Another day. Another bill.

Just before departing for their summer recess on Thursday, Utah Republican Orrin Hatch and Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy, who serve as chairmen of the U.S. Senate's intellectual-property panel, introduced a 45-page bill that proposes a number of changes to the way American patents are awarded and challenged.

News.com is reporting that "first-to-file", as opposed to "first-to-invent" which is the method used currently, would be one of shifts in patent policy in the United States.  Yes, this change would alleviate some of the burden on the U.S. Patent Office, but it certainly favors big corporations, not small inventors.  With the explosion of Web 2.0 applications and one of the aspects of this site, pattoo.com, "first-to-invent" can again be meaningful in the U.S. Patent system.  If, as proposed and facilitated by this site, inventors would publish and show a clear date when their invention was reduce to practice, small and garage inventors would again obtain an advantage over large companies.   Obviously everyone agrees that the internet empowers the average person and puts people in control of their content.  The internet can also empower inventors the same way it has empowered content creators.

Inventors, innovators and idea makers are already publishing their thoughts in "idea banks" a listing of which can be found in the Directory of this site.  Because the U.S. has a "first-to-invent" patent system, innovators can retain the right to file a patent within one year of publishing their inventions on the web.  The proposed "first-to-file" would remove that small inventor advantage.