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The Evolution of University Technology Transfer: By the Numbers
In recent years there has been a paradigmatic shift towards commercializing technology through startups. There is a universal understanding that university inventions are in early technology readiness …
Efforts to Villainize Biotech, Pharma over COVID-19 are Political Theater and Opportunism
If the objective is to beat this virus as fast as possible it simply isn’t helpful to talk about the compulsory licensing of drugs that don’…
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Amici Urge Supreme Court to Grant Celgene’s Petition on Constitutionality of Retroactive IPRs
Law professors recently filed an amicus brief in support of the Celgene's petition for writ of certiorari to take up Celgene Corp v. Peter on appeal from …
Silent Summer: What COVID-19 Means for the Class of 2020
Law firms are not at all immune to this pandemic since their clients aren't. Most law firms have cut partner pay, and cut the pay of associates …
Q1 2020 Patent Litigation Filings Show Western District of Texas is the New Venue of Choice
Our regularly published litigation report shows that, for the first quarter of 2020, just over 80% of the cases filed in West Texas were brought by NPEs, with only …
TTAB Finds Standing for AT&T Mobility to Oppose Registration of CINGULAR
The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) has recently issued a decision allowing an opposition proceeding to continue after finding that opposer AT&T Mobility had standing …
This Week in Other Barks & Bites for Friday, April 3: PTO and Copyright Office Extend Deadlines, Canada Coronavirus Law Includes Patent Circumventions
This week: the COVID-19 pandemic causes USPTO and Copyright Office to extend deadlines while the FCC embarks on a pair of telehealth and connected care initiatives to …
Bad Spaniels Make Bad Law: Ninth Circuit Says Dog Toy is an Expressive Work Entitled to First Amendment Protection
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that a squeaking dog toy resembling a bottle of Jack Daniel’s whiskey is an expressive …
Study Suggests Individuals and Startups More Likely to Face Invalidly under Alice
To the surprise of Lemley and Zyontz, their study uncovered a striking disparate treatment in the way federal courts handle patent eligibility matters based on entity size, …
Emergency Distance Learning and Fair Use
[A] teacher creates a transformative work, which falls into the protective bubble of Fair Use, when they craft a message, enhance their students’ educational experience, or educate …
How Misaligned Incentives Are Now Killing Us
Today, like so much of the rest of the world, the United States is faced with many shortages due to the coronavirus pandemic, including personal protective equipment, …
Focusing on the Details: What Two Recent USPTO Matters Can Teach Us About Patentability Analyses
Two matters currently pending before the United States Patent and Trademark Office illustrate the consequences of focusing upon details of a claim rather than upon the claimed …
Patent Filings Roundup: Robot Vacuum Wars, PTAB Filings Dip, Pharma Litigation Abounds
This week’s District Court filings were robust, with a dip in Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) filings--a big chunk of which were related to a …
PTAB Braces for Remands as the Federal Circuit Denies Stay in Arthrex
On Monday, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) denied the USPTO’s unopposed motion to stay issuance of the mandate in Arthrex v. Smith & …
Equitable Considerations Warranted Departure from First-To-File Rule
The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently ruled on an appeal regarding a Pennsylvania district court’s decision to decline jurisdiction over a …
Is Unified Patents a War Profiteer?
Is Unified a war profiteer? Of course, they are. But they are only one cog in the larger worldwide scheme of the most powerful multinational corporations whose …
The New U.S. Essential Patents Statement – Safeguarding the Integrity of the Patent System
In withdrawing the 2013 statement, the new 2019 guidance by the DOJ, NIST and the USPTO states the obvious, i.e. that there is no difference in the law …
WIPO Prepares to Elect New Director General
There are 10 candidates declared to succeed Francis Gurry as WIPO Director General, when he retires in September this year after serving two six-year terms. One of them …
The Supreme Court is More Interested in Being Right Than Shedding Light on 101
Yesterday was a dark day for patent eligibility in America. The United States Supreme Court denied certiorari in five more petitions relating to patent eligibility challenges. Based …
IBM, Toyota Join LOT Network, Underscoring Rapid Growth for the Patent Risk Management Consortium
Information technology giant IBM recently announced that it had agreed to join the LOT Network, a nonprofit patent risk management consortium designed to immunize its members from …
Views from the Top: IP Leaders Sound Off on Supreme Court’s Refusal to Wade into Patent Eligibility Debate
To the surprise and sorrow of some, but the relief of others, the Supreme Court earlier today denied certiorari in some key cases on patent eligibility law, …
Rules Governing Admission to the Bar for In-House Counsel
The issue of unauthorized practice of law is a concern for all attorneys, and something that periodically does catch up with patent attorneys. The typical scenario where …
VirnetX Urges SCOTUS to End Apple Gamesmanship in Decade-Long Patent Battle
VirnetX on Wednesday filed its brief in opposition to Apple’s petition for certiorari to the Supreme Court, which asks the High Court to review the Federal …
It’s Official: SCOTUS Will Not Unravel Section 101 Web
The Supreme Court this morning released its orders list, in which it denied all pending petitions for certiorari on cases concerning patent eligibility. The Court has now …
Users Lament PAIR Changes During USPTO Forum
Jamie Holcombe, Chief Information Officer at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), seemed surprised to learn on Wednesday that both the Public and Private versions …
Time to Wake Up: Stakeholders Must Compromise to Save the U.S. Patent System
Things are bad for many innovators and there is little hope for improvement on the foreseeable horizon. Despite the best efforts of Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) and …
DOJ Brief to CAFC Slamming Apple Highlights PTAB Code of Conduct Problem
Andrei Iancu, the Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), has a real mess on his hands. This particular mess relates to the Patent …
Booking.com Case Heats Up at Supreme Court
In November, the U.S. Supreme Court granted a petition for certiorari filed by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) asking the Court to consider “…
U.S. Patent System Holds Steady in Second Place in 2020 International IP Rankings
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Global Innovation Policy Center (GIPC) released its eighth annual International IP Rankings. The United States achieved the top overall ranking as …
Twisting Facts to Capitalize on COVID-19 Tragedy: Fortress v. bioMerieux
Unfortunately, some simply cannot help themselves but to use every opportunity – real or imagined – to take a cheap shot at a patent owner for having the audacity …
WIPO and U.S. Copyright Office Team Up to Talk Copyright in the Age of AI
Earlier this month, the U.S. Copyright Office and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) held a joint event titled, “Copyright in the Age of Artificial Intelligence” (…
UPDATED: Global IP Offices Respond to COVID-19
We live in interesting times. No corner of professional or personal life seems untouched in at least some way by the latest coronavirus (named SARS-CoV-2) and the …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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… …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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” …
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, …
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 …
