I applaud your continued efforts to bring business and legal issues to the attention of the scientific community.1 However, there are a few points that I wish to make. First, the subhead "Awarding of patent may only reflect who filed first," while titillating, is clearly legally incorrect under U.S. patent law. In the United States the first to invent any new and useful article of manufacture or method is the true inventor and entitled to a patent, if the inventor satisfies the disclosure, description, and other requirements for a patent under U.S. law. This is in contrast to the rest of the world where the first to file, regardless of their being the actual first to invent anything, is usually granted the patent.
Recent attempts have been made to alter U.S. law from a first to invent system to the first to file system; however, many legal, cultural, and policy ...
