WILL THEY TRASH "FIRST-TO-INVENT" IN THE U.S.? It seems that every 5 years or so, WIPO gets together to harmonize patent laws throughout the world. Not a bad idea, if you ask me, but one of the biggest sore points has been that the U.S. is the only country that uses the "first-to-invent" requirement for filing patent applications, while the rest of the world uses "first-to-file." Under a "first-to-file" system, Interference practive would vanish, and the USPTO/Courts would simply look at the filing dates to determine inventorship. Many small businesses have been resisting this change, and were primarily responsible for canning the last harmonization efforts in 1999. Well a new round of harmonization efforts are underway, and I would be shocked if WIPO doesn't revisit this topic again.

I'll keep you posted on any further details.