Oct. 28 – Chicago Daily Law Bulletin
Professor Doris Estelle Long authored column:
In an era of increasing global trade and transnational marketing, patents have strangely remained creatures of domestic law. No international or regional patents exist. To the contrary, patent protection for an invention can only be secured by seeking and obtaining a patent in every country where the inventor hopes to secure protection.
In the U.S., this domestic creature was even more clearly a product of U.S. sensibilities as U.S. patent law remained cobbled by practices out of step with international standards. Inventors were granted extended “grace periods” in which to commercialize their inventions before seeking protection. Only uses within the territorial boundaries of the United States were considered in determining whether an invention demonstrated sufficient novelty to warrant protection.
