March 13, 2018, marked the fifth anniversary of the transition from the previous “first to invent” system to the AIA’s “first to file” regime.  The PTAB seemingly marked the occasion by instituting the first ever derivation proceeding one week later in Anderson Corporation v. GED Integrated Solutions, Inc., Case DER2017-00007, Paper 32 (March 21, 2018).

The concept of “derivation” was not created by the AIA.  Pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. § 102(f) dictated that a person shall not be entitled to a patent if he did not himself invent the claimed subject matter. 
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