Posts Tagged: "2021"

The Top 10 Patents of 2021: Improved Eye Contact in Video Calls, Targeted Ads Based on Conversation Samples, and Analyzing Toxicity in Social Media Content

With the close of another year upon us, IPWatchdog is returning to an annual feature with its Top 10 list of issued U.S. patents during 2021. While it’s impossible to produce a definitive list of the ten most important patents in terms of future commercialization, the following list reflects a series of innovations that either represent important advances in burgeoning areas of technology, or practical innovations that address many of the recurring problems that our world has been facing during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. From reducing the awkward nature of Zoom calls, during which it’s impossible to maintain genuine eye contact, to vehicle technologies using Bayesian inference models to predict the lane change behavior of nearby drivers, these patents offer an expansive view of the exciting state of invention during this early stage of the 2020s.

What to Watch in 2021: IP Stakeholders Offer Predictions and Thoughts for the New Year

Each December, we ask industry experts to identify what mattered in IP for the previous year, as well as their wildest IP dreams for the new year. In 2017, another year-end series was born—predictions and thoughts for the New Year. Attorneys instinctively eschew predictions—and after a year like 2020 we all have learned the hard way they are rather ill-advised—but these brave souls have gone out on a limb to look into their crystal balls, or simply to give their thoughts on what we should be watching or expecting for the year ahead. Here are our esteemed panelists’ responses.