Posts Tagged: "conception"

AI Inventorship: Will Our Patent Laws Stand Up? My Conversation with Dr. Stephen Thaler

The issue of AI inventorship in the United States remains at large following the Supreme Court’s denial of cert in Thaler v. Vidal, meaning that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) finding that AI cannot be considered a named inventor to a patent application remains the law of the land. Now that the agency is seeking public comments on the issue of AI inventorship, I reached out to Dr. Thaler to get his comments on the current AI inventorship debate within the patent space.

Inventorship 101: Who are Inventors and Joint Inventors?

Inventorship is one of the most fundamental concepts in patent law. Of course, fundamental does not mean easy or uncomplicated. Patents are granted to inventors, which is easy enough to say but not always as informative as the patent laws presume it to be. In fact, pretty much everyone comes to patent law for the first time with an erroneous…

Inventing 101: Protecting Your Invention When You Need Help

Once you get that first provisional patent application filed you are ready to approach others for assistance with your invention. You have a measure of protection, but never forget you have no exclusive rights until the patent ultimately issues. You should also still get a confidentiality agreement signed by anyone who provides assistance to you. While the clock in the US is ticking to file the nonprovisional, the real important significance of confidentiality agreements after a provisional filing is so that those who assist you will not run off with your invention on their own. With this in mind, it is ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL that you get an assignment of rights with respect to any protectable aspects provided by those giving you assistance.

Appending Conventional Steps to Abstract Idea an Insufficient Inventive Concept

The Court held that dealing “physical playing cards” did not constitute patent eligible territory. This constituted a “purely conventional” activity, like the conventional computer implementation that fell short in Alice. The Court found there was no inventive concept sufficient to transform the subject matter into a patent-eligible application of an abstract idea.

Every invention starts with an idea

The truth is you cannot patent or protect an idea or a concept. However, it is also an undeniable truth that all inventions start with an idea, but an idea is not something that can be protected by any form of intellectual property protection. Said another way, you simply cannot patent an idea or concept. Similarly, you cannot copyright or trademark an idea or concept. So what do you do when you have an idea? How much is required in order to have an invention?