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The Government Entrepreneur’s Dilemma
Ironically, now that the Trump Administration's prioritizing economic as well as scientific returns on investment from federal research, one of EPA's best examples is gone. Others who …
Patent Eligibility Determinations in Life Sciences Patent Cases
This article examines Supreme Court and Federal Circuit analyses of patent eligibility under 35 U.S.C. § 101 where the patent claims at issue were directed to Life Sciences-related …
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USPTO issues guidance on patent eligibility of method of treatment claims in light of Vanda Pharmaceuticals
On June 7, 2018, the USPTO issued new guidance to its examining corps in the form of a memorandum discussing the Federal Circuit’s April 13, 2018 decision in Vanda Pharmaceuticals …
FTC v. Actavis: Where We Stand After 5 Years
It has been five years since FTC v. Actavis. In that landmark ruling, the Supreme Court held that settlements by which brand-name drug companies pay generics to …
SafeBreach Announces Issuance of Breach and Attack Simulation Patents After $15 Million Round of Investor Funding
SafeBreach recently announced the issuance of three U.S. patents in the field of breach and attack simulation. This news follows weeks after SafeBreach closed a $15 million …
Why should we encourage generics to challenge pharma patents?
What was the federal government thinking when Hatch-Waxman originally passed. Why would Congress incentivize generic manufacturers to challenge the patents of pharmaceutical companies? It is the same …
ITC Institutes 337 Complaint Accusing Toyota Vehicles of Infringing Infotainment Chip Patents
On Thursday, June 7th, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) announced that it was instituting a Section 337 patent infringement investigation of automobile infotainment systems being imported …
Rescuing Rapunzel: Suffolk Law Professors and students work to keep fairy tale princess in the public domain
United Trademark Holdings Inc. is attempting to trademark Rapunzel (and likely has plans for other fairy tale princess names) for its line of dolls. Law Professors Rebecca …
Graffiti: Copyrightable Art, Illegal Activity, or Both?
While existing graffiti may indeed provide a tempting edge for a new marketing campaign, or as the backdrop for a great commercial, companies will need to decide …
Amazon CEO Bezos is Knowingly Complicit in Online Sales of Counterfeit Goods, According to Report
Although Amazon is typically quick to reference its anti-counterfeit policy as proof of its commitment to weeding out inauthentic products from its retail platform, watchdog groups continue …
Senator Hatch files Amendment to Fix IPRs for Pharma, Save Hatch-Waxman
Late yesterday, Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), co-author of the Hatch-Waxman Act, filed an amendment in the Senate Judiciary Committee to address what many characterize as abusive inter …
Federal Circuit Hears Oral Arguments on St. Regis Appeal of Tribal Sovereign Immunity
On Monday, June 4th, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit heard oral arguments in St. Regis Mohawk Tribe v. Mylan Pharmaceuticals, a case appealed from …
Alternative Routes to Protection of Innovation
Every year different groups provide rankings of patent prosecution law firms and a company’s patent count for the year. Patent law firms will tout their rankings …
How Law Firm Partners Can Gain Associates’ Commitment and Respect
In their supervisory role, partners typically set the tone for, and dictate the parameters of, their interactions with associates. A first partner may approach the partner-associate relationship …
Patent Litigation Shows Shift Towards Delaware, Decrease in High-Volume Plaintiff Filings
Legal data analytics provider Lex Machina recently published a post featuring data points regarding the filing of patent infringement cases in the year following the U.S. …
Gene Quinn named one of top IP strategists by IAM Magazine
Gene Quinn, has been named to the 2018 IAM Strategy 300, which recognizes The World’s Leading IP Strategists. This marks the second consecutive year Gene has been recognized …
Rethinking Article III Standing in IPR Appeals at the Federal Circuit
In 2011, as part of the American Invents Act (“AIA”), Congress significantly restructured the way in which previously issued patents could be challenged. In some cases, existing post-issuance …
How Google and Big Tech Killed the U.S. Patent System
Banana Republics are societies characterized by their starkly stratified social classes and a ruling-class plutocracy composed of the business, political and military elites. The Elites rule over …
Industry Reaction to Supreme Court Decision in Oil States v. Green Energy
Earlier today the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Oil States v. Green Energy, finding that inter partes review is constitutional both under Article III …
STRONGER Patents Act Introduced in House, Seeks to Strengthen a Crippled Patent System
In a telephone interview, Rep. Stivers noted that, while the AIA was intended as legislation that would make the patent system more efficient, the resulting differences in …
Iancu: ‘We will not continue down the same path’
“We are at an inflection point with respect to the patent system itself. As a nation we cannot continue down the same path if we want to …
USPTO issues 101 guidance limiting examiner ability to merely conclude elements are well-known, convention or routine
The Notice is significant because in a 101 rejection, an examiner cannot simply assume that elements or a combination are "well understood, routine or conventional." Examiners will be …
Supreme Court Issues Much Anticipated Oil States and SAS Decisions
Earlier today, the US Supreme Court issued it's highly anticipated 7 to 2 decision in Oil States Energy Services, LLC v. Greene’s Energy Group, LLC which upheld the …
USPTO Withdrawals Support for Telebrands at CAFC, Actively Considering PTAB Practice
Director Iancu is known to be engaging in something that might be called a listening tour, speaking with various interested parties and groups as he attempts to …
Why Fewer Patent Applications are Being Filed
Over the next few years, the most interesting intellectual property trend to watch will be what happens with new patent applications. The number of utility patent applications …
SAS: When the Patent Office institutes IPR it must decide patentability of all challenged claims
In SAS Institute, a 5-4 majority ruled that there is no authorization in the statute for the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) to partially institute a …
SCOTUS says Patents are a Government Franchise, Not a Vested Property Right
While there has been much optimism due to the arrival of USPTO Director Andrei Iancu and his recent speeches signaling he understands the U.S. patent system …
The Supreme Court is wrong, a patent is not a franchise
The word franchise is defined as an authorization granted by a government or company to an individual or group enabling them to carry out specified commercial activities... …
Seinfeld Moves to Dismiss Copyright Claims over ‘Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee’
In early February, a copyright complaint was filed in the Southern District of New York against comedian Jerry Seinfeld and a series of companies involved with the …
Google’s use of Java API packages in Android OS not a fair use
The Federal Circuit found Google’s use of Java API packages in it's Android operating system was not a fair use as a matter of law, resurrecting …
BlackBerry Sues Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp for Willful Infringement of Mobile Communications Patents
Canadian intellectual property owner BlackBerry Limited filed a suit alleging patent infringement claims against Menlo Park, CA-based social media giant Facebook Inc. in the Central District of …
Creating an Ecosystem that Encourages Disruptive Innovation
Assuming America wants paradigm-shifting, truly disruptive innovation we need to recognize the need to incentivize the risk-takers and those that provide the capital to those risk-takers who …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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’…
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 …
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 …
Top Patent Firms for 2015
We compiled a list of the top patent firms, which are ranked based on the total number of U.S. utility patents that issued in 2015 where the …
A Post-Alice Playbook: Practical Strategies for Responding to Alice-Based Rejections
Although the Supreme Court in Alice declined to provide an express definition of “abstract idea,” the opinion is packed with evidence that the Court intended for the …
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 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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 "…
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 …
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 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 …
