In a recent en banc decision, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals has overruled its prior test for nonobviousness of design patent inventions, holding that design patents are subject to the same test as utility patents. LKQ...more
The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals has struck down many patents on the grounds that they are invalid as directed to an abstract idea, relying on the Supreme Court’s Alice decision. In In re Elbaum (Fed. Cir. 12/20/2023)...more
Every year, I write about patents that have to do with Christmas. Here are a few I have found, some of which were issued in 2023 and others of which are older.
Design patent D990,096 is a rather strange patent entitled...more
The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals has again relied on the Supreme Court’s Alice case to invalidate patents on the grounds that they are directed to an abstract idea. Realtime Data LLC v. Fortinet Inc. ( Fed. Cir. 8/2/2023)...more
The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals invalidated seven patents owned by an AI technology company after applying the two-step Alice test. Scott Hervey and Audrey Millemann talk about this decision on this episode of The...more
The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals invalidated seven patents owned by an AI technology company after applying the two-step Alice test. Scott Hervey and Audrey Millemann talk about this decision on this episode of The...more
On July 24, 2023, the United States Patent and Trademark Office changed its procedures for the PTO Director’s review of certain decisions by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. The decisions in question are those decisions of...more
The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals continues to strike down patents directed to abstract ideas under the Alice test for patent subject matter eligibility. In People.ai, Inc. v. Clari Inc. (Fed. Cir. 2023) U.S. App. LEXIS...more
An inter partes review (IPR) is a procedure in the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) whereby a U.S. patent can be challenged in the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO). Although a patent can be challenged in federal district...more
I recently wrote about the patent infringement lawsuit filed by Moderna against Pfizer/BioNTech over the COVID-19 vaccine. In its complaint filed in federal district court in Boston last August, Moderna alleged that...more
Design patents and utility patents are two different things. Design patents protect ornamental designs, such as the shape of a perfume bottle or the design on flatware. Utility patents protect four categories of functional...more
A lot of people have gotten patents for things related to Christmas. Here are some of the most interesting ones I’ve found.
There are a number of patents intended to help parents convince children that Santa has been...more
One of the most amazing accomplishments in the field of biotechnology has been the development and distribution of a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 (COVID 19). The numbers tell the story.
The time from when the coronavirus’...more
11/4/2022
/ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) ,
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ,
Medical Research ,
Moderna Inc. ,
National Institute of Health (NIH) ,
Patent Infringement ,
Pfizer ,
Popular ,
Startups ,
Vaccinations
In the last few years, the U.S. Copyright Office refused to allow a copyright registration for a work of art created by a machine, and a federal district court held that an artificial intelligence system could not be an...more
On Monday this week, the Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced that the PTO would be revisiting the test for patent subject matter eligibility. The announcement was made on the blog homepage of PTO...more
A design patent protects a new, original, ornamental design for an article of manufacture. 35 USC section 171. “Ornamental” means that the design is purely decorative; the patentability is based on its visual aspects. ...more
Not everything is patentable. First, only inventions are patentable. Second, only certain inventions are patentable. Four types of inventions are patentable: articles of manufacture, machines, processes, and compositions of...more
The United States Copyright Office has refused to register a copyright for a work of art created by a machine.
The work of art is a two-dimensional picture that is mostly dark and sort of looks like a painting. ...more
Business owners often ask whether they should protect their intellectual property with a trade secret or a patent. The answer is: It depends.
What Can Be Protected?
The first thing to consider is what it is that...more
In Mobility Workx, LLC v. Unified Patents, LLC, (Fed. Cir. 2021), the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals addressed challenges to the constitutionality of the structure of the Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Trial and...more
How many of the lawyers out there liked hypotheticals in law school? I did not, but this case prompted me to write one! So, for those of you who enjoy hypotheticals, here it is:
Company A, a North Carolina LLC, owns...more
Patents protect inventions. However, patents protect only certain inventions. In order to be patentable, an invention must fall within one of four categories of patent-eligible subject matter: articles of manufacture,...more
The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals recently tangled with a patent application for an invention that did not have scientific support. The court affirmed a decision of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board rejecting a patent...more
The validity of a United States patent can be challenged in federal court litigation. Patents can also be challenged in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which, in most cases, is a quicker and less costly process...more
Is it possible to legally protect an idea? The answer is: not really.
Intellectual property is intangible personal property. There are four types of intellectual property that are protected by law: patents, copyrights,...more