Posts in Guest Contributors

A Massive Threat to Innovation Dodged—for Now

When people think of innovation at this moment, odds are they are thinking about innovation in the biotech and pharmaceutical sector, as the industry scrambles to invent a dependable vaccine for COVID-19, more reliable tests and other treatments. The immediate need for such innovation is real, but the U.S. economy has a constant, ongoing need for innovation across all industry sectors because we are no longer the cheapest place to make things or to grow things. We are the place that invents and innovates things. As such, our economy depends on a robust innovation ecosystem. That means we must maintain a system of abundant risk-capital, affordable and accessible quality educational options, a culture of risk-taking, and a strong intellectual property system so that if an invention succeeds, those who took the risks have a chance to reap the rewards.

Getting A Patent: Who Should be Named as An Inventor?

Every time a patent application is filed, we have to ask, “Who are the inventors?” It is a simple question, but the answer can be complicated. And there can be severe consequences if you get it wrong. You could lose your patent. As the Grail Knight in the Indiana Jones movie stated so well, “You must choose, but choose wisely.” As you know, patents typically have a number of claims broken down into independent and dependent claims. So, you have to look at each of the claims and determine who conceived the invention. There can be cases where different inventors conceived different parts of the invention in different claims. What’s important to understand is that you must include as named inventors anyone who conceived of an invention in any claim – even dependent claims.

What Armor on WWII Planes, Honeybees and the Medici Tell Us About Innovation Strategy

Survival bias permeates today’s tech world, especially the Silicon Valley, in the celebration of failure as a sine qua non for success, almost as a virtue, a badge of honor. Praise, acclaim and visibility are given to companies that were started in a garage and are now multi-million-dollar public corporations. As if starting from a garage is some sort of a predictor of future success. Unfortunately, we often forget about the many more companies that started from a garage and are still in a garage, or do not exist anymore. The celebration of those “who made it” and how they made it (often praising their multiple failures) does not take into account those who failed and did not make it.

Eagle Forum Event Focuses on IP, Antitrust Nexus

The 2019 USPTO-NIST-DOJ Joint Policy Statement on Standard-Essential Patents Subject to Voluntary RAND or FRAND (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory) commitments “intended to solve [judicial] misinterpretation, and to encourage balance in our patent ecosystem, and to further strengthen patent rights,” USPTO Deputy Director Laura Peter said in her keynote at a recent IP-antitrust event. Peter delivered the remarks at an event hosted by the Eagle Forum Education & Legal Defense Fund, a conservative public policy and grassroots organization founded by the late Phyllis Schlafly, titled, “Inventing Dynamic Competition: Intellectual Property, Antitrust, and Competition” September 30 in Washington, D.C.

Patent Filings Roundup: PTAB Filers Rush to Beat Fee Increase; IP Edge Files 48 Complaints; Petitions Denied Under Fintiv Despite No Trial Date

Filings at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) were almost triple last week’s, with parties racing to file before the more than $10,000 filing fee increase that went into effect October 2. The District Courts, for their part, were likewise inundated with more than 100 patent filings last week, due almost entirely—through an eye-popping 48 filings—to IP Edge filing via almost a dozen of their known subsidiaries (bringing their annual total to almost 500 suits filed this year, mainly in the Western District of Texas, none of which have yet or are likely to reach trial). WSOU also added Huawei to their growing list of defendants and sprawling assertion campaign.

A Brief Guide to Subsequent Patent Applications in the United States: Part I – The Foundation

Patent practitioners (hopefully) know that there are many types of patent applications and, at times, have filed a continuation, continuation-in-part, or divisional application. “Continuation practice” was the once commonly used phrase to describe subsequent U.S. patent applications, which also used to include file wrapper continuations (FWC), now replaced by the more modern request for continued examination (RCE). These types of subsequent patent applications can be used strategically to build a portfolio of patents for a client for a given subject matter. See, e.g., the patents asserted in WesternGeco LLC v. ION Geophysical Corp., 585 U.S. ___, 138 S.Ct. 2129 (2018). However, many patent practitioners are not fully aware of the implications of each such subsequent application, either for prosecution or for litigation. This five-part series will review these types of applications and their implications and ultimately provide some relevant practice tips.