(Podcast) The Briefing: A Very Patented Christmas – The Quirkiest Inventions for the Holiday Season
The Briefing: A Very Patented Christmas – The Quirkiest Inventions for the Holiday Season
5 Key Takeaways | Alice at 10: A Section 101 Update
Third Party Observation in Patent Prosecution in China
Ways to Amend the Claims in the Patent Invalidation Proceedings
Cases Updated in CNIPA Guidelines - Eligibility & Inventiveness for AI & Business Method Applications
Five Impactful USPTO Procedural Developments for Patent Practitioners
Podcast: Patentable Subject Matter in 2019
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued a memorandum on August 4, 2025, to provide reminders to Examiners in software-related arts, including artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, regarding...more
On August 4, the USPTO issued a Memorandum to examiners in Technology Centers 2100, 2600, and 3600, providing reminders and clarifications on evaluating subject matter eligibility under 35 U.S.C. § 101. This guidance is...more
Effective April 17, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) suspended the expedited examination process for design patent applications under 37 CFR 1.155, commonly referred to as the “Rocket Docket.”...more
On August 4, 2025, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) released a new memorandum to patent examiners in Technology Centers 2100, 2600, and 3600, providing targeted reminders on evaluating subject matter eligibility...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 USPTO has issued an internal memorandum that may make it easier to patent software, in particular AI-related software inventions. In recent years, the USPTO has found certain software inventions to be patent-ineligible...more
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has announced the rollout of DesignVision, an advanced AI‑powered image search tool now integrated into the examination system for U.S. design patent applications. According to the...more
The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has finalized a rule increasing the annual limit on accepted requests for prioritized patent examination from 15,000 to 20,000, effective with fiscal year 2025 (FY 2025). This...more
On July 7, 2025, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) announced that, starting July 8, 2025, the Office will be increasing the number of prioritized patent examination requests that may be accepted from...more
Effective July 8, 2025, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) expanded the availability of prioritized examination, increasing the limit on the number of requests from 15,000 to 20,000 in a fiscal year. The 20,000...more
The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) introduced the Accelerated Examination program in 2006 to help applicants receive expedited examination of important patent applications. The USPTO is ending the Accelerated...more
In the mid-2000s, the U.S. Patent Office (USPTO) determined that reexaminations would be more consistent and legally correct if performed by a centralized set of experienced and specially trained Examiners. As a result, the...more
On June 18, 2025, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) hosted an informational call to share the results of a study on the Deferred Subject Matter Eligibility (DSMER) Pilot Program, three years after its...more
The USPTO recently announced that the Accelerated Examination program will be discontinued as of July 10, 2025. Given that the program has had limited use over the past decade, with fewer than 100 Accelerated Examination...more
On June 10, 2025, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced that, after nearly 20 years, it will be discontinuing its Accelerated Examination Program for utility applications on July 10, 2025. The...more
Starting May 13, 2025, the USPTO has begun accelerating the issuance of patents after the issue fee has been paid. Specifically, the duration between the Issue Notification and the Issue Date will be reduced to approximately...more
This week, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) made two announcements of interest to patent holders and practitioners as part of modernization and efficiency efforts...more
This article continues our analysis of over 89,000 patents to determine how the number of office actions to allowance during prosecution impacts litigation outcomes. Last month we discussed how prosecution length impacts...more
Get into the holiday spirit with a look at some of the most unique Christmas patents ever filed. From Santa detectors to upside-down Christmas trees, Scott Hervey and Jamie Lincenberg explore festive inventions that add a...more
In the November 20, 2024 Federal Register Notice, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO or the “Office”) released its final rule on patent fee adjustments (“Final Rule”). These fee adjustments, set to take...more
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced on Wednesday that patent-related fees will be raised starting January 19, 2025 to offset forecasted increases in operating cost....more
Thanksgiving is a time for family, gratitude, and—let’s be honest—lots of food. But for vegetarians, it can feel more like a minefield of side dishes. While others enjoy the turkey, vegetarians are often left piecing together...more
It’s been 10 years since Alice was decided. Kilpatrick’s Steve Borgman and Andrew Saul recently presented at the 29th Annual Advanced Patent Law Institute in Austin, Texas, on recent cases and trends in the courts and the...more
The Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (“MPEP”) is the examination manual used internally at the United States Patent & Trademark Office (“USPTO”) to guide examiners in the process of examining patent applications. In...more
The US Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) announced the termination of the After Final Consideration Pilot Program (AFCP) 2.0, effective December 15, 2024. Launched in 2013, AFCP 2.0 aimed to streamline the patent examination...more