Comment by toufka
7 years ago
With the US patent system moving from “first to invent” (notebook timestamps become determining) to “first to file”, this is much less of an issue now (with reapect to IP provenance).
7 years ago
With the US patent system moving from “first to invent” (notebook timestamps become determining) to “first to file”, this is much less of an issue now (with reapect to IP provenance).
In the U.S. patent system, priority now goes to the first inventor to file. If Alice files before Bob, there's always the theoretical possibility that Alice derived her invention from Bob's invention and thereby wasn't really an inventor. In that situation, Bob might try to prove this, so as to be able to (re)claim priority and thereby be the one who is issued a patent instead of Alice. If Alice has a timestamped notebook, that can be powerful evidence of her independent development of the invention, which will help her fend off Bob's claim to priority.
(Much the same is true if Carol discloses confidential information to Dave under an NDA, and Dave realizes that his team had previously known the information and so the information shouldn't be subject to the NDA: If Dave's team has contemporaneous written records of their prior knowledge or independent development of the information, it can really help their case if Carol sues them for breach of the NDA.)