President Obama signed the America Invents Act last Friday, bringing the most sweeping reform to U.S. patent law since 1952. The 150-page act makes dramatic changes to many aspects of patent law, including (1) the definition of prior art under 35 U.S.C. ยง 102, (2) procedures available at the Patent Office to challenge applications, (3) defenses available in patent litigation, (4) limits on patent-eligibility and patentability for certain subject-matter, and (5) marking and false marking.
Provided here are a three-page guide to the Act, as well as a detailed presentation on the many sections of the Act. For your convenience, the presentation's Table of Contents is hyperlinked to the subsequent slides, and there are hyperlinks back to the Table of Contents in the lower right-hand corner of each slide.
In addition, the USPTO released an "effective date" table last Friday, which patent practitioners will certainly find useful. The table indicates the dates on which each provision of the America Invents Act takes effect.