Today the House of Representatives passed H.R. 1249 the America Invents Act.  The Senate passed a version of the bill  (S. 23) earlier this year, but because there are significant differences in the two bills, the America Invents Act is headed to a joint conference where the differences have to be ironed out before the Act heads to the White House for President Obama’s signature.  I will take a look at key provisions of the Act as they relate to the retail industry over the next several weeks, but to whet your appetite, here is some excellent analysis from the patent blogosphere:

• IP Watchdog — Focusing on Patent Office fee diversion.
• Patently-O — Promising posts about the impact of the legislation for the next decade.
• Patent Docs — Looking at the bio industries’ take on H.R. 1249.
• PriorSmart — Aggregating analysis across the blogosphere.
• WSJ Law Blog — Giving you the basics.