Ladas & Parry history

In 1925, responsibility for the Patent Office was transferred to the Department of Commerce and Labor.

Part of the impetus for the revision was the adoption of the United States Code system in 1926.

In 1929, appellate review of decisions of the Patent Office was transferred from the Court of Appeals for the District of Colombia to the newly created Court of Customs and Patent Appeals.

In 1930, the Plant Patent Act provided for the possibility of patent protection for asexually reproduced plants.

The basic structure of the present law was adopted in 1952.

1954 Provisions relating to plant patents were amended to make it clear that cultivated sports, mutants, hybrids, and newly found seedlings were patentable.

1965 Presumption of validity applied independently to each claim of a patent.

In 1975, the Department of Justice issued a list of nine possible types of restriction that might be present in a patent license agreement that the Department believed to be per se illegal.

1978 Patent Cooperation Treaty entered into force.

Changes were relatively infrequent prior to the establishment of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in 1982.

1990 Extension of definition of patent infringement to acts in outer space on a “space object or component thereof under the jurisdiction or control of the United States.” 35 United StatesC. § 105.

1992 State governments made liable for acts of patent infringement.

1993 Extension of right to prove prior invention to acts carried out in NAFTA countries.

In 1994, a new trend started, at least in part as a result of renewed attempts at globalization of the patent system.

1995 Protection of biotechnology processes from finding of obviousness if it is for the production of new and nonobvious product.

35 United StatesC. § 103 (b). 1996 Removal of remedies for infringement of patents for surgical processes.

35 United StatesC. § 287(c). 1998 The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in State Street Bank v.

Further changes made in 1999 were also guided by international norms and were at least in part the result of a bilateral agreement with Japan in which both countries agreed to remove some of the features of their patent system that the other found objectionable.

2000 The Patent and Trademark Office renamed itself the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

2004 Cooperative Research and Technology Enhancement Act removes prior unpublished work by joint venture partners from scope of prior art to be considered in obviousness determinations.

2005 Legislation introduced proposing major reforms, including a switch to a first-to-file system. (Not enacted due to lack of agrement on how to calculate damages).

2006 Supreme Court holds that since the grant of an injunction against patent infringement is an equitable remedy, the traditional requirements of equity must be complied with if an injunction is to be granted.

2009 Patent law reform legislation introduced to Congress based on compromise to deal with the issues that had thwarted reform in two previous Congresses.

2011 Patent Reform legislation moving from first to invent to first inventor to file and providing for post grant review on the Patent Office passes both Houses of Congress; Signed into law as the America Invents Act by President Obama September 16.

2012 Most provisions of the America Invents Act, including provisions allowing filing patent applications in the name of an assignee, come into effect on September 16.

35 United StatesC. § 157. [ add footnote: Repealed on March 16, 2013. ]