What is an Invention date?
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What is an Invention date? Video Transcript
A claim's invention date is the date that that particular concept was first fully conceived by the inventor, when all the pieces of how that invention would work and function were fully thought through by the inventor in their head. It does not mean that they actually reduced the invention to practice or made a prototype or anything like that. When they first thought of all the details of how this thing would work, that is considered the invention date and that is the earliest date in the United States you could potentially claim for infringement purposes. You can use that date, if you have proof of it, to disqualify prior art that might have been filed after the invention date but before the filing of your patent application. That is true only in the United States. Most countries are first-to-file system, not a first-to-invent system. The US is a first-to-invent system, one of the only countries that is, and so the claim's invention date is the date of the full conception of the invention in the inventor's mind and the time when all the details were pretty much figured out in their head or they at least knew that they had enough thinking behind it that someone could figure out how to actually make this thing work. They have thought through the invention and all the problems that might arise when someone is trying to actually make it work.