NEW PATENT LAW FACILITATES COOPERATIVE RESEARCH

摘要

Analysis of CREATE leads to several conclusions that may alter the way patent attorneys prosecute patent applications and business executives enter into contracts that involve joint or collaborative research: 1. Patent attorneys prosecuting inventions developed under a joint research agreement should review the agreement and the patent application to determine if CREATE provides a basis for overcoming any current for future obviousness rejections based on prior art that could be excluded under CREATE. 2. Pending patent applications that may benefit from CREATE should be amended to identify the parties to each relevant joint research agreement. 3. Future patent applications that may benefit from CREATE should clearly identify the parties to each relevant joint research agreement.