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Berkheimer, the Administrative Procedure Act, and PTO Motions to Vacate PTAB § 101 Decisions
After several years in which the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) did not seem to have an official position on the issue, and many Patent …
Warren Johnson, The Father of Thermostats and Automated Room Temperature Control
Warren Johnson one of the 2018 inductees into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for his invention of automatic room temperature control. July marks the anniversary of two …
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Entire Market Value Rule Inappropriate When Patented Feature Not Sole Driver of Customer Demand
Power Integrations, Inc. owns U.S. Patent Nos. 6,212,079 ("the '079 patent") and 6,538,908 ("the '908 patent"). Power Integrations sued Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation and Fairchild (Taiwan) Corporation (collectively "Fairchild") …
Oracle v. Google: Protecting Software Development, Not Destroying It
Many articles are coming out about how the recent decision in Oracle America v. Google is going to destroy the ability to create and protect software in …
Federal Circuit Vacates PTAB’s Determination of CBM Patent After Appeal by Apple and Google
On Wednesday, July 11th, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a decision in Apple v. ContentGuard Holdings vacating a decision by the Patent Trial …
Can You Trademark a Color?
Yes, under certain circumstances you can trademark a color... Examples of protectable color marks include: red soles for women’s high-heel dress shoes, where the rest of …
Northern Florida District Judge Decides That Dentist’s Copyright Claims Have No Bite
On June 20th, U.S. District Judge Mark Walker of the Northern District of Florida issued an order on summary judgment which terminated Pohl v. Officite, a …
Nasal Spray Patents Covering Migraine Drug Zomig Not Invalid As Obvious
The sole question on appeal was whether it would have been obvious to make zolmitriptan into a nasal spray. The Federal Circuit agreed with the district court …
Avery Dennison Seeking a Group IP Counsel in Ohio or The Netherlands
Avery Dennison is currently looking for a Group IP Counsel in either their Mentor OH or Oegstgeest, The Netherlands locations. The scope and responsibilities of the position …
Reflections on Drug Patents and the High Cost of Healthcare
The Hatch-Waxman Act and the Biologic Price Competition and Innovation Act are both forged from a noble ideal, grounded in a commitment to a robust and earnest …
Bittersweet Milestone: Ten Million Patents Issued in the US, but What Are They Worth?
Last month, the U.S. Patent Office issued patent number 10,000,000. This historic occasion calls for rethinking our patent system and the future of American innovation... It is …
House Small Business Committee Holds Hearing on IP in Digital Economy With a Mostly Anti-Patent Panel
On the morning of Wednesday, July 11th, the House Small Business Committee held a hearing titled Innovation Nation: How Small Businesses in the Digital Technology Industry Use …
Using Anonymous Third-Party Submissions to Advance Your Business Goals
A decent patent strategy starts with protecting your current commercial product. A better patent strategy builds on this by not only considering what is, but what could …
PolarityTE stock tumbles, harassed by activist short seller misrepresenting Public PAIR data
Whether the Citron report is intentionally wrong for the purpose of causing PolarityTE stock to tumble, which it has, or whether it is recklessly wrong, or just …
Still No Answer From PTAB on Apple Sanctions Request Against VoIP-Pal After Six Months
And yet, despite this apparent vindication of VoIP-Pal’s patents against the strongest of odds in an executive branch tribunal where APJ panels are stacked in the …
High Efficiency Video Coding: How the video ecosystem is evolving
The latest television technology (4K) contains four times the number of pixels as 1080p (full HD). Without HEVC, broadcasters wanting to transmit programs in 4K quality face …
Enabling Technologies and the Underinvestment Problem
Certain innovations—known as enabling technologies—provide the foundation for progress across a range of industries. Enabling technologies include mobile wireless, the laser, CT scanners, the microprocessor, …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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... …
PTO Proposes Rulemaking to Implement Phillips Claim Construction at PTAB
Earlier today the USPTO announced proposed rulemaking that would change the prior policy of using the Broadest Reasonable Interpretation (BRI) standard for construing unexpired and proposed amended …
USPTO to Update Patent Bar Exam in August 2018
"This is a mere change in form, not substance," according to John White, principle lecturer in the PLI patent bar review course. "The PTO will start testing …
Is the Supreme Court anti-patent?
Is the Supreme Court anti-patent? it has been suggested to me that such rhetoric, whether true or not, is unhelpful and puts those urging pro-patent views on …
Director Iancu tells Senate: 101 is an issue “we must all address”
"The PTO we will work to provide more concrete tests – to the extent possible given Supreme Court precedent," Director Iancu said speaking about patent eligibility. "This is …
USPTO Director Andrei Iancu Discusses Patentability of Algorithms, PTAB Proceedings at Senate Judiciary Committee
Sen. Harris followed up by asking whether algorithms were mathematical representations of laws of nature. “You’re getting right to the heart of the issue,” Iancu said. …
Federal Circuit rules Alice did not alter the law governing 101
How the Federal Circuit could rule that Alice did not change the law governing § 101 is a bit of a mystery. Applying the same two-step test seems a …
Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against U.S. Government Alleging PTAB Violates Takings Clause and Due Process
On Wednesday, May 9th, Oklahoma-based patent owner Christy Inc. filed a class action complaint in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims against the United States seeking …
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 …
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. …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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’…
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, …
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 …
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” …
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 …
