First to File: Patents for Today's Scientist and Engineer

Introduction

The number of books currently available on the subject of patents numbers in the many tens of thousands, with authors drawn from the ranks of attorneys, academics, officials of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and even inventors. The approaches vary widely, ranging from basic introductions to patents and intellectual property in general to guides for attorneys, inventors, and business professionals. How-to books for nonprofessionals, books on searching, books on the valuation and marketing of patents, and much more abound. Why then another one?

One reason is that the patent system is in continuous flux. New technologies are continually testing time-honored principles of patent law and challenging the reasoning behind them; new forms of media and information exchange are changing the definition of novelty and the state of the art; evolving interests of business and commerce are challenging long-held notions of what should and should not be allowed as patentable subject matter; an increasing need for international cooperation in defending and enforcing intellectual property leads to a gradual elimination of the differences in intellectual property laws among different countries; new precedents are set as judicial attitudes change and evolve; and questionable practices in the use of patents (such as the controversy over “trolls”) take on a new prominence. Any book on patent law is therefore to some extent a snapshot, and periodic revisiting and updating are ...