U.S. patent law is now ‘first to file,’ which should reduce battles over patents

Inventors, take note: America’s patent laws have changed. As of March 16, the United States joined most of the world in becoming a “first to file” rather than a “first to invent” country, meaning patents are awarded to the first one to file an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, regardless of who was the first person to think of the idea. That seems to make it less likely to see cases in which a lone inventor gets a big legal award because a company stole his idea, as depicted in movies like “Tucker” and “Flash of Genius.” Such cases do happen in real life, said Gary Lambert, a Nashua attorney who has been doing patent law for 24 years. “The only thing that mattered was who invented the invention first. It really mattered with respect to litigation – if you could show you beat someone on invention, you could beat them even if they beat you on the filing date,” said Lambert, of Lambert & Associates on Main Street. “The biggest case I had like that was in Miami, a case over eyewear.