IP(DC) Podcast: Patent Battles – New Patent Initiatives on the Hill & Notable CAFC/SCOTUS Decisions
Podcast: Patentable Subject Matter in 2019
Patent diligence in the context of M&A and other types of commercial transactions typically involves confirmation of a patent’s chain-of-title ownership, from initial inventors through to the current assignee-owner. The...more
Reissue applications represent a very small fraction of the total number of applications filed at the USPTO each year. Indeed, at the midpoint of 2025, over 1.2 million utility applications have been filed, with less than 300...more
The utilization of artificial intelligence (“AI”) is becoming ubiquitous across a wide range of industry sectors. The biotech industry is no exception. AI-driven platforms have become increasingly useful to biotech...more
As we move into the second half of the year, we are alerting you to 11 patent cases that you should look out for during the second half of 2024. This judicial mix touches on a range of industries and interests, such as...more
In the 1950’s, Alan Turing famously asked, “Can machines think?” Decades later, artificial intelligence—a term coined after Turing’s death—has become a facet of our everyday lives. Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be used...more
Dr. Stephen Thaler, Ph.D., a computer scientist and inventor, has petitioned the Supreme Court of the United States to consider the question of whether the Patent Act restricts the definition of an "inventor" to human...more
Steven Thaler filed two patent applications naming “Device for the Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Science” (DABUS) as the sole inventor. DABUS is an artificial intelligence software system. The U.S. Patent and Trademark...more
As part of the recovery from the global COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit took steps to return to normal operations. It began requiring live oral arguments in August 2022 and, by November,...more
Can an artificial intelligence (AI) system be an inventor? Not in the eyes of the Federal Circuit and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). ...more
In three previous blog posts, we have discussed recent inventorship issues surrounding Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) and its implications for life sciences innovations – focusing specifically on scientist Stephen Thaler’s...more
Our previous blog posts, Artificial Intelligence as the Inventor of Life Sciences Patents? and Update on Artificial Intelligence: Court Rules that AI Cannot Qualify As “Inventor,” discuss recent inventorship issues...more
Recently, a federal judge in the Eastern District of Virginia issued a memorandum opinion in the ongoing dispute over whether artificial intelligence (“AI”) machines may be properly identified as inventors on U.S. patent...more
The Leahy-Smith “America Invents Act” (hereinafter, “AIA”) was signed into law ten years ago, on September 16, 2011. We have learned extensively from the enactment and this article is part of a series of lessons learned. ...more
The ongoing artificial intelligence (“AI”) inventorship case of Thaler v. Iancu, et al. (No. 1:20-cv-00903) took another turn on April 6th when U.S. District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema of the Eastern District of Virginia...more
Use of artificial intelligence has grown enormously in recent years. A decade ago, machine learning was a new and exotic technology—at least, for mainstream commercial applications—with few companies patenting ML-based...more
PETER V. NANTKWEST, INC. Before Sotomayor, Roberts, Ginsburg, Breyer, Alito, Kagan, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh. Appeal from the Federal Circuit on rehearing en banc. Summary: A patent applicant appealing an adverse decision...more
The Supreme Court of the United States granted the US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) Director Iancu’s petition for a writ of certiorari to determine whether a party that files an appeal in the Eastern District of Virginia...more
Applications in Internet Time, LLC v. RPX Corp., Appeal Nos. 2017-1698, et al. (Fed. Cir. July 9, 2018) (unsealed July 24, 2018) In a lengthy decision on an issue of first impression, the Federal Circuit addressed the...more
A well-intentioned decision to reduce expenses can result in a poorly written provisional patent application that actually destroys an institution’s future patent rights in an important technology. In today’s world,...more