The US has killed off any hope that an international patents treaty
will be signed this year. The planned treaty is intended to make it easier
for inventors to win worldwide protection for their ideas through a single
patent application.
One hundred and forty nations were expected to sign the treaty this
year. But the US has blocked the treaty鈥檚 progress by clinging to its distinctive
patents system, which awards a patent to the person who proves they had
the idea first. All other countries have a 鈥榝irst-to-file鈥� system, awarding
the patent to the first applicant.
Jacqueline Needle, a British patent lawyer, says the US system is a
barrier to free trade. 鈥楾he first-to-invent system discriminates against
companies outside the US,鈥� she says.
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American companies and individual inventors often win battles over disputed
patents because the system is biased in their favour, says Needle, of the
London-based law firm Beck Greener. American inventors only have to show
that they were the first in the US to invent a device, even if a foreign
company had held a US patent to the same invention for many years.
Americans challenging foreign patents are allowed to present evidence
鈥� such as laboratory notebooks and records 鈥� to support their case. Foreigners
do not share this privilege.
鈥業t鈥檚 straight discrimination,鈥� says Needle. 鈥業鈥檓 very disappointed,
particularly as the US is assiduous at complaining about other people鈥檚
patent systems.鈥�
The American decision is a blow to the World Intellectual Property
Organization, the body in Geneva that is coordinating the treaty. 鈥業t puts
a question mark over the treaty. I don鈥檛 know whether the other countries
will think it鈥檚 worth having without the US,鈥� says Francois Curchod, deputy
director of the WIPO.
In 1992, the Bush administration said it would move to a 鈥榝irst-to-file鈥�
system, removing the last significant obstacle to a treaty. But when the
Clinton administration took office last year, it told the US Patent and
Trademark Office to re-examine the issue. On the advice of the PTO, the
US government has now decided to preserve the 鈥榝irst-to-invent鈥� system.
A spokesman for the PTO says its system ensures justice for small, individual
inventors, while the first-to-file system favours large multinational corporations,
which have vast expertise in filing for patents.
