America Invents Act changes coming on September 16, 2012

Some important changes are going into effect on September 16, 2012 at the patent office. Those changes include: Inter Partes Reexamination being replaced by inter partes review, and the review will proceed only if it is determined that there is a reasonable likelihood that the challenger will prevail with respect to at least one claim; Third parties may now institute post-grant reviews of a patent; Third parties may now submit printed publications for consideration and inclusion into the record of any patent application; the inventor’s oath or declaration must contain new statements. A nice summary of the upcoming changes are provided here by Cole Richter of McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff.