On the recordApril 23, 1997
This bill does something that has never before happened in American patent law. What it says is that where a prior user of a patented idea has made commercial use of that idea in the United States, then--even though the inventor files the patent on time and even eventually gets the patent--that inventor has no opportunity to get royalties from that prior domestic user. Now, that messes up the whole system. The idea is to reward the inventor, the person who comes up with the idea first, and who goes and gets it patented. If instead you have to look around and wonder if somebody else anywhere in the country is engaged in the prior domestic use, you run the risk that when the patent eventually is awarded to you it will have very little value, very little value because some other company has already got it and the right to continue producing it.
Source
govinfo.gov
