American Inventors Protection Act

American Inventors Protection Act of 1999

Long title	An Act to provide for patent reform, and for other purposes.
Enacted by	the 106th United States Congress
Citations
Public law	Pub. L. 106-113
Statutes at Large	113 Stat. 1501
Legislative history
Introduced in the House as H.R. 3194 by Frank Wolf on November 2, 1999 Signed into law by President Bill Clinton on November 29, 1999

The American Inventors Protection Act (AIPA) is a United States federal law enacted on November 29, 1999, as Public Law 106-113. In 2002, the Intellectual Property and High Technology Technical Amendments Act of 2002, Public Law 107-273, amended AIPA.

AIPA contains significant changes to American Patent Law. AIPA added

• An "earlier invention" defense for business method patents – 35 U.S.C. §273;
• Publication of US patent applications for foreign published applications – 35 U.S.C. §122;
• Patent term restoration for delays caused by the Patent and Trademark Office – 35 U.S.C. §154;
• The Request for Continued Examination (RCE) patent prosecution procedure; and
• Disclosure requirements for invention promotion firms.

Political considerations

Large corporations generally supported the bill. Independent inventors generally opposed the bill.

See also

• Patent Reform Act of 2005

References

Further reading

• The American Inventor’s Protection Act: A Legislative History, Wake Forest Intellectual Property Law Journal
• J. Richardson and K. Sibley, THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND COMMUNICATIONS OMNIBUS REFORM ACT OF 1999: an Overview for IP Practitioners^{[permanent dead link]}, North Carolina Journal of Law & Technology

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