President Obama signed the first patent reform bill in nearly 60 years, and the most comprehensive reform since 1836, into law Friday.   The US Patent Office currently has a backlog of 1.2 million patent applications and this bill is expected to expedite the process.  It typically takes an average of three years to have a patent application processed and approved.

The America Invents Act had bipartisan support through Congress, sponsored by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. and Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas and the president hailed the legislation.

“Somewhere in the stack of applications could be the next technological breakthrough, the next miracle drug.  We should be making it easier and faster to turn new ideas into jobs,” the president said.

The new law seeks to reduce lengthy and costly legal battles in addition to streamlining the patent process.

The legislation has the support of big tech companies like Google and Apple but some small-scale inventors believe the legislation benefits large corporations and does very little to help them in the quest to receive patents.

More information on what the new patent law means can be found here.