How to Protect Your Invention: A Guide to Patents for Scientists and Engineers

While almost all chemists and polymer scientists in industry are involved with potentially patentable work, American graduate students are under-exposed to and unprepared for this all-important field. They are unaware of the importance of U.S. Patent Law and patent practices in shaping their daily industrial existence and future. This book provides a clear, jargon-free, and comprehensive overview of the patent application process. The chapters included discuss how to invent, how to get inventions patented, and how market inventions after securing a patent.  In 2011 President Obama signed into law the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, a sweeping reform of the U.S, patent system. Among the more important changes in the law are that the U.S. is shifting to a first-inventor-to-file system (and abandons the first-to-invent system), which is more closely harmonized with many other countries.  Further, the new law expressly forbids the issue of a claim "directed to or encompassing" a human organism; allows challenging the validity of a claim by third parties after a patent was granted; and gives the Director of the Patent Office the power to set patent fees. It also provides for limited post grant review which allows patents to be invalidated after they have been granted.

Keywords: General & Introductory Chemistry