This morning, President Obama signed the Leahy-Smith Patent Reform Act — enacting it into law. The provisions of the new law have a variety of effective dates. Some changes to the law happen immediately and the increased patent office fees will be instituted on September 26, 2011. Other changes will not be implemented until 2012 and 2013. These include the revised post-grant opposition procedures and the rewriting of the rules of novelty and nonobviousness.