Don Chisum was already a leader in the patent field when his multi-volume treatise – Chisum on Patents – was first published in 1978. His authoritative explanation of the law has been cited by hundreds of court opinions and thousands of law review articles. Mr. Chisum has recently turned his attention to the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act and penned a new article titled Priority Among Competing Patent Applicants Under the American Invents Act. Although he had hoped to produce a straightforward explanation of the new priority rules, Chisum found a series of ambiguities and gaps in the new law that will be important for patent strategists. In a message to Congress, he concluded the paper as follows:
If the America Invents Act were a term paper submitted by a student in a patent law seminar, an instructor would, undoubtedly, send it back with a note: SOME GOOD IDEAS, SOME MUDDLED AND UNSUPPORTED IDEAS, POOR GRAMMAR: PLEASE REVISE AND CLARIFY.
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