Every single word matters. Nowhere was this truer than when the Federal Circuit recently held, in an appeal from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board captioned Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc. v. Personal Genomics Taiwan, Inc., that an apparatus for identifying a single biomolecule meant examining one biomolecule alone and not inferring its identity from … Continue Reading
In the latest example of the escalation of tensions between Russia and the West, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin last week issued a decree that owners of Russian patents from countries that Russia considers to be unfriendly are no longer entitled to any compensation for compulsory licensing of their patents. In particular, the decree (translated … Continue Reading
On January 3, 2022, the US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) announced an extension of the modified COVID-19 Prioritized Examination Pilot Program. Compliant requests filed on or before March 31, 2022, will be accepted. We covered this modified Pilot Program in our post three months ago, and we covered the original program in prior posts … Continue Reading
On September 3, 2021, the US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) will announce that it is modifying the COVID-19 Prioritized Examination Pilot Program to accept an unlimited number of applications until December 31, 2021.… Continue Reading
A patent must teach one skilled in the relevant art how to make and use the claimed invention, as required by 35 U.S.C. §112(a). The Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP) 608.01(p) explains that unless an invention is disclosed such that one skilled in the art will be able to practice it without undue experimentation, … Continue Reading
When you apply for a patent in the United States, you have a legal duty to disclose prior art that could be used to reject your application — in essence, information that may be used against you by the examiner of your application. While persons accused of a crime have a right to remain silent, … Continue Reading
Monday’s announcement of the institution of a section 337 investigation of Certain Batteries and Products Containing the Same, 337-TA-1244, is notable as the first time in recent memory that a battery company has sued in the US International Trade Commission (ITC) for design patent infringement. Battery patents typically cover new and useful features of a … Continue Reading
In the U.S., patent ownership vests with inventors, and each inventor can exploit their rights without accounting to the other. Neglecting to identify the true inventors of a claimed invention, and obtain assignments of their rights, can create chaos. This is what happened in Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Inc. v. Ono Pharmaceutical (Fed. Circ., 2020), where … Continue Reading
Today is World IP Day, a day established by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to “learn about the role that intellectual property (IP) rights play in encouraging innovation and creativity.” The theme for 2020 is “Innovation for a Green Future,” and WIPO’s website and magazine contemplate how various IP regimes matter for addressing climate … Continue Reading
Running a start-up requires addressing big challenges with limited resources. Protecting the company’s intellectual property (IP) is one of the most important. Does your company have a system in place to encourage communication between the employees who generate patentable inventions and trade secrets, and those tasked with protecting them? A company benefits when the employees … Continue Reading
Scientific information—features of an invention that are known through physical analysis—often provides the foundation for patent claims. But providing such information can also risk the validity of a patent if it is not clearly explained in the patent. Since the Supreme Court’s 2014 decision in Nautilus, Inc. v. Biosig Instruments, Inc. heightened the patent law … Continue Reading
Since US patent law switched from a first-to-invent to first-to-file system, some patent applicants have been racing to the PTO, concerned that a competitor might first file an application potentially covering the same invention. In their haste, these patent applicants may file quickly-prepared provisional applications that adequately describe the invention but that fail to articulate … Continue Reading
Electric vehicles (EV) will soon get a boost in power and energy due to a relatively new cathode material known colloquially as NMC for its nickel-manganese-cobalt oxide chemistry. Battery experts predict NMC will, in the immediate future, replace the currently commercially used cobalt oxides and nickel-cobalt-aluminum oxides in EV and many other electronic applications. While … Continue Reading
The claims of an issued patent describe the metes-and-bounds of the invention. However, that depends on the court’s interpretation, i.e., construction, of the claimed terms. Statements made by an inventor in her patent application, or those made during prosecution, may be deemed during claim construction to have disavowed subject matter which an inventor thought was … Continue Reading
As set forth in Article I, §8 of the US Constitution, patent law is a utilitarian system designed “[t]o promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.” Yet, today valuable life sciences patents are being invalidated by … Continue Reading
