Posts Tagged ‘owner’

postheadericon Next AIA implementation date – March 16, 2013

IPconnect: from the Expert's QuillAs of March 16, 2013, the U.S. is changing from a First-to-Invent (FTI) system to a First-Inventor-to-File (FITF) system. The only countries that have ever used the FTI system were Canada, the Philippines and the U.S. Canada switched to a FITF system in 1989, the Philippines switched in 1998 and the U.S. switched in 2011 (effective as of March 16, 2013). So now the entire world is on a FITF system.

In a first-to-invent system, the prima facie right to the invention is given to first person who invents the actual invention, no matter when the application was filed (subject to proof of the date of invention).

postheadericon Title vs Owner

IPconnect: from the Expert's Quill

One of the popular misconceptions that I run into when I train people, is the belief that the assignment from a parent application does not need to be filed against its child continuation or divisional applications.The problem here is that there is a disconnect between the words “owner” and “title.” The word “owner” refers to a legal right of possession and the word “title” refers to the instrument that constitutes the evidence of such legal right, which is located in the ownership registry of the applicable jurisdiction in which the patent is registered.