> ...as someone who invented earlier but did not file, you aren't going to be able to get that the patent reassigned to you. There's an exception: When a secon

> ...as someone who invented earlier but did not file, you aren't going to be able to get that the patent reassigned to you. There's an exception: When a second applicant disclosed the invention publicly both prior to the first application and less than one year prior to the second application. Another note: Prior art needs to be publicly available. So, a first inventor's private notes can't invalidate a second inventor's patent. In the old first-to-invent system, however, the private notes of a first inventor could allow the first inventor to get the patent ahead of a second inventor who filed first.