Legal Question in Intellectual Property in New York

The U.S. patent law was significantly amended on September 16, 2011. Some of the changes took place on that date, others (including an increase in government fees of about 15%) took effect on September 26th. Others will kick in during the next 12 months, and still others at 18 months from the September 16, 2011 date of enactment. So you're looking at a moving target. For further info on that, see http://www.uspto.gov/aia_implementation

For a basic overview of how the U.S. patent system currently works, read David Pressman's book Patent It Yourself http://www.nolo.com/products/patent-it-yourself-PAT.html (which was last updated 6 months ago; watch for further updates).

Beware that the U.S. patent system is a subset of a complex web of national patent laws, linked together by a variety of treaties starting with the Paris Convention on Industrial Property, the Patent Cooperation Treaty, and others, administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization. See http://www.wipo.int/patent-law/en/ for more.

For more information on current developments, visit my firm's site at http://elman.com and follow @TechLaw_Elman on Twitter.