On June 3, 2022, the USPTO announced the launch of a Climate Change Mitigation Pilot Program. Under this Pilot Program, qualifying nonprovisional utility patent applications involving technologies that mitigate climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions will...
Patent Law
Intellectual Property Rights in Russia – An Update
In response to the economic sanctions imposed by Western countries, the Russian government has legalized intellectual property piracy against rights holders in so called “enemy countries.” The list of countries includes all members of the European Union and the...
Assignor Estoppel: Minerva Surgical v. Hologic
Assignor Estoppel is a patent law doctrine dating back to the 1870 Patent Act and first recognized by the Supreme Court in in the 1924 decision of Westinghouse Elec. & Mfg. Co. v. Formica Insulation. This doctrine prevents an inventor from assigning a patent to...
Review Power of Administrative Patent Judges: United States v. Arthrex
At the end of June, the U.S. Supreme Court decided United States v. Arthrex, which concerned the constitutionality of the decision power of administrative patent judges (APJs). APJs are employees of the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) that, among...
Subject Matter Eligibility Update
For an applicant to be granted a patent, the patent claims defining the invention must be written so as to satisfy several criteria, including novelty, non-obviousness, clarity, and definiteness. Historically, satisfying these four criteria has been the primary...
Patent trolls target small business
Patent trolls are patent assertion entities who buy up patents from bankrupt businesses, auctions and inventors for pennies on the dollar. They traditionally would then use these purchases to go after large corporations and sue for infringement. They do not engage in...
2019 National Hall of Fame Inventors inducted
U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USTPO) recently inducted 19 of the country’s greatest inventors (nine of which are still living) into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. The gala event, held at the National...
Three steps for evaluating tech patent applications
It is important to understand the implications of technology patents for real-world applications. A thorough evaluation by experienced intellectual-property counsel can uncover ways to use a patent that the owner may not have been previously considered.Three levels of...
The USPTO Gives New Life to Software-Related Patents
The USPTO has recently promulgated new guidance related to computer- and software-related patent applications. The new guidance changes how USPTO examiners are to determine patent eligibility of such applications.Before, examiners were to follow a two-step analysis...
Don’t let your marijuana intellectual property go up in smoke
Cannabis has become an attractive industry for entrepreneurs as more states legalize its use for medical purposes, as well as a recreational drug. As a result, protecting brands, processes, trade names, logos and other intellectual property has become a more critical...