premise: The ineptly titled "America Invents Act, " S. 23 and H. R. 1249, currently meandering through Congress is likely to bring woe to small inventors and startup businesses that collectively drive the nation's economy. A key feature of the current patent system is the incentive for inventors to disclose their invention in a patent application in exchange for the possibility that they may achieve a patent grant in return. The subsequent publication of the patent application serves to inform the public about the invention, and thus enables others, including competitors, to build upon it. However, the new law would award the patent to the first person to file a patent application on the invention, rather than the one who is actually the first to invent. Another provision would eliminate the "grace period" that has traditionally allowed an inventor to get his invention "off the ground" without forgoing the opportunity to patent it.
hypothesis: Under the new proposal, inventors may fear that they can't possibly win a race to the patent office and can't properly deliberate their invention with others before filing.