The Patent Act was further amended in 1836, when it was realized that a more thorough description was needed; without a thorough description of the invention, it was harder to file a lawsuit against someone accused of illegally using the patent.

After this amendment was made to the way in which patents are described, the patent act underwent major changes in 1836. These changes were the result of complaints lodged against patented items, which were not found to be new ideas. Eventually, the patent laws were changed to reflect that an invention had to be novel.

Another component of the law was changed during 1836, with the removal of patent rules stating that a person from another country had to be living in the United States for two years. After 1836, anyone residing in the United States was able to apply for a patent. However, the application fee of United States citizens was less than someone from overseas.

In 1839, the patent rules were further changed to give the inventor the ability to appeal the negative decision of the Patent Office. The first patent for a design was granted in 1849; at the same time, the stipulation that an invention not be obvious was added to the rules. In 1930 the Patent Office began accepting patents for plants, as horticulturists continued to develop new breeds and hybrids of commercial value.

These ongoing revisions to the law proceeded until around 1952, when the regulatory regime stabilized and the rules did not change much from year to year, until the next major change arrived in the form of the Patent Reform Act of 2005. The most notable change to the rules is that the patent applicant does not have to be the earliest person to invent the idea, but rather the earliest person to file the application. However, this reform does stipulate that the earliest person filing cannot steal the idea from another inventor. They must have each independently conceived the idea. The earliest application to file is now given priority, rather than the earliest work on the idea, largely because the Patent Office can easily determine the date of a filing, and cannot easily determine the date when an idea was actually invented.

Future changes to patent law are likely, given that this experiment in intellectual property law is still relatively new by the standards of law. Inventors and innovators should be aware of the possibility for changes in the law going forward.

History has proven that patents are an integral part of business.

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