Posts Tagged: "pandemic"

Never more than in this past year has reflection and introspection been important to cope with the isolation and stress brought by a raging pandemic. As I look back at World IP Day last year, I immediately recognize how much we have learned and evolved since the beginning of this aggressive and deadly disease. In little more than a year, the outlook is significantly more positive: vaccines are being rolled out in vast quantities, their effect in curbing infections and deaths starts to be recognized, the economy is showing signs of recovery, schools are reopening and there is finally more optimism.

Over the course of four months, close to 850 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in over 100 countries. To the extent the unprecedented pace of research, development and manufacturing to combat the ongoing pandemic is a success, it has many fathers. But it would not have been possible without the participation of the U.S. biopharmaceutical industry and its collaboration with global partners. To ensure that developed and developing countries around the globe maintain and expand access to safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics, it is critical that the U.S. government support ongoing industry collaboration and oppose well-intentioned but counterproductive efforts to waive intellectual property (IP) rights.

As is customary, President Joseph R. Biden has spent much of his first month in office building out his administration’s Cabinet. His nominations for Secretary of State, Treasury and Defense have already been confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Now, short lists are being assembled for who may fill his non-Cabinet-level positions. Much time and focus has been duly spent on Cabinet-level positions, but there are other government agencies that have a major impact on the U.S. economy. There have been a lot of rumors surrounding Biden’s pick to head the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and for good reason. Today, as America continues to recover from COVID-19 and its consequences, this position may be more important than ever before.

Last year brought unprecedented changes as to how the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) conducts business. Prior to the pandemic, the USPTO was already a trailblazer with employees teleworking. As of 2018, 8,824 patent positions, roughly 94% of the total positions eligible for telework, already worked from home. On March 15, 2020, however, the USPTO closed all of its offices to the public, and subsequently transitioned its entire workforce of roughly 13,000 people (which includes patent examiners, trademark examiners, and other staff), to full telework, practically overnight. Since the majority of these positions were already teleworking, the transition was almost seamless.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has changed every aspect of our lives, digital transformation in healthcare has accelerated above others. The pandemic has changed the healthcare delivery paradigm from human to digital platforms faster than Klaus Schwab could have imagined. In 2016, the World Economic Forum chairman coined the phrase “Fourth Industrial Revolution,” envisioning the combination of fourth industrial-era technologies in hardware, software, and biology, or cyber-physical systems. These new technologies, leveraging advances in communication, connectivity, and computing power, would usher in a more efficient way to live, work, and socialize. Who knew how the horrific circumstances triggered by a global pandemic could accelerate an evolution that might have taken 20 years and condensed into a single year. Healthcare has gone digital, and there is no going back now.

On January 12, patent database provider IFI Claims published its Top 50 U.S. patent grant recipient list for 2020, as well as its Global 250 list of top owners of active patent assets worldwide. The Top 50 list includes many of the usual suspects among top patent filing organizations, including IBM, which takes the top spot among all firms receiving U.S. patents for the 28th year in a row. Perhaps the most surprising finding from the study is that patent application filing activity increased slightly during 2020 despite the massive disruptions to daily life caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Greek philosopher Heraclitus is credited with saying “the only thing that is constant is change.”  In 2020, life for everyone changed, including for those in the intellectual property (IP) sphere. There were changes at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), in IP litigation, client activities and business development. Looking into the crystal ball, we believe some of those changes are here for good, while others are not.

The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic has dampened many commercial operations in countries around the world, including the United States. Although the U.S. stock market underwent a historical pull-back and rebound in a matter of a few short months, new unemployment filings are still at record highs and corporate budgets have been slashed to minimize expenses. In a large sense, corporate profits for the first half of 2020 are down for many companies compared to the end of 2019, though the technology sector is down less than others. As companies scramble to reduce expenses, IP budgets may be on the chopping block. One approach for reducing IP expenditures is to cut prosecution costs by abandoning applications, and patent application abandonments have indeed increased. Another approach for reducing expenditures is to file fewer patent applications (which may offer added cost savings as USPTO fees have now risen – with some fees increased by 25%-200%). Some predicted that new patent application filings would drop significantly, possibly as high as a year-over-year decline of 20% vs. 2019.

The Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office (BPTO) presently offers more than 15 programs to speed up examination of patent applications. The prioritization of certain patent applications by means of Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) programs and other fast-track options has been very effective in reducing pendency. Brazil’s backlog has already been reduced by around 40% and the BPTO estimates an additional 40% reduction by August 2021.

On the heels of a global pandemic where safety requires that we socially distance and work from anywhere, demand is exploding for innovation to adapt to this new way of living. Our new environment will require more and more computing power to migrate to the edge of the network. Computing power housed in data centers and cloud environments is moving closer to end-users and devices in edge computing centers. Eventually, fueled by ubiquitous 5G+ connectivity bandwidths, one can foresee the migration of computing power to the very edge of your interconnected devices. Technology is racing forward to meet the challenges and exploit new opportunities. Ethical questions will need to be answered to regulate through the evolving network technology architecture. Corporate legal functions will need to adapt and partner with product managers to ensure compliance.

The COVID-19 pandemic seems to be coming to a slow but steady close in Europe, with no evidence of a spike despite loosening of lockdowns, at least according to outlets like the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal. Although some media continue to report spikes in the number of coronavirus cases in certain states and areas, other media, such as Politico, acknowledge that two weeks after the widespread protests in virtually every major American city started there is no evidence of a spike. Of course, Politico has also reported the exact opposite. Whatever the case may be about whether COVID-19 and the coronavirus are increasing, decreasing, waning, spiking or likely to spell imminent doom, as sure as Americans are tired of being locked down, corporations of all sizes are rethinking their future. Many corporations, from startups to small businesses to the largest multinational technology corporations, have discovered that their workforce can operate just as effectively from home, if not more effectively.

In the wake of COVID-19, government officials around the world face unprecedented decisions about when and to what extent they should reopen their respective societies before effective anti-viral medications or vaccines have been developed, necessary regulatory approvals obtained, and those solutions are manufactured for public use. Fundamentally, such decisions will require a delicate balance between protecting public health and facilitating economic growth, which, as we have all been reminded this year, are deeply intertwined.

As governments around the globe fight the COVID-19 outbreak, pharmaceutical companies race to develop a vaccine and potentially secure a patent for it. To speed the process, much of that effort builds on known drugs for other diseases. The World Economic Forum reports that 70 potential vaccines are currently in development around the world. According to a BBC report, research is in progress on more than 150 additional drugs globally, with many pre-existing drugs being trialed for potential usefulness in combatting COVID-19. Those which can are giving it their best shot—for people as well as profit. In the wake of this COVID-19 vaccine and patent sprint, questions arise concerning affordable and universal access: will governments, especially poorer ones, be able to secure affordable access to a vaccine if and when one becomes available? Can a patent owner actually be forced to license a COVID-19 vaccine for the benefit of the greater good? The answers are likely yes to both, depending where you are.

Technology innovation in artificial intelligence (AI) is accelerating at a breakneck pace, and the ability to innovate, adopt and integrate AI techniques to evolve business models will separate those businesses that recover from the COVID-19 pandemic from those that will fail. Four artificial intelligence technologies are poised to lead the global economy out of the pandemic-induced recession. Applications for these technologies across verticals abound. Smart strategic and financial investors are scouring the market for new ways to digitally disrupt established businesses. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of sharing critical information across countries about the spread of coronavirus has been emphasized. However, much remains unsaid about how COVID-19 could have been managed more efficiently by using advanced data technologies that have transformed businesses. Here are four areas where AI could change the face of the post-COVID economy

The business of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) continues on as most practitioners transition into another month of working from home. Like many courts, the PTAB has adapted its standard practices. For example, the PTAB has transitioned to remote hearings and encouraged remote depositions, but has otherwise continued to advocate for business as usual. The PTAB also appears to be accommodating requested scheduling changes. This article addresses the main highlights from recent PTAB actions to provide practitioners with additional resources as they navigate PTAB practice over the next weeks and/or months.