President Obama Signs the America Invents Act

September 16, 2011 | 22:14 | Public Domain

On September 16, 2011, at Thomas Jefferson High School in Alexandria, Virginia, President Obama signed the American Invents Act. This bill amends federal patent law to define the "effective filing date" of a claimed invention as the actual filing date of the patent or the application for patent containing a claim to the invention, replacing the current "first to invent" system with a "first inventor to file" system.