The wrong kind of reform. As the article indicates, it's clear that it makes a deeply flawed system in favor of large companies and patent trolls even more so.
If inventor A invents something useful and foundational and open-sources it because he feels it benefits all mankind, can some greedy turd patent it later and yank it back out of the public domain because he was "first to file"?
Currently all I have to do is invent the thing and publish it and it becomes prior art, no need to file anything because I'm first to invent and I proved it by publishing. Under this new system do I have to file first and pay for it before I can declare it public domain?
The bigger issue is that, unless the patent office happens to notice Inventor A's work while process the patent, which, of course, is no different than it is today.
I can't see it helping the little guy, because if one party has infinitely deep pockets and the other can't afford to fight anything in court, then the larger party can lawyer up and beat the little guy into submission regardless of what the law says.
I am curious why, in light of software and gene patents becoming increasingly more relevant and flawed, the order in which patents are filed becomes "the first overhaul of patent laws in six decades".