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U.S. Patent Provisional Rights: Impacts of Recent Change

By Lara A. Northrop

U.S. Patent Laws, amended by the passage of the American Inventors Protection Act of 1999 ('the Act'), now provide for publication of pending patent applications prior to issuance. 35 U.S.C. '122(b). Since the effective date of the amendment, Nov. 29, 2000, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ('USPTO') publishes domestic utility applications within 18 months of their earliest priority date. Prior to this amendment, patent applications were not made publicly available until a patent issued, thereby preserving the confidential information of a patentee until remedies for patent infringement were made available to the patentee.

Publication of patent applications prior to issuance exposes patentees to several risks, including publication of proprietary information to third parties without the availability of patent infringement remedies. To counteract the disadvantages of pre-grant publication, the Act also provides to patentees a 'provisional rights' remedy for certain third party acts occurring between the date of publication of the patent application and the issuance of the patent.

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