Dear Colleagues,

Many of you are aware that the America Invents Act (“AIA”) was signed into law on September 16, 2011, with many of the critical changes taking effect on March 16, 2013. The AIA represents the largest reform to U.S. patent law in almost 60 years. The first and most significant change is the move from a “first-to-invent” (FTI) to a “first-inventor-to-file” (FITF) system. To further understand the changes and how they impact you, we invite you to watch this video, presented by Jeffrey Sears, JD, PhD, Columbia's Associate General Counsel, who manages our patent filings in physical sciences, computer sciences, and medical devices. 

America Invents Act at Columbia from Columbia Tech Ventures on Vimeo.

The AIA has many far reaching implications for many individual inventors in particular. However, the AIA has not significantly changed Columbia’s patenting practices, as we have already been operating under many of the guidelines in place in the new system. As a general recommendation, we encourage Columbia inventors to do what they have always done - disclose their inventions to our office (Invention Report form here) as early as possible, ideally before any disclosure outside of Columbia. 

Columbia inventors should feel free to contact us at techventures@columbia.edu with any questions or concerns, or to report a new invention. We look forward to working with you soon.

Best wishes,

Orin Herskowitz
Executive Director, CTV
VP for Intellectual Property & Technology Transfer