claimed invention because the invention was already patented, described in a printed publication, in public use, on sale, available to the public, or described in an issued patent or a previously filed application.)
  • Prohibits an inventor's or any other person's pre-filing disclosure from barring the patentability of certain claims based on lack of novelty or obvious subject matter grounds if, before such disclosure and within the one-year period before the filing date, the claimed invention was already publicly disclosed in a printed publication by the inventor, a joint inventor, or another who obtained the claimed invention from the inventor or a joint inventor. Allows an inventor who discloses an invention in a printed publication in such a manner in the year before filing a patent claim for the invention to remain entitled to the patent, regardless of any subsequent disclosures by third parties.
  • Excludes certain disclosures from being considered prior art under the revised grace period.
  • Requires the amendments made by this Act to take effect as if enacted as part of the AIA.