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Patent Filings Roundup: Microsoft Battles Daedalus Blue; Intel Gears Up for First-to-File Fight; Electric Blanket Boogaloo
After almost 200 district court patent filings last week, things settled back into their recent rhythm, with an average 66 district court complaints (including some “Schedule A” brand anti-counterfeiting …
Federal Circuit Affirms Jury Verdict Invalidating Pacific Biosciences Patents
Yesterday, the CAFC affirmed a ruling by the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, where a jury found Oxford Nanopore Technologies, Inc. and Oxford …
European Inventor Award 2021 Finalists Spotlight Diverse Group of U.S. Researchers
Last week, the European Patent Office (EPO) announced six U.S. researchers as finalists for the European Inventor Award 2021. The EPO began the prestigious European Inventor Award …
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Eleven Million Patents: Milestones in the History of Invention
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued its 11 millionth patent today, May 11, 2021. America’s first (unnumbered) patent was issued in July of 1790, and patents were …
The SSPPU is the Appropriate Royalty Base for FRAND Royalties for Cellular SEPs
A recent series of five articles on IPWatchdog address various aspects of licensing cellular standard essential patents (SEPs) on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms by examining …
CAFC Clears L’Oréal of Trade Secret Misappropriation, Orders New Trial on Patent Infringement
On May 6, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC), reversed in part, affirmed in part, vacated in part, dismissed in part, and remanded …
Assessing the Damage from Our COVID Technology Giveaway
The implications of the announcement that the Biden Administration will support efforts to waive intellectual property protection for COVID-19 vaccines and therapies is still sinking in. The …
This Week in Washington IP: Reviewing Small Business R&D Funding Programs, Researching COVID-19 Variants and Building Department of Defense Cyber Capabilities
This week in Washington IP news, committees at the House of Representatives will convene hearings on several topics related to technological innovation, including the CLEAN Future Act’…
Errors in Issued Patents as a Measure of Patent Quality
Companies spend considerable sums of money to develop patent portfolios that protect their valuable innovations. Given the large stakes, it behooves companies to obtain high quality patents. …
PPAC Meeting: Filings Down Less Than Expected Overall, Office Calls on Congress to Release Previously Collected Fees
At the quarterly meeting of the Patent Public Advisory Committee (PPAC) on Thursday, Acting U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Director Drew Hirshfeld told attendees that …
Other Barks & Bites for Friday, May 7: FTC Issues Report to Congress on Repair Restrictions, SCOTUS Calls for Solicitor General Brief in American Axle and USPTO Seeks to Hire Hundreds of Patent Examiners
This week in Other Barks & Bites: the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announces a hiring initiative to fill hundreds of patent examiner positions at its …
USPTO After Final Petition Statistics – Are Things as Bad as They Appear? (Part VI)
While researching the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) treatment of final Office actions for previous articles (Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, …
Fitch, Even, Tabin & Flannery is seeking a Litigation Associate
Fitch, Even, Tabin & Flannery is seeking an attorney with 4 to 7 years of experience who is interested in honing and expanding their skills and practice. This is a …
Stop Tripping Over TRIPS
The petition by South Africa and India at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to waive most of the protections in the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (…
CAFC Affirms Decision Vacating Judgment and Injunction Due to Executive’s Misrepresentations
On May 5, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) affirmed the decision of the District Court for the Central District of California to …
Mainstream Media Defends Patents? BBC Interview Indicates IP Talking Points on COVID Crisis May Be Reaching a Broader Audience
I happened to be listening to NPR yesterday morning, and caught an interview on BBC Newshour between the BBC’s Razia Iqbal and a representative of the …
Tai Says United States Will Back India-South Africa Proposal to Waive IP Rights Under TRIPS
Bloomberg first reported today that U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said that the United States will back a proposal by India and South Africa last year …
Patent Filings Roundup: Litigation Explosion Fueled by IP Edge; Patent Plaintiff Seeking Defendants; Companies File Declaratory Judgment Against Landmark as Troll
The district courts saw an explosion of new patent filings last week (183, more than 100 over the weekly average to date), driven largely by dozens and dozens of …
Pfizer Rejects Accusations it Infringed COVID-19 Vaccine Assay Technology
Pfizer and BioNTech have hit back at Allele Biotechnology and Pharmaceuticals, Inc.’s October 2020 complaint accusing the COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers of infringing Allele’s U.S. patent …
International IP Index 2021: United States Remains Second in Patent Rankings, Global IP Framework Holds Strong Amid Pandemic
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Global Innovation Policy Center (GIPC) released its ninth annual International IP Index yesterday, finding that the United States, Japan and Europe …
Federal Circuit Says Amgen’s Repatha® Patent Claims Require ‘Undue Experimentation’ to Practice
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) on Thursday upheld the District of Delaware’s grant of judgment as a matter of law (…
The Upshot of Google v. Oracle: An Absurd Ruling Will Lead to Absurd Results
For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, or so states Newton’s third law of motion. It is safe to say that Newton never …
License to Copy: Your Software Code Isn’t Safe After Google v. Oracle
In characteristic form, the Supreme Court has once again managed to blow it in another intellectual property case. This time, the Justices blessed Google's copying of Oracle's …
USPTO’s Drew Hirshfeld on Proposed Changes to Requirements for Patent Bar Registration: It ‘Just Makes Sense’
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO or Office) earlier today published a Request for Comments in the Federal Register asking for public input into proposed …
Twist Emerges in Senate IP Subcommittee Leadership for 117th Congress
On Sunday, February 14, U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Ranking Member of the Senate …
Biden Announces Intent to Nominate Tiffany Cunningham to Federal Circuit
President Joe Biden today announced 11 judicial candidates – 10 for federal circuit and district court judge positions, including Tiffany Cunningham as nominee for the United States Court of Appeals …
Computer Programs are Different, Says SCOTUS in Landmark Ruling that Google’s Use of Oracle’s API Packages Was Fair
The U.S. Supreme Court this morning found Google’s use of Oracle’s Java application programming interface (“API packages”) a fair use as a matter of …
SCOTUS Dubs PTAB/APJ Structure a ‘Rare Bird’, Pushes for Workable Remedies in Arthrex Oral Arguments
The Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court today heard arguments in United States/ Smith & Nephew v. Arthrex, in which the Court will decide whether the administrative …
Massive Jury Verdict for VLSI Sets Stage for ‘Efficient Infringement’ Debate
On Tuesday, March 2, a jury verdict entered into the Western District of Texas awarded $2.175 billion in damages to VLSI Technologies for patent infringement committed by multinational tech …
Who Will it Be? IP Practitioners Name Their Picks for Biden CAFC Appointee Following Judge Wallach’s Retirement
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) Judge Evan J. Wallach announced earlier this week that he will retire from active service and assume …
Second Circuit Delivers Blow for Fair Use in Warhol’s Prince Photograph Case
On March 26, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York’s decision …
U.S. Copyright Office Issues New Final Rule on Group Registration for Albums
On Tuesday, February 23, the United States Copyright Office issued a final rule that creates a new “group” registration option for albums of music and works related to …
Harrity & Harrity is Seeking a Remote Patent Attorney
Harrity & Harrity, LLP is looking for superstar remote or local patent professionals to prepare patent applications for leading global technology companies, including numerous Patent 300® companies. This position …
Registering your website with the Chinese government?
Doing business in China is exciting and potentially lucrative; however, there are “hidden” traps. Most of these hidden traps have been extensively discussed in the Western world – …
What happens when lifestyle drugs like Viagra and Cialis lose patent protections?
Each year, millions of men rely on pharmaceuticals like Viagra and Cialis for their erectile dysfunction (ED), but they may not be the only ones facing dysfunctionalities. …
The Myth of the 18-Month Delay in Publishing Patent Applications
Starting in November 2000, the USPTO started publishing patent applications 18 months after their earliest filing date. So the simple assumption is that you file a patent and 18 months …
Top Patent Law Firms for 2017
We compiled a list of the top patent firms that are ranked based on the total number of U.S. utility patents that issued in 2017 where the …
Reflections on Taking the Patent Bar Exam
If you are reading this article beyond the title, you are either preparing to take the USPTO’s patent bar exam or you are considering whether you …
Alternate Approaches to the Valuation of Intellectual Property
Techniques for valuing intellectual property continue to develop, especially as access to information becomes easier and more efficient. The practice of valuing intellectual property has only been …
Federal Circuit Affirms TTAB Refusal to Register ‘CHURRASCOS’
In a May 13, 2016 decision, the Federal Circuit affirmed a Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) decision upholding an Examiner’s denial of registration based on a finding …
Design Patent Infringement: How to decide if you should sue
First, look at the merits of the infringement claim. They may be stronger than you think, and you can thank a 2008 ruling for that. That year, the …
Top Patent Firms for 2016
A list of the top patent firms that are ranked based on the total number of U.S. utility patents that issued in 2016 where the patent firms …
Beat the Odds: How to Get Your Invention Licensed
Many inventors believe the way to get a company interested in their inventions is to write a letter – and then hope they receive an invitation to begin …
Does University Patent Licensing Pay Off?
Patent licensing or creating new companies is not a get rich quick path for schools despite the occasional blockbuster invention or Google spin-out. Indeed, enriching universities is …
Looking Forward: Predictions and Thoughts for 2019
Given that several industry insiders were willing to make their own predictions, I’ll go out on a limb and make my own predictions… First, I predict …
Comic-Con Considerations: Cosplay, the Right of Publicity, and Copyright Concerns
For as much as Comic-Con is about comics, TV, and upcoming movies, it’s not hard to see that a large portion of its allure for fans …
These Are the 20 Hardest and Easiest Art Units
Art Unit 3689 has the lowest allowance rate at 7.7%. Art Unit 3659 has the highest at 98.3%. Oddly enough, these two art units are from the same technology center. It’…
Do Patents Truly Promote Innovation?
Invention, it has been shown, is driven primarily not by genius or happenstance but rather by markets and the expectation of the profit that can be gained …
The Cost of Obtaining a Patent in the US
Estimating US patent costs is a difficult matter because so much depends on the technology involved, but answering "it depends" is not particularly insightful or helpful. What …
Protecting Ideas: Can Ideas Be Protected or Patented?
Unfortunately, despite what you may have heard from late night television, satellite radio commercials or snake oil salesmen, there is no effective way to protect an idea… …
Patent Searching 101: A Patent Search Tutorial
Inventors and entrepreneurs who are looking to cut costs frequently want to do their own patent search. This is a wise first move, but inventors need to …
The Top 5 Mistakes Inventors make with their Invention
Generally speaking the first step toward commercializing an invention and making money is typically to pursue the patent path. For those new to the industry it is …
Patent Claim Drafting 101: The Basics
When writing a claim it is important to describe how the various components are structured and how the various components interact and connect. First, include a claim …
Three Inventions That Made My Summers Fun
As we enter the August heat, it’s worth remembering some of the patents that have made summers more bearable through the years, for kids and adults …
Moving from Idea to Patent – When Do You Have an Invention?
In order to protect an idea it must mature into an invention first. This means that you need to be able to explain to others how to …
The Law of Recipes: Are Recipes Patentable?
In most cases the typical recipe for a "killer Margarita" or "the best barbeque sauce ever" will not be patentable, but the only way to know for …
Tricks & Tips to Describe an Invention in a Patent Application
One excellent way to make sure you are including an appropriately detailed description that treats a variety of variations and alternatives is to have many professional patent …
Getting Your Invention to Market: Licensing vs. Manufacturing
Of course, whether you are going to pursue licensing or manufacturing, for the first lesson is to realize that there are no tricks to invention marketing. It …
Provisional Patents: What are they and why do you need them?
The first thing to say is this: there is no such thing as a provisional patent. You can, however, file what is known as a provisional patent …
Patent Drawings and Invention Illustrations, What do you Need?
If you are going to file a patent application you must have drawings to include in the application, but patent drawings are not the only type of "…
Protecting an Idea: Can Ideas Be Patented or Protected?
Many people ask: can ideas be patented? The short answer is no. Unfortunately, despite what you may have heard from late night television commercials, there is no …
Patent Drawings 101: The Way to Better Patent Applications
To properly accomplish the goal of having the best disclosure possible you should also not think in terms of a single patent drawing or illustration, but rather …
Design Patents: The Under Utilized and Overlooked Patent
Typically an inventor wants to protect the function of the invention when at all possible. But what if you cannot get a utility patent because the underlying …
