Today President Obama signed the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (“AIA”) into law, thus completing the first major overhaul to the patent act in almost 60 years. You can read our prior alerts, which provide an overview of the revisions here and here. In the upcoming weeks we will issue additional in-depth client alerts concerning the new post-grant review procedures. Morrison & Foerster LLP will be hosting client seminars in San Diego, Palo Alto, and San Francisco to discuss how to best navigate these changes. Click on the cities above to find out more information and register for these seminars.

We have included a table below for ease of reference in deciphering when the various provisions of the AIA go into effect. The default effective date of the AIA is set in Section 35, which provides that “Except as otherwise provided in this Act, the provisions of this Act shall take effect upon the expiration of the 1-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act and shall apply to any patent issued on or after that effective date.” Since the bill was enacted upon President Obama’s signature today, the effective date of the AIA will be the expiration of the one-year period starting September 16, 2011. There are, however, many exceptions within the AIA. We have included a table below for ease of reference in deciphering when the various provisions of the AIA go into effect.