Any patent attorney who has been in the business for more than a few years understands from experience that some USPTO examiners are tougher than others. This should not be surprising, as each examiner is an individual who...more
The storied case of American Axle v. Neapco Holdings has entered a new chapter -- not the final chapter but the plot has thickened considerably. As a recap, Judge Stark, then of the District Court for the District of...more
It is hard to overstate the impact that large language models (LLMs) with chat-based interfaces, including ChatGPT and Bard, have had since their respective launches. These models are changing the high tech, education,...more
Establishing a prima facie case of obviousness based on a multiple prior art references generally requires that the references teach or suggest all claim elements and that one of ordinary skill in the art would be motivated...more
They may have known that it was coming. Over the last several weeks, lobbying organizations and high-tech blogs have been slowly introducing the same old false, misleading, and deceptive arguments against patent law. These...more
Patent eligibility is broken.
The only semi-cogent arguments that I have ever heard in support of the status quo is that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issues too many broad, vague patents, and that 35 U.S.C. § 101...more
The patent statute requires that, to be patentable, the subject matter of an invention must be at least one of a process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter. It is hard to find examples of things that...more
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) organizes its examining corps into technical centers (TCs). Each TC is dedicated to one or more general technical fields. In some cases, one TC may include two or more unrelated...more
We are all familiar with the rhetorical device of a parade of horribles -- a series of very bad things that could happen if some action is (or isn't) taken. Often, these parades involve a degree of hyperbole. In other...more
When boiled down to a fundamental level, all technologies are double-edged swords. A spear can be used to hunt game or to wage war. A hammer can be used to build a shelter or to murder fellow humans. Social media can be...more
There is ample evidence that patent examiner allowance rates vary dramatically from examiner to examiner and art unit to art unit.[1] This has resulted in the general understanding that there are "easy" examiners and "tough"...more
In Liu Cixin's novel The Three Body Problem, the characters create a "computer" from human labor. Millions of people serve as "bits" and hold up flags to indicate whether they represent 0s or 1s. These individuals are given...more
On December 29, 2022, to the relief of many practitioners and applicants, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office delayed the effective date of its controversial incentivized transition to DOCX format for patent application...more
In a ruling that should surprise absolutely nobody, the Federal Circuit rapidly scrapped an appeal of a PTAB decision that affirmed a 35 U.S.C. § 101 rejection of a business method claim. This is the latest in a series of...more
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) established its Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) in September 2012. As mandated by the America Invents Act, the PTAB conducts administrative trials, such as inter partes...more
With further apologies to David Letterman -
Almost two years ago we published Stupid § 101 Tricks, an article discussing some of the annoying, improper, and yet disappointingly common patterns seen in rejection and...more
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is at it again, gaslighting the public in its ongoing crusade against patents. While the EFF does perform some commendable work, mostly in the areas of individual privacy rights, its...more
In an ideal world, patent eligibility would be a simple, clear, and non-controversial inquiry. After all, the purpose of 35 U.S.C. § 101 is to inform the public which types of inventions are eligible for patenting and which...more
Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina has released a new proposal to reform the text of 35 U.S.C. § 101. The Senator's last effort in doing so died on the vine in 2019, purportedly due to stakeholders being too...more
Bad law often gives rise to creative legal arguments. But the application of such creative lawyering is necessarily bounded by ethical rules and notions of fair dealing. Patent eligibility, in its current incarnation, has...more
Self-similarity is a characteristic found in many physical, natural, and human-made systems. In short, it describes a class of structures or behaviors that are at least partially-invariant to time or scale. Thus, these...more
Can a prior art reference with an error be considered to be a disclosure of the erroneous teaching? A Federal Circuit panel split over this issue, with their disagreement largely based on how apparent the error would be to...more
In an order that is clearly less impactful and damaging than a number of opinions that the Supreme Court has disgorged in the last two weeks, the justices have denied certiorari in American Axle & Mfg. Inc. v. Neapco Holdings...more
7/1/2022
/ CLS Bank v Alice Corp ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Denial of Certiorari ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Patent Applications ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patent-Eligible Subject Matter ,
Patents ,
SCOTUS ,
Section 101 ,
Statutory Interpretation ,
USPTO
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office handles hundreds of thousands of patent applications per year, as well as various types of administrative patent proceedings. While the USPTO has made incremental improvements in its...more
Patent examiners have a hard job. They are given a relatively short amount of time in which they are supposed to thoroughly review a patent application, search for relevant prior art, and write a well-reasoned Office...more