America Invents Act -- Patent Reform(bullet points)

• Also called the patent reform act of 2011
• It used to be that the first applicant to invent the subject matter of the patent would win in a competition with another inventor for the same subject matter.  So, If Leibniz and Newton weren't dead, and they both came up with the same idea again, only this time it was patentable, they would just argue in front of the patent office about who invented it first; showing evidence to prove their point.  Now, whoever files their application first will win.  So, Leibniz and Newton would have to race to the patent office and file an application for a patent to see who would get the patent rights on their idea.  
• Sometimes there are rules of procedure in a court room that help the judge decide how he will reward the winning party.  Before, Judges in patent cases had more lee-way in determining how winnings would be calculated in patent infringement suits.  With the new legislation, Judges have to decide on a set of factors for calculating winnings; prior to hearing evidence about those factors.  So, judges will have to hear evidence on what factors should be considered when calculating how much money is to be paid, and then, and only then, can they start to hear evidence proving or disproving the factors that they laid out.
• Damages or winnings are the reason you sue.  When you seek damages, you seek to get back whatever money you lost as a result of the person-who-you-are-suing's infringement of your patent rights.  Willful infringement is the plaintiff's ticket into the realm of "enhanced" damages.  The new law sets a higher standard for willfulness.  That means it will be harder for plaintiff's attorneys to show that a defendant was "willful" in his/her infringement of the plaintiff's patent rights.
• There are three new ways that a regular person can challenge the validity of a patent or patent application.
• Sometimes people lie and claim they have a patent by putting a mark on their product saying there is a patent on the product, when there is no patent on the product; that is called a false marking.  Regular people used to be able to sue somebody who used false markings.  Now, only the government or a competitor of the person who uses false markings can sue the person who is falsely marking things.
• It is now easier for a corporation to file an application when the inventor of the subject matter in the application is not cooperating with the application process.
• In the old patent laws, if an inventor didn't explain what he thought was the best way of practicing his invention (best mode) in the patent application, and the application became a patent, then the patent could be invalidated because the inventor didn't explain the best mode in the application.  Inventors can file their application and not talk about the best mode now, without fear of invalidation of their patent.
• There used to be a fee break for "small" entities, now there is a class of fees below that; and it gives further fee breaks to "micro" entities.
• Finally, the USPTO now has the authority to set it's own fees.  The USPTO can set their own prices for examining applications.