Location: Erie Technology Incubator
Mr. Woodard recently lead a discussion on The America Invents Act, which President Obama signed into law on September 16, 2011. This Act, which will be gradually implemented through March 13, 2013, is considered by most commentators to be the most significant change to US Patent Law in over a century. The Act will modify several long-standing distinctions of American Patent Law in favor of increased harmonization with international patent conventions. Among the most notable of these changes will be a shift from the current US "first-to-invent" standard to the more internationally recognized "first-to-file" standard for determining priority in invention and patent ownership.
Mr. Woodard is a Registered Patent Attorney and a member of MacDonald Illig's Intellectual Property Group. He focuses his practice on various areas of Intellectual Property (IP), including US and international IP. His practice has included extensive experience with international IP systems such as the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), Paris Convention (patents & designs), Berne Convention (copyrights), Madrid System (trademarks), European Patent Organization (EPO), the European OHIM (designs & trademarks), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and several foreign national IP & patent offices.
A graduate of Penn State-Dickinson, Mr. Woodard served as a Senior Editor of the Penn State International Law Review and was a recipient of Penn State's Richard Reeve Baxter Award for International Law and the Franklin Pierce Law Center's European Constitutional Law Award. Mr. Woodard's published works have appeared in the international law reviews at Penn State-Dickinson, Georgetown, and UNC Chapel Hill. He currently serves as Chairman of the Northwest PA Chapter of ASM International.