Intellectual Property Portfolio Development for BioTech Startups in the Plant Space [Webinar]
What Is a Patent and How Do I Get One
If your business is keeping a valuable secret, you may be trying to figure out the best way to protect it. The question may turn on whether your secret is something like the secret Coke formula or a groundbreaking technology...more
On Thursday, January 25, 2024, the U.S. Plant Variety Protection Office (U.S. PVPO) announced that the Plant Breeders’ Rights (PBR) Offices of Canada and Japan are now accepting Distinctness, Uniformity, and Stability (DUS)...more
A patent does not give the owner the right to do anything. Rather, it gives the patent owner the right to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering to sell, and/or importing the claimed invention, which most...more
It’s not surprising to hear talk of flowers in February, but it is unusual when that discussion is in a Federal Circuit opinion. This month the Federal Circuit decided a case involving whether the display of a flowering...more
Intellectual property is the foundation of a business’s unique value proposition. Understanding the different types of intellectual property protection available for patents, trademarks, and copyrights is crucial to...more
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ("PTO") provides extensive online resources on its website. While much of the content may be directed to patent and trademark practitioners to perform filings and access regulations, some...more
The cannabis industry is booming and as it continues to grow, new cannabis-related businesses are forming in various sectors of industry and new plant varieties, products and techniques are developed daily. Protecting...more
Mary Sylvia has nearly 30 years experience in microbiology and patent law. Trained initially as a molecular virologist, she focuses primarily on biotech plant and pharmaceutical patent law and the development of intellectual...more
You may be an inventor with an idea, a small business owner, or an international corporation. No matter your size, you could have an invention that is patentable. This video covers what makes inventions patentable, the types...more
The United States patent system is built on a “carefully crafted bargain” between inventors and the public. In exchange for a disclosure teaching the public how to make and use an invention, the federal government grants the...more
Design patents vs. utility patents vs. plant patents - You made a discovery and now you’d like to protect it. The U.S. Constitution, Article 1, Section 1, Clause 8 empowered Congress to pass laws “to promote the progress of...more
Many cannabis and investor news outlets recently reported that the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) awarded what appears to be the first patent for a hemp strain to Denver-based Charlotte’s Web Holdings...more
Since more than half of the states in the U.S. have decriminalized marijuana (those varieties of the Cannabis plant with intoxicating properties), the marijuana business has been growing rapidly in this country. Like any...more
In a recent decision, the TTAB overturned a descriptiveness refusal to register the mark CANNABIS CANNIBALS for “entertainment services, namely, an ongoing series featuring animated cannabis smoking cannibals provided through...more
The Green Revolution of the 20th century increased agricultural production worldwide primarily through high-yielding plant varieties. However, in order to sustainably feed the estimated 9 billion people who will inhabit the...more
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s Mayo and Alice decisions, uncertainty has surrounded what inventions are patent eligible in the United States. In Mayo and Alice, the Supreme Court developed a two-step test to determine...more
An important aspect of developing any intellectual property strategy and portfolio is deciding which method of intellectual property protection to pursue based on the advantages and disadvantages of each method. Plants may be...more
The America Invents Act provides an expanded process for a third party to submit prior art to the examiner concerning any U.S. patent application. The new process is aimed to encourage the public to submit relevant art as a...more
With the rise of the legalized cannabis industry, there is also a rise in legal questions about how to protect the cannabis-related inventions being developed by the industry. Many practitioners do not appreciate that there...more
With cannabis legal in 29 states for medical use and in eight states for recreational use, there is a surge of entrepreneurism and an influx of capital into the rapidly expanding cannabis industry. Although cannabis remains a...more
Patent law is a complicated area of law governed by a confusing set of statutes and regulations that are interpreted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) and the federal courts. Patents themselves are...more
The development of new plant varieties can be a costly and time-consuming process. To incentivize breeding endeavors, governments around the world have developed legal mechanisms that effectively provide breeders with a...more
Britain has the longest known continuous patent system. British patents can be traced to the 15th Century, when the British Crown began granting exclusive rights, called “Letters Patent,” to certain manufacturers and traders....more
In November, Walter Beineke petitioned the Supreme Court for review of a Federal Circuit decision affirming the rejection of two plant patents on tree varieties that he discovered as not patent-eligible. This month, the PTO...more