Consider, for example, the case of an employee at Company A, who conceives an invention in May, works diligently to reduce it to practice, and files the corresponding patent application in August.
Under the old first-to-invent system, you could be the first to conceive of an invention and still obtain patent rights over an earlier filer by showing that you conceived first and continued to diligently work on your invention.
The purpose of a patent is to provide incentive for technological innovation, not only to conceive of an invention, but also to allow the idea/concept to enter the market, so that a substantial benefit can be derived by the public.
One dramatic change in both bills would shift the United States from a system that gives a patent to the person who is the first to conceive of an invention to a system that rewards the person who is first to file a successful patent application.
Taking the disclosure grace period into account, under the first-to-file/first-to-disclose system being implemented on March 16, the key question to consider is not when an invention was first conceived as in the first-to-invent system, but rather when the invention was first publicly disclosed by another inventor or first filed with the USPTO.
Ms. Zittel, famous for her nutty inventions for coping with modern life, has conceived a series of "sorting trays": thick plywood slabs with variously shaped compartments neatly cut in.
(a real place), and the enormous Van Damme Aero factory (invented), where in the middle of World War II swarms of workers are gathered "like ants around their queen," constructing the largest long-distance bomber ever conceived (another invention), the six-engine propeller-driven B-30 Pax, with a fuselage 35 feet high and 60 feet long, and a wingspan of 225 feet.
English and German theorists conceived the invention of religion in more pragmatic terms: in attempting to extend the control of nature beyond the limits imposed by observation and science, people had invented supernatural power magic.
While serving, he conceived such inventions as a clockwork-powered "moo horn" to help the French resistance find parachuted supplies, and a steam-powered generator for field radios.
