The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued a draft of rules for the first-to-file provisions found in the America Invents Act of 2011 (AIA), and among the more interesting items found in the draft is a provision stating that if an inventor wishes to discredit a publication addressing prior art by someone other than the inventor or inventors, the patent applicant will have to file an affidavit that demonstrates that the patent applied for is virtually identical to the article mentioned in the applicant's prior disclosure. Read More
