Podcast: Blockchain Intellectual Property Considerations for Innovators and Investors
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
Artificial intelligence is rapidly reinventing the research and development process, but until recently, patentability remained a major uncertainty. That’s until the United States Patent and Trademark Office stepped in and...more
Thank you for reading the September 2023 issue of Sterne Kessler's MarkIt to Market® newsletter. This month, we discuss the significant revisions to the FTC's guidelines for endorsements and examine the benefits of design...more
Dear Patenticity, My startup is working on what we believe is a game-changing software application and we are concerned about others taking our idea and fielding a competitive product based on our work. We would like to...more
Developing a Disclosure for Software Patents: - Discuss with the inventor the technological underpinnings of the novel functional aspects of the software and how those technological considerations support that function. ...more
In recent years, AI patent activity has exponentially increased. The figure below shows the volume of public AI patent applications categorized by AI component in the U.S. from 1990-2018. The eight AI components in FIG. 1 are...more
There are many misconceptions or ‘myths’ about patents that have found their way into popular discourse, ranging from what type of innovations are patentable, to how important it is to own and protect your intellectual...more
Stanford University applied for a U.S. patent for statistical methods of predicting haplotype phase. In 2019, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board rejected the application as ineligible subject matter. Last week, a panel of the...more
Artificial intelligence (AI) has revolutionized many technology areas. As a few examples, it has already been instrumental in improving and enabling voice recognition algorithms, digital assistants, advertisement...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
Two interwoven challenges come to mind when considering how to successfully patent AI technologies. The first of these challenges is drafting claims whose infringement is detectable despite the black box nature of AI...more
In The Chamberlain Group, Inc. v. Techtronic Industries Co., the Federal Circuit weighed in on the type of subject matter that can be characterized as an “abstract idea” and, thus, not eligible for patent protection....more
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) rejected all pending claims of Mr. Greenstein’s patent application, which was directed to adjusting the amount a person saves and choosing investments with the goal of saving enough...more
Judge Maryellen Noreika (D. Delaware) has been very active since receiving her judicial commission less than a year ago, including already issuing a handful of Section 101 opinions. In Sandbox Software v. 18Birdies, she holds...more
In a second notice of proposed rulemaking (besides the one for patent eligibility) announced January 4, 2019 and published in the Federal Register on January 7, 2019, the Patent and Trademark Office has proposed guidelines...more
Recent USPTO Guidance Offers Insight for Software Patent Eligibility - By now most of you have probably heard that "software patents" and "software patent applications" have had a rough time for the past 4 ½ years. Some of...more
New guidance may lead to fewer patent applications rejected on eligibility grounds - Patentable subject matter eligibility under 35 U.S.C § 101 has been the subject of much attention since the Supreme Court articulated the...more
On January 4, 2019, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) released a significant, much-awaited revision to its patentable subject matter eligibility guidance. The “2019 Revised Patent Subject Matter...more
On January 4th, the USPTO announced revised guidance for subject matter eligibility (Section 101 Revised Guidance) and stated it would take effect when published on Monday, January 7, 2019....more
The United States Patent Trademark Office (USPTO), issued updated examination guidance (Updated Guidance) for examining software claims defining an invention using functional language on January 7, 2019. ...more
Amid a growing body of unsettled law regarding the patentability of software and business methods patents, companies are increasingly choosing to maintain their valuable innovations as trade secrets rather than risk a...more
As in any area of technology, it is important to consider patent protection early in the development of an AI-related invention. However, AI and other digital health inventions raise a number of particular issues that, if not...more
As you read this article, hundreds of startups and other organizations are working on blockchain applications in such areas as energy trading, data storage trading, peer-to-peer lending, and verifying professional or other...more
Patent attorneys and patent agents ("patent practitioners") deal with the best and brightest engineers and scientists on a daily basis. As inventors, these engineers and scientists understand the technology associated with...more
In 2014, the United States Supreme Court in a landmark decision in the field of Patent Law (Alice Corp. v. CLS Int’l) invalidated software patents related to mitigating settlement risk. Relying on the now-infamous Section...more