After several sporadic decisions issued by the Supreme Court impacting the US patent system and years of debate about how the system should be improved, Congress recently passed the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (HR 1249).  President Obama signed the Act into law on September 16, 2011.  The text of the Act can be found here.

The provisions of the new law have a variety of effective dates.  Some of the changes take effect immediately.  Fee increases will be instituted on September 26, 2011.  Other changes will not be implemented until 2012 and 2013.

The ongoing  “patent war” between Google, Apple and Microsoft has brought public attention to the value that these companies perceive in their patent holdings. These companies are aggressively buying patents, hoping to integrate those discoveries with their own, but also to preclude their use by competitors through the threat of patent-infringement litigation. Software patents, are playing a pivotal role in this competition, for example, patent-infringement actions against smartphone producers utilizing Google’s Android operating system.

Recent moves into Israel by companies from the Silicon Valley are a reminder that there are still many untapped opportunities for economic cooperation between two of the world's foremost centers of high technology.  Innovative business cultures and common values make Israel and the Silicon Valley natural partners in the world of high-tech and venture capital.