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Determining When a Printed Publication is Publicly Accessible
Twice during the last year, the Federal Circuit found itself clarifying the meaning of public accessibility of a printed publication for the purposes of prior art under 35 …
House Drug Pricing Hearing Goes Off Script
Most Congressional hearings are morality plays designed to reach a predetermined outcome. It wasn't hard to predict how the second hearing on drug pricing by the House …
Federal Alcohol Labeling Following Tam and Brunetti
The U.S. Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently struck down certain trademark registration requirements on First Amendment grounds. These cases …
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In Mission Product Ruling, Supreme Court Clarifies Longstanding Circuit Split on Effects of Bankruptcy on Trademark Licenses
As predicted, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that a debtor’s rejection of a license agreement in bankruptcy proceedings does not mean the licensee no …
Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Act Would Allow FTC to Prosecute Pharma Patent Thickets, Product Hopping
On Thursday, May 9, the Affordable Prescriptions for Patients (APP) Act was introduced into the U.S. Senate by Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT). If …
This Week on Capitol Hill: Data Privacy and Competition, Building the Cybersecurity Workforce, and Reducing Algorithmic Bias
Tuesday and Wednesday are the only busy days this week for tech and innovation hearings on Capitol Hill. In the U.S. House of Representatives, subcommittee hearings …
Federal Circuit Affirms $1.3M Attorney’s Fees Award Under Octane Fitness Standard
The Federal Circuit recently affirmed a district court’s award of attorney’s fees under 35 U.S.C. § 285. In particular, the Federal Circuit affirmed the lower court’…
Business Method Patents Recover Under USPTO Guidance
Business method patents have recovered under the new 2019 Revised Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Guidance. As the graph above shows, allowances per office action (APOA) dropped from 17% before …
Examining Recent USPTO Programs to Improve the Trademark Register
While all eyes are on China and how it plans to tackle bad faith infringers, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) also is cleaning house, …
Other Barks & Bites for Friday, May 17: Trump Bans Huawei, Alibaba Shows Improved Brand Protection and China Revises Copyright Law
This week in Other Barks & Bites: Chinese state political advisors suggest changes to the country’s copyright law, including stronger punitive measures for infringement; President Donald Trump …
President Donald Trump Should Investigate the Corrupt Patent System and Passage of the AIA
I am Emil Malak, CEO of VoIP-Pal.com Inc., and a named inventor on two U.S. patents–Mobile Gateway: US 8,630,234 & Electrostatic Desalinization and Water Purification: US 8,016,993. …
Patent Trend Study Part Twelve: Mobile Phone Industry
Yesterday, we discussed patenting trends in the cleantech industry. Today, we turn to the mobile phone industry, which has matured with fewer reasons for frequent consumer upgrades …
Boult Wade Tennant opens Berlin office
IP Law Firm Boult Wade Tennant announces the opening of its Berlin office. The new office location will further strengthen the firm’s presence in Europe, with …
Pinning False Blame of Lack of Enablement In Issued Patents On the USPTO
Last week, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet, held an oversight hearing on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) with …
Federal Circuit Affirms Validity of Endo Pharmaceuticals Patent for Morphinan Pain Relief Compounds
The Federal Circuit recently affirmed a district court ruling finding patent infringement after holding that Actavis LLC, Actavis South Atlantic LLC, and Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. (collectively, “…
Per-Asset Patent Pricing Sees Sharp Shift in 2018
In any market, pricing is where the rubber meets the road. As a buyer, you will not be taken seriously if you significantly underbid, yet you want …
Jamie Love Responds to Criticism of Knowledge Ecology International Letter
On May 12, Frederick Reinhart published an article titled “Knowledge Ecology International Letter Misleads on March-In Rights.” Reinhart is a past president of the Association of University Technology …
House IP Subcommittee Discusses Section 101, Fraudulent Chinese Trademark Applications During USPTO Oversight Hearing
Last week, the House Committee on the Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet convened a hearing to perform oversight of the U.S. …
Examining the Truvada #BreakThePatent Debate: Gilead Responds
In July 2012, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) first approved Truvada, an acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) treatment manufactured by Gilead Sciences as a daily pre-exposure …
Merck and Pfizer Downgrades on Patent Cliff Concerns Signal Importance of Patents to Pharma
Last month, business news outlets were reporting that stock prices for pharmaceutical firms Pfizer and Merck took a tumble after financial analysts downgraded the performance of both …
Amazon’s Counterfeit Problem is a Big One—for Shareholders, Brand Owners and Consumers Alike
On February 1, Amazon.com, Inc. filed a Form 10-K annual report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Along with reporting its year-end earnings for the 2018 …
Patent Masters’ Warning: U.S. Patents Are Weak, Innovation Is Going Overseas
IPWatchdog’s most recent Patent Masters™ Symposium, held Monday and Tuesday March 25-26 in Washington, D.C., examined the state of the U.S. patent system and …
America’s Patent System Favors the Few and Inhibits Innovation—But Change Could Be Coming
There is little doubt that the way intellectual property is viewed and protected has transformed over the last 12 years, at least in the eyes of those who …
Latest Apple/Qualcomm Ruling Highlights Question of ‘Unwilling Licensees’
On March 20, U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel of the Southern District of California issued an order denying a motion by Apple, which was seeking partial judgment …
Congressman Steve Stivers on the STRONGER Patents ACT, USPTO Reforms, and the State of U.S. Innovation
Representative Steve Stivers (R-OH) and Representative Bill Foster (D-IL) introduced the Support Technology & Research for Our Nation’s Growth and Economic Resilience (STRONGER) Patents Act, which would …
Don’t Give Up: Section 101 Allowances Are Up at USPTO
The data shows that Section 101 allowances at the USPTO are on the rise after a long period of decline, but the 101 situation still remains “alarming,” said panelists …
Meet the Democrats of the 116th House IP Subcommittee
With congress out of session this week, it is a good time to meet the members of the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, …
Judge Paul Michel: Look to Congress, Not Courts, to Fix the U.S. Patent System
During a break at IPWatchdog’s recent Patent Masters™ Symposium, former Federal Circuit Chief Judge Paul Michel went on record to express his grave concerns about the …
Congress is Trying to Fix 101: To Do So, They Must Overrule Mayo
The state of patent eligibility in America is shocking. Between the passage of the 1952 Patent Act and 2012, when the U.S. Supreme Court decided Mayo Collaborative Services …
Why the Federal Circuit is to Blame for the 101 Crisis
When the Supreme Court believes that the Federal Circuit has made an error, they will reverse and remand with broad guidance, but often are not able to …
Up and Running: Senate IP Subcommittee Debates USPTO Oversight After Setting Ambitious Agenda in February
Today, March 13, the Senate Subcommittee on Intellectual Property met to discuss “Oversight of the United States Patent and Trademark Office,” with USPTO Director Andrei Iancu as the …
Senators Tillis and Coons Express Concerns with Fourth Estate in Letter to Copyright Office
On March 14, Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Chris Coons (D-DE), respectively the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, sent …
Fourth Estate v. Wallstreet.com: Registration Required to Commence a Copyright Infringement Suit
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg delivered the opinion for a unanimous Supreme Court in Fourth Estate v. Wallstreet.com, et. al. Monday morning, March 4, holding that copyright registration …
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. …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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’…
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 …
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 …
10 Years Later – A Look at the Efficacy of the Pre-Appeal Brief Conference Program
For 61% of the non-defective requests, the panel decided that there was an actual issue for appeal, such that the applicant would either need to file an Appeal …
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… …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 "…
Good, Bad & Ugly: Truth About Provisional Patent Applications
Whether that provisional patent application can ever be useful moving forward is unknown and unknowable at the time it is filed, which allows for those who knowingly …
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 …
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 …
When is an Invention Obvious?
That being said, the possibility that a utility patent could be obtained cannot be definitively ruled out even if an invention seems quite likely to be obvious, …
Utility Patent Applications – Content and Substance
In order to obtain a utility patent one must file what is referred to as a non-provisional application or a non-provisional utility application. It is called “non-provisional” …
The Benefits of a Provisional Patent Application
Like any other patent application, a provisional patent application is effective to stop the clock relative to so-called statutory bars and immediately upon filing a provisional patent …
