As reported on Patently-O, the House passed S. 3486, which was originally passed by the Senate in September.
The bill provides for implementation of the Hague Agreement Concerning International Registration of Industrial Designs and the Patent Law Treaty ratified by the Senate in 2007. Substantively, the bills extend the term of design patents to 15 years from issuance and change other aspects of international applications by permitting up to 100 designs to be included in a single international application and permitting provisional rights in the design from the publication date of the international application.
The bill now proceeds to President Obama for signature and enactment.
April 30, 2013 at 11:25 am |
[...] patent protection lasts for 14 years (shortly to increase to 15 years) from the date the patent issues compared to 20 years from the earliest filing date for a utility [...]