Changes

===Pleading Requirements===

In efforts to diminish the Patent Troll threat by the bill sponsors, the Innovation Act has heightened pleading requirements for parties filing for patent infringement. As of December 2015, Form 18, the form previously used to submit generalized patent infringement claims <ref name="patentlyo18" />, was eliminated in order to reduce patent litigation, especially litigation involving Patent Trolls or Non-Practicing Entities.<ref name="nationallawreview" /> The act would go further in reducing generalized complaints and eliminating loopholes by requiring (with exceptions) the plaintiff to submit infringement charts with the initial complaint.<ref name="patentlyoIA" /> The purpose of the charts would be to force the plaintiff to explain the specifics of a claim, how a product or subsidiary company violates each infringed component of a patent and the scope of each component's infringement. <ref name="patentlyoIA" />

Additionally, a claim of previous commercial use may not result in a court invalidating a patent because it lacks novelty, seems to cover obvious subject matter, or due to prior art. <ref name="govtracksummary" /> Prior Art refers to evidence indicating that the technology or invention in question has already been used, discovered, or generally known. Typically, simply having previously described or created a similar process or technology at any point in time by any one constitutes prior art in patent law. <ref name="EPO" />