Patent battle is nothing new. Special thanks goes to two tech giant Apple and Samsung, who every now and then fight with each other regarding patent. But the good news is, U.S. President Barack Obama has signed a new law regarding product patent for which, we may not see enough battle regarding patent in future.
Patent law protects companies from having their products’ appearance copied. The Patent Law Treaty and the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs has made the process of applying for a patent consistent across member countries. Inventors were able to file patents around the world using a single application. But this year, we have seen huge amount of patent infringement cases specially between Apple and Samsung over the shapes of their smartphones and tablets. In fact it appeared to us that infringing patents have become a passion. On the other side, many of us started to assume that patent is the ball, companies are the bat, court is the cricket ground and judges are the umpire.
But thanks to Barack Obama, who has signed a new law which will make a patent to be more stronger. GigaOm has a thorough summary of the new law and its implications. GigaOm has noted that the new law will enable the U.S. companies to fight knockoffs of their products. Besides, the presenting/submitting the design patents will be easier than current traditional utility patents (current traditional utility patents cover methods instead of visual appearance).
However, the bill will go into effect approximate one year later from now. That’s not all. The new bill increases the term of design patents to 15 years, which is one year more than current time limit.
Source: CNET
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