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The first to file policy is a world-wide mainstream patent law doctrine used by nearly the whole world save the United States. The Philippines recently changed its patent system from a first to invent to a first to file system. Based on this policy, even if inventor A made the invention earlier than inventor B, if B filed the patent application to the patent office earlier, B shall be awarded a patent. For example, Alexander Graham Bell filed a U.S. patent application a few hours before Elisha Gray, so Bell, not Gray, got a patent for the telephone.
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