Section 3 of the America Invents Act (AIA) amended the patent laws, in particular 35 U.S.C. § 102, to convert the United States patent system from a “first-to-invent” system to a “first-inventor-to-file” (FITF) system. To prepare for implementing the change to the FITF system, on July 26, 2012 the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) published a notice of proposed rulemaking (hereinafter, proposed rulemaking) entitled “Changes To Implement the First Inventor To File Provisions of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act” (hereinafter, proposed rulemaking) in the Federal Register (77 Fed. Reg. 43742). Comments on the proposed rulemaking can be submitted to the USPTO on or before October 5, 2012.

The change to the FITF system applies to all applications filed on or after March 16, 2013 that contain or contained at any time (1) a claimed invention that has an effective filing date that is on or after March 16, 2013 or (2) claimed the benefit of a US nonprovisional application or an international application (i.e., under 35 U.S.C. §§ 120, 121, or 365(c)) that contains, or contained at any time, a claimed invention that has an effective filing date that is on or after March 16, 2013.