I would like to thank the SMU Dedman School of Law for the invitation to speak before you today. I am delighted to be here and to share with you some thoughts about the changing face of intellectual-property law and the work of the Federal Circuit. We hear a lot about change these days: change in our economy, global climate change, change in the Middle East, and profound change in our patent laws. This last discussion of change recently culminated in significant legislative reform of our patent statutes.' This is not surprising. Over the past thirty years, the business world shifted most of America's corporate assets from hard assets to intellectual property-particularly patents.2 This has placed greater importance on patent law and the role of the patent system in stimulating innovation, and it has resulted in a vigorous re-examination of virtually every aspect of our patent system.3 Even before the recent passage of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act,4 the winds of change were sweeping across the intellectual-property landscape.
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