First to File. Patents for Today's Scientist and Engineer

Bridges the gap between the realistic needs and questions of scientists and engineers and the legal skills of professionals in the patent field at a level accessible to those with no legal training • Written for inventors in lay terms that they can relate to or easily follow • Lays out the new features of patent law introduced by the America Invents Act of 2012 • Explains the differences between the first-to-invent and first-to-file rules and why the two rules will coexist • Focuses on the growth of new technologies in industry versus the laws protecting them