The Curious Engineer

Patently-O

2023–2026

1,262 posts

← 2020–2022

2026 275

October 2026

  1. Building the Internet We Want: Law for a Connected World
  2. The En Banc Queue for October 2026
  3. The Wait for a First Action, by Technology
  4. Design Patent Infringement Test Heads Toward the Supreme Court
  5. Revived and Forgotten: Should This Patent Issue?
  6. The Wait for a First Action
  7. Issue Fee to Grant: The Wait Has Doubled
  8. Who Owns the Land Under the Trail?
  9. Two Board Decisions Reaching Past the Briefs
  10. Supreme Court Patent Cases
  11. PTAB Affirmance by Rejection Type, 2009–2026
  12. Can Your Computer Corroborate Your Invention Date?
  13. PTAB Section 101 Appeal Data, 2009–2026
  14. Reading the Bench: Predictions for Five October Federal Circuit Arguments
  15. A Toothbrush, a Lost Patent, and 170 Years of Claim Drafting
  16. Subject Matter Eligibility Declarations: An Empirical Study of Rule 132 Evidence and Examiner Response
  17. Inter Partes Review (IPR) Filings Collapse to a New Normal
  18. PTAB Law School Moot Court Competition Set for Spring 2027
  19. After Williamson: Who Changed Their Claims, and Where the Function Went
  20. Jepson and Other Point-of-Novelty Claims in U.S. Patents, 1976–2026
  21. Out of Line: Chief Judge Moore Rebukes Counsel, Then Leans Toward Reversal in J&M v. Kinze
  22. Parting Shot: Mandamus Sends USC v. Google from Judge Albright’s Austin Docket to N.D. Cal.
  23. Pre-Suit Validity Investigation: When Must a Patentee Look Before Suing?
  24. FY2026 Patent Data Update: Grants, Publications, and Cross-Border Inventors
  25. Ease Is Not Necessity: Third Circuit Affirms No Fair Use in Thomson Reuters v. ROSS
  26. Clear but Impossible: Satius v. Samsung Moves Inoperable Claims from Indefiniteness to Enablement
  27. Method or Molecule: Judge Dyk Dissents from En Banc Denial in Teva v. Lilly

September 2026

  1. One Determination, Two Clocks: Crocs Asks the Supreme Court to Fix ITC Appeal Deadlines
  2. Tie Goes to the Applicant: The USPTO’s SMED Flowchart
  3. This Is Not a Feature Vector: Zentian v. Apple
  4. Who Owns Mind Reading?
  5. Before Lowell: The Patent System’s Early Rejection of Moral Judgment
  6. RCEs Are Rising Again: But Applicant Behavior Isn’t the Main Cause
  7. The Federal Circuit Expands Its Jurisdiction Yet Again
  8. 24 Days Late, Not Six Months: The Missing Judgment in Heidary v. Amazon
  9. Patent Docket Heading into the Supreme Court’s Long Conference
  10. FY2026 Utility Grants by Origin and Continuity
  11. The Missing Inventor Problem
  12. Objective Baselessness in Carnegie v. Fenix Diamonds
  13. When the PTAB’s Broadest Reasonable Interpretation Goes Too Far
  14. The Federal Circuit Extends Sanho to the Section 102(b)(1)(B) Grace Period
  15. Shield and Sword: Sovereign Immunity, Discovery, and Rule 19 After TexasLDPC v. Broadcom
  16. Advisory Only: PTAB Judges Join Examiner Appeal Conferences
  17. When R&D Counts as a Domestic Industry
  18. Patent Enforcement with DOJ Backing: Rare Breed’s Forced-Reset Trigger Campaign
  19. Take or License: Can a Contract Cap Trade Secret Damages at a Royalty?
  20. Who Keeps the Skill: A Randomized Trial of AI Patent Drafting at Eleven Firms
  21. Back to Vail: The IP CLE Conference, January 6-9, 2027
  22. It’s Down There Somewhere: Viavi’s Section 285 Fee Award Affirmed
  23. CAFC Oral Args
  24. A USPTO Docketing Change Behind the Terminal Disclaimer Collapse
  25. Prof John Duffy Next USPTO General Counsel
  26. En Banc: Did Ramey Appeal His Own Sanction?
  27. Strings Attached: The House Hearing on Renewing USPTO Fee Setting Authority
  28. A Patent Purchase Scam Targeting Patent Attorneys
  29. Hurdling Eligibility with a “Separable Interface”
  30. OED Orders from Summer 2026

August 2026

  1. The Federal Circuit Edits Its Damages Footnote in Constellation Designs v. LG
  2. Personal Privilege: Why Improper Venue Did Not Stop the § 101 Dismissal
  3. An Ordinary Word: T-Mobile v. KAIFI and What Counts as a Patent Case
  4. USPTO Fee Setting Authority and PTAB Institution Reform
  5. Short of Disavowal: Narrowing ‘Provision’ and ‘Activate’ in Zilkr v. Cisco
  6. A Year of Patent Cert Denials
  7. Design Patents Did It: How China Passed Japan in US Patent Grants
  8. Allowable Subject Matter in the Final Rejection
  9. Right vs. Remedy: No Standing to Challenge the Patent Cover’s ‘Right to Exclude’ Promise
  10. Problem Statements and the Scope of Prior Art
  11. Pleading Licensee Marking After VDPP v. Volkswagen
  12. Allowable, Not Allowed: What the First Action Predicts
  13. Rejected, With a Road Map: Allowable Subject Matter in the First Action
  14. Can Harassment Risk Alone Support Obviousness-Type Double Patenting?
  15. Not Before Us: The Federal Circuit Sidesteps Schedule A in Jacki Easlick
  16. The Trail Guide Problem: Judge, Jury, and Design Patent Claim Construction
  17. Provisional Prior Art
  18. Ex parte Baurin and the Anti-Harassment Rationale for Double Patenting
  19. Examiner Allowance Rates Under Director Squires
  20. Rise of AI Patents and their Corresponding Eligibility Rejections
  21. SCOTUS: Patent Owner Joins the Section 314(d) Cert Queue
  22. Rise of OpenAI in the Patent System
  23. Judge Newman’s Name may soon be on the Bench, Even if she is Barred from Entry
  24. Partial Retreat: Ten Months of § 101 Data After the Surge
  25. Back to 1789: Collision Asks the Federal Circuit to Rewrite the eBay Factors
  26. Boilerplate or Not: Reading “Secure” Broader Than IPSec in MPH v. Apple
  27. Has Patent Term Adjustment Peaked?

July 2026

  1. Rejection Is Not Denial: What a Final Office Action Actually Costs
  2. Four Petitions, One Question: Tesla Joins the Supreme Court’s IPR Reviewability Docket
  3. The Pre-Dawn USPTO Filing Window
  4. Before the Sensor: Filter Ordering and Self-Collision in Amsted Rail v. Squires
  5. FRAND at the Pool Level
  6. Two Pages of Testimony: JMOL of Anticipation in Board of Regents v. Boston Scientific
  7. A Cleaner Test Case: Why Kahoot! Adds Fire to the Supreme Court’s Settled Expectations Docket
  8. Anonymous No More: Real-Party Disclosure Comes to Ex Parte Reexamination
  9. Sedlik en Banc: A Menu for Replacing Copyright’s Intrinsic Test
  10. A Double Shot at Copyright: SCOTUS to Weigh Worldwide Termination Rights
  11. The Filing Clock: Hour-of-Day Patterns in USPTO Electronic Submissions
  12. RCEs, Abandonment, and the Vanishing Patent Appeal
  13. Value From the Beginning: The Book of Wisdom’s Limit in 4DD Holdings v. United States
  14. Modest Rule, Real Traps: The USPTO’s Foreign-Applicant Representation Requirement Takes Effect July 20
  15. From Genes to Machines: PERA’s First Full-Committee Hearing
  16. The Survivors: IPR Petition Filings Stay Low and Highly Targeted in 2026
  17. Fast to Deny, Slow to Grant: The Range of Motion En Banc Petition at 102 Days
  18. Still a Lawyer, Not a Practitioner: Schindler v. Squires and the Reach of Practice Before the Office
  19. Locked In or Left Open: A Decision Matrix for PTAB Fact Findings After Appeal
  20. Looking Forward: Why Completed Conduct Often Cannot Support a Preliminary Injunction
  21. Refilling the Pipeline: Two New Section 101 Petitions Heading to the Supreme Court
  22. Narrowed to Clear the Art: The Enablement Cost of Wyeth’s Unit Dosage Claims
  23. Words are Magic: What Counts as Applicant Admitted Prior Art in In re GE Vernova Hitachi
  24. Code Without Structure? TrackTime v. Amazon and the § 112(f) Redo After Dyfan
  25. Whole or Apportioned: Sunoco Asks the Supreme Court to Rethink Lost Profits
  26. Three Is Company, Two’s a Trial: Reference Counts in Federal Circuit Obviousness Appeals
  27. The Risk of a Preliminary Answer: Injunction Bonds and the Generic Launch
  28. The En Banc Queue for July-2026
  29. Supreme Court Takes Up Whether Trademark Strength Belongs to Judge or Jury

June 2026

  1. Locked In at the Lectern: How the Federal Circuit Uses Oral Argument
  2. Provisional Typo Spoils Priority Date
  3. Three Is Company: New Data on § 103 Reference Counts
  4. Found vs. Findable: Judge Stark Maps the Skilled-Searcher Test
  5. En Banc Ninth Circuit to Reconsider Copyright’s Total Concept and Feel Test
  6. Same Direction, Different Engines: FY2026 Utility and Design Grant Projections
  7. Pre-Negotiated: How Continuations and Art Units Shape the First-Action Allowance
  8. The First Offer Accepted: First-Action Allowances and the Track 1 Premium
  9. The Federal Circuit’s Expanding Grip on Dismissed Patent Claims
  10. Has the Late-Continuation Surcharge Shifted Filing?
  11. Hooked on Differences: Design Patent Doctrine and Schedule A Litigation at the Federal Circuit
  12. It’s Not You, It’s Your Claims: Disclosed but Unclaimed Embodiments at the Federal Circuit
  13. Trading Claims for Speed: USPTO Sweetens the Streamlined Claim Set Pilot
  14. Enforceable, but Not Reviewable: A Breached Sotera Stipulation and § 314(d)
  15. Six Petitions, Six Placeholders: The Patent Docket Awaiting the Supreme Court
  16. Integrity Versus Repose: When Claim Preclusion Bars Fraud on the Court
  17. What the Verdict Might Have Said: Jury Black Boxes in Ollnova v. ecobee
  18. Foreseeable Is Not Inducing: Hikma v. Amarin
  19. Wine Railway and the Patent Marking Statute: Is a Covenant Not to Sue a Patent License?
  20. Cheap Text, Expensive Claims: Fee Asymmetry and the Growing Patent Document
  21. Plain, Ordinary, and Unresolved: Woodway’s Two-Front Claim Construction Fight
  22. A United Front Against “Settled Expectations”
  23. Pay to Cite: Applicant Disclosures Drop After the January 2025 IDS Surcharge

May 2026

  1. Old Soil, New Clock: The DTSA Discovery Rule After Insulet v. EOFlow
  2. The Myth of Patent Growth
  3. Why SCA Hygiene Doesn’t Reach Hyatt
  4. Revisiting Sixteen Years of §101 After a Data Correction
  5. Inter Partes Review in 2026
  6. The Unjust Enrichment Option: A Trade Secret Plaintiff’s Choice of Remedy
  7. Borrowing from the Board: District Court Obviousness in the Post-IPR Era
  8. Categorical Rules Cut Both Ways: Originalist Equity, NPE Status, and the Symmetry of eBay’s Four-Factor Test
  9. Williamson Found Its Mark: New Data on Functional Claim Language, 1976-2026
  10. The Survivors: Post-IPR Claims, the Presumption of Validity, and the Limits of § 285
  11. Justice Up Close: The Federal Circuit Opens Its Doors for America 250
  12. Drafting Fixable vs. Amendment Created: A Tale of Two §112 Rejections
  13. Amazon as Prior Art: The Rise in Design Patent §102 Rejections
  14. Polar Electro’s New § 101 Cert Petition: When Courts Do the Challenger’s Job
  15. After LKQ: The Boilerplate Changed; The Rejection Rate Did Not
  16. Twice Ambiguous: Actelion v. Mylan and the Contextual Reading of pH 13
  17. Micro-Entity Traps for Inventors Who Also Own Their Employer
  18. Remains Disabled: How a Firmware Rewrite Defeated Bissell’s ITC Exclusion Order
  19. Prior Art Rejection Rates in Design Patent Prosecution
  20. Time Machines, Cold Fusion, and a Glucose Problem: A 2026 Report on § 101 Utility
  21. Sixteen Years of §101: What Actually Moves Examiners
  22. Jurisdiction-If-We-Win: T-Mobile v. KAIFI and the Gunn Boundary Line
  23. Pairing Down: Federal Circuit Affirms § 101 Dismissal of Vehicle-Mode Notification Patent
  24. Words of Approximation: Why “About” and “Substantially” Are Slipping Out of Patent Claims
  25. Decimation: Ex Parte Reexamination Eclipses the IPR
  26. Six on the Bench: The Federal Circuit’s Pending En Banc Patent Petitions
  27. International Sanctions and the FRAND Framework

April 2026

  1. The Thin Margin Between “Generic Vascepa” and Active Inducement
  2. SCOTUS: IP Cases in the Pipeline
  3. Range of Motion En Banc Petition: The Plainly Dissimilar Test and the Functionality Question
  4. The Director’s Non-Statutory Statute of Limitations
  5. The Cox Shadow Over Hikma: Three Questions for Wednesday’s Argument
  6. Fun While It Lasted: Judge Albright to Leave the Bench
  7. Recalibration: Seven Months of PTAB § 101 Data
  8. Still Climbing: PTA Hits 318 Days, Back to 2015 Levels
  9. The DTSA’s Missing Preemption: Does § 1835(b) Bind State Courts?
  10. Barry v. DePuy Returns: En Banc Petition Tests EcoFactor’s Reach on Rule 702 Gatekeeping
  11. Same Problem, Same Solution: Reading Trade Secrets Across Fields
  12. Extra Credit Not Required: Teva v. Lilly and the Limits of Amgen’s Reach
  13. Extraordinary by Design: How the USPTO Is Bypassing Its Own Reexamination Rules
  14. Mind the Gap: The Middle Layer of Obviousness Doctrine
  15. PTAB Inventory Drops Below 2,000 for the First Time in 20 Years
  16. Marked for Trouble: Settlement Licenses and the § 287 Trap for NPEs
  17. The Dark Matter of Patent Law: Nearly 25% of Office Actions Now Cite Secret Prior Art
  18. The Symmetry Problem: Printed Matter, Nexus, and the Federal Circuit’s One-Way Ratchet
  19. X Marks the … Stick Figure? Federal Circuit Says One DuPont Factor Can Outweigh All Others
  20. Moving Target: When Amended Claims Outrun Your Standing Declaration
  21. How the Federal Circuit Is Rebuilding Inventorship Law After the AIA
  22. Missing Coinventors and the Death of a Patent
  23. Most Common First Names of inventors on US Patents
  24. Words That Stick: Prosecution Disclaimer Survives the Examiner’s Rejection
  25. USPTO’s April Fool’s Prank Says the Quiet Part Out Loud
  26. Guest Post: Improving PERA’s Eligibility Exclusions

March 2026

  1. The Nexus Trap: Why Component Patents Struggle with Objective Indicia
  2. GW Law Seeking IP Fellow for Frank H. Marks Visiting Position
  3. Disclosed but Still Secret? The Federal Circuit Weighs Patent Publications Against Trade Secret Claims
  4. Two Voices on § 101: Agency Guidance Meets Judicial Skepticism
  5. Bipartisan Skepticism Greets Director Squires at First House Oversight Hearing
  6. Prototype Enough: Even More Expansion to the ITC Domestic Industry Framework
  7. No Do-Overs: Federal Circuit Blocks Dismiss-and-Refile Tactic to Restart ITC Stay Deadline
  8. Knowledge Isn’t Enough: The Supreme Court Rejects Expansive Theory of Secondary Copyright Liability
  9. Day 61
  10. Where Were You? Geofence Warrants and the Fourth Amendment’s Day in Court
  11. The 14-Month Fiction: Only 10% of First Actions Arrive on Time
  12. The Tinderbox: A Framework for Skinny-Label Inducement Before the Supreme Court
  13. The Patent Term Distribution, and What it Reveals
  14. Are Rising Maintenance Fees Shortening the Effective Patent Term?
  15. Judge Newman Asks the Supreme Court to Intervene: Framing Judicial Independence as a Constitutional Imperative
  16. Guest Post: Protectionist PTO Memo is on a Collision Course with TRIPS
  17. Untethered: USPTO Loosens the Article of Manufacture Requirement for Digital Designs
  18. Made in America: Director Squires Ties IPR Institution to Domestic Manufacturing
  19. From Graham to Gramm: A New Deere Case Arrives at the Federal Circuit
  20. The Razor Returns: AIPLA Tells the Supreme Court That Alice Step Two Has Revived the Pre-1952 ‘Invention’ Requirement
  21. PTA Keeps Score: Patent Term Adjustment as a Measure of the USPTO Backlog
  22. Too Late to Invent an Inventor: Forfeiture and § 256 in IPR Proceedings
  23. The Expanding Patent Document: Fewer Claims, More Words, and a Trend That Predates Alice
  24. An Animated History of Patent Claim Counts
  25. Twenty and Done: The Fee-Driven Collapse of Claim Count Diversity
  26. Soak and Pounce: 1920’s Style Submarine Patents
  27. Patently Unreasonable: Hyatt’s Return to the Supreme Court and the Fight Over Prosecution Laches
  28. Two Rejections Per Allowance
  29. Forthwith, Part II: CIT Orders Refunds for All Importers, Not Just Litigants
  30. The Law/Fact Lever: How the Federal Circuit Can Control Obviousness Outcomes
  31. Federal Circuit Dissent Rates Collapse After Newman’s Removal
  32. Guest Post: Design Patents at the ITC
  33. Cleaning House: Director Squires Responds to Examiner Conflict-of-Interest Scandal
  34. Forthwith: Federal Circuit Issues Mandates in V.O.S. Selections, Clearing the Way for $175 Billion Refund Reckoning
  35. Intitled to Tie Him Up: Can 18th-Century Chancery Practice Restore Patent Injunctions?
  36. The Third Way: Examiner Action Dates and the Allowance Rate Curve
  37. The Real-Time View: USPTO Allowance Rate “Dips” to 75%

February 2026

  1. Five Petitions, Five Denials: The Federal Circuit’s Mandamus Wall Grows Higher
  2. No Sunshine, No Standing? The Federal Circuit’s Informational Rights Gap in IPR
  3. The 20-Year Allowance Rate Arc: From Trough to Peak and Back Again
  4. Patent Examiner Pays $500K for Financial Conflicts — But the Real Story may be Systemic
  5. Not So Sure: Federal Circuit Vacates Summary Judgment of Inequitable Conduct Despite Inventor’s ‘Smoking Gun’ Statement
  6. Tie Goes to the Runner? Three Months of SMED Practice at the USPTO
  7. Extolling the Virtues: ‘Space-Efficient’ Preamble Fails to Limit
  8. The Recentive Ratchet: RPI’s NLP Patent Falls to the New-Environment Rule
  9. Parts vs. Whole: Federal Circuit Corrects District Court’s Component-Level Section 101 Analysis in Gene Therapy Case
  10. SCOTUSGate: A New Portal to the Certiorari Pipeline
  11. “Anonymous Work” and the AI Author Fight
  12. An Inexact Art: Willis Electric and the Limits of Damages Gatekeeping
  13. Hot Bench: Speaking Time and Opinion Writing at the Federal Circuit
  14. Lynk Labs Resource Guide
  15. The Director Unbound: Federal Circuit Holds NHK-Fintiv Exempt from APA Rulemaking
  16. Ingevity’s $85 Million Lesson: Antitrust Tying Still Has Teeth
  17. Pre-Alice Patents Keep Falling: Three Section 101 Decisions from the Federal Circuit
  18. First Possession and Intellectual Property: A Supplement for Property Law
  19. Privity Without Duty: When Patent Inventors Are Bound but Not Represented
  20. An Old Trick in the Patent Book: Targeted Drafting from 1876 to 2026
  21. Patent Suit Over NASA’s Mars Helicopter Blocked by Government Contractor Immunity
  22. The ‘Narrow’ Question That Appears in Half of PTAB Obviousness Decisions
  23. When Obviousness Rejections Pile On: Rethinking Multi-Reference Combinations
  24. Who Are You? YMTC’s Refusal to Identify Its Real Parties in Interest
  25. The USPTO and the Board of Peace
  26. Find the Differences vs Substantial Similarity: Chief Judge Moore Challenges Federal Circuit’s Design Patent Infringement Framework
  27. Supreme Court IP Docket February 1, 2026: Hikma Leads, Section 101 and IPR Questions on Deck

January 2026

  1. Government Urges Supreme Court to Deny AI Copyright Case, Emphasizing Narrow Question and Statutory Text
  2. Large Entities Achieve Double the Patent Allowance Rate of Micro Entities
  3. No Do-Over: Trade Secret Plaintiffs Must Crystallize Their Theory by Summary Judgment
  4. Patent Venue’s Method Claim Problem: How Many Steps Must Occur in the District?
  5. Single-Reference Obviousness: Federal Circuit Says Don’t Re-Do the Prior Art’s Work
  6. The Thaw Begins?: What’s Driving IPR Institutions Under Director Squires
  7. Tu Quoque Denied: Google’s Own Patents Irrelevant to §101 Defense
  8. Who Decides When Construction Is Needed? Comcast Seeks Supreme Court Review of O2 Micro’s Limits
  9. Federal Circuit Finds Its Spine: Rejecting “Hyper-Technical” Gatekeeping
  10. USAA Petitions SCOTUS: Is Mobile Check Deposit Just an “Abstract Idea”?
  11. The Tinderbox Ignites: Supreme Court to Decide Whether Generic Equivalence Statements Constitute Inducement
  12. A Dog’s Breakfast: The Doctrinal Mess Surrounding “Configured To” Claim Language
  13. Supreme Court Patent Update: Hikma Redistributed, Curtin’s Missing Brief, and Two Petitions on Deck
  14. L’Office, C’est Moi: Director Squires and the Parchment Barriers of PTAB Institution Precedent
  15. The Unraveling of International Patent Comity?
  16. The Incredible Shrinking PTAB
  17. Patently-O Operations Contact
  18. Seven Patent Issues from 2025 that Deserve Ongoing Consideration
  19. Ariscale’s Failed Ordered Combination 101 Argument
  20. When the Director Can Do Anything: Apple v. Squires and the Limits of APA Process
  21. Supreme Court’s January 2026 IP Docket: Hikma Leads a Small but Significant Field
  22. PTAB Doubles Section 101 Reversal Rate Under Director Squires

2025 360

December 2025

  1. The Surprising Headline of 2025: USPTO Stability?
  2. Section 101 and Functional Claiming: The Unexplored § 112(f) Path in 10Tales v. TikTok
  3. Marking Minefield: How NPE Settlements Can Kill Back Damages
  4. Knock, Knock: MIT’s Ethanol Engine Patents Run Out of Gas at the Federal Circuit
  5. Most Cited Fed Cir Cases 2020-2025
  6. Should Abandoned Applications Be Presumed Enabling? Supreme Court Asks for Response
  7. Procedural Fairness in Patent Pleading: Federal Circuit Vacates Adnexus Dismissal
  8. Dolby v. Unified: Informational Standing, RPIs, and the SharkNinja Twist
  9. Federal Circuit’s Top Precedents (2025): Claim Construction Classics and the Procedural Turn
  10. The Catch-22 of Court Transparency: Why Public Access Needs a Dedicated Intervention Rule
  11. Idaho’s Anti-Troll Law Takes Aim at Federal Court Complaints: Federal Circuit Punts on Preemption
  12. Element-by-Element: Federal Circuit Rejects Functional Equivalence in Car Seat War
  13. How the Printed Matter Doctrine Sees Through X-Ray Markers
  14. Lynk Labs: How the Least-Vetted Documents Destroy Issued Patents
  15. Grounds for Reversal: Federal Circuit Finds KAHWA Registrable for Coffee Shops
  16. Label-Plus Liability: The Government Warns the Federal Circuit Misread Hatch-Waxman
  17. The Unreviewable Director: How § 314(d) Shields the USPTO’s IPR Denial Regime from Judicial Oversight
  18. Verdict Deflated: Fed Circuit Punctures Coda’s $64M Win Over Goodyear
  19. Subject Matter Eligibility Declarations (SMEDs) to Overcome Eligibility Rejections
  20. The Mythic Source of USPTO Institution Discretion?
  21. Guest Post: The Supreme Court Should Clarify How to Apply Loper Bright in the Patent Law Case of Lynk Labs, Inc. v. Samsung Co. Ltd.
  22. When Juries Don’t Matter: Written Description Effectively Becomes a Question of Law
  23. So You’re Telling Me There’s a Chance: IPR Institution Rate Rises to 4%
  24. Objective Boundaries or Bust: CAFC Reaffirms Indefiniteness for the Best Metrics
  25. USPTO’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Policy: The Quiet Death of Thaler and the Legal Fiction of Human Inventorship

November 2025

  1. Happy Thanksgiving: CLE and a Tax Question
  2. Can Money Talk? Latest IPR Mandamus Petitions Seek Workarounds to § 314(d) Bar
  3. Should American Trademark Law Speak English
  4. Time to Merge the Copyright Office with the USPTO
  5. 0% Institution Rate Holds, but Shows Signs of Potential Rise
  6. Federalism on Trial: Idaho’s Attempt to Regulate Patent Litigation
  7. Smartrend and the Stretching of Markman: When Specification Parsing Becomes a Question of Law
  8. Lost Profits: Market Reconstruction and Noninfringing Substitutes
  9. Masimo v. Apple: Does “Patient Monitor” Cover Apple’s Consumer Wearable
  10. WALLSTREETBETS arrive at SCOTUS
  11. Cutting the Gordian Knot of Prior-Art Enablement
  12. Shutting the Patent Office Door: YMTC and the Entity List
  13. The Power and Limits of Judicial Claim Correction
  14. An Era of No: The USPTO’s New 0% Institution Rate
  15. Algorithmic Recommendations and Section 230: Planet Green v. Amazon
  16. Todd Blanche asks Supreme Court to Hand Over the Copyright Office
  17. Rulemaking as Backdoor Reform: Can the USPTO Bar Whole Classes of IPR Petitions?
  18. Section 314(d)’s Bar Holds: Federal Circuit Rejects Constitutional and APA Challenges to IPR Institution Denials
  19. Final But Not Final: Federal Circuit Rejects PornHub Litigation Request
  20. Secret Springing Prior Art and Joint Research: Lessons from Merck v. Hopewell
  21. Director Squires Denies 13 IPRs With No Explanation: A New Era of Opacity

October 2025

  1. Guest Post by Profs. Masur & Ouellette: Private Third-Party Sales as Prior Art
  2. National Security vs National Treatment: The USPTO’s Ongoing China Problem
  3. PTAB Responds to Director Squires with 101 Reversals
  4. USPTO Restores Strict RPI Requirements for IPR Petitions
  5. When Good Writing Makes Bad Patents: The Synonym Trap in Claim Construction
  6. Instacart Challenges USPTO’s Discretionary IPR Denials in Seventh Pending Mandamus Petition
  7. Empty Formalism: How Patent Eligibility Lost Touch with Preemption
  8. Executive Branch Ethics: Why PTAB Judges Can Own Stock That Would Disqualify Article III Judges
  9. Call for Applications: 2026–2027 Thomas Edison Innovation Law & Policy Fellowship
  10. 2025 Economics Nobel: What the Industrial Revolution Teaches About Patent Policy
  11. Supreme Court on Patents Fall 2025
  12. Automated Search Pilot: USPTO’s First Step Toward AI-Assisted Examination
  13. Assignment of Future Patents: Continuations-in-Part
  14. CSU Law’s IP+ Conference 2025
  15. Unexplained and Unreviewable: The New Normal for IPR Institution
  16. Prosecution Disclaimer Across Time: Later Continuation Statements Limit Already-Issued Patents
  17. All Quiet on the PTAB Front: USPTO Proposes More Major Restrictions to Inter Partes Review Institution
  18. IPR Fact Findings Don’t Bind District Courts (What about IPR Legal Conclusions?)
  19. Once Upon a Time, Consumers Had Standing
  20. Poll: GenAI Copyright
  21. Human Authorship Requirement for AI-Generated Works
  22. Systems Theory, Equilibrium and the New Eligibility Shock
  23. Case1Tech: Changing Claim Construction Position on Appeal
  24. PERA 2025: Eligibility Reform Returns to Capitol Hill
  25. Guest Post by Ryan Abbott: Reflections on Recentive v. Fox: To Do or not To Do it with AI?
  26. Have we Reached the Shenanigans Threshold?
  27. Supreme Court: Still no Patent Cases
  28. A First Look at the USPTO’s FY2026 Examiner Performance Plan (PAP): What’s Changed and Why It Matters
  29. Who Gets to Challenge USPTO Rules? Federal Circuit Says Big Tech Yes, Small Inventors No
  30. Contradictory Expert Testimony and Director Review
  31. Proven Infringement, Zero Recovery: Federal Circuit Once Again Cancels a Jury Verdict for the Patentee
  32. More on the Federal Shutdown and the US IP System
  33. Restrictions, Election, Traversal, and Disclaimer
  34. Supreme Court Long Conference: Patent and Trademark Cases from September 29, 2025
  35. Federal Government Shutdown (But not the USPTO)

September 2025

  1. Centralized Expanded Discretionary Denial
  2. EcoFactor: Did the Federal Circuit Unconstitutionally Displace the Jury?
  3. Thanks for Your Input: Federal Circuit Ignores USPTO’s §101 Framework (Again)
  4. Director Squires Takes Aim § 101 Rejections
  5. USPTO Director Squires’s First Patents: Crypto Software and Diagnostic Methods
  6. The Rising Bar for Patent Experts: Finesse Wireless and the Need for Particularized Precision
  7. Headnote Wars in the AI Space: Thomson Reuters (Westlaw) v. ROSS AI
  8. Redefining Patent Utility: The Functional Relationship Test’s Answer to Super-Utility Claims
  9. Ultra Vires or Policy Discretion? Federal Circuit Now Weighing 5x Discretionary Denial Mandamus
  10. Welcome New USPTO Director John Squires
  11. Supreme Court Asked to Resolve ‘Secret Springing Prior Art’ Controversy in IPR Proceedings
  12. Promoting the Progress: Patents, Knowledge, and the Pursuit of Happiness
  13. The PowerBlock Problem: A Roadmap for Dodging Patent Eligibility Hurdles
  14. Still Pending: Three Mandamus Petitions Test USPTO’s Expanded Denial Powers
  15. Genetic Patents Catch-22: Can Challenging a Patent Requires Risking Infringement?
  16. Forgetting the Evidence: How Sherman Lost on Obviousness Before and After LKQ
  17. Application of Fifth Circuit’s Heightened § 1404(a) Standard in Patent Cases
  18. Shira Perlmutter is (Temporarily) Back in Charge at Copyright Office
  19. USPTO Comings and Goings
  20. Supreme Court Grants Cert in Parallel Cases from Federal Circuit and DC Circuit
  21. Converting Voluntary Dismissals: Federal Circuit Holds Sanctions Can Create Prevailing Party Status Under § 285
  22. Federal Circuit Delivers Major Reversal on “Software Per Se” Rejections in In re McFadden
  23. Discovery Gamesmanship Backfires: Federal Circuit Orders New Trial After Defendant’s Bait-and-Switch on Testing Requirements
  24. Cox v. Sony and the Future of Patent Contributory Liability: How a Copyright Case Could Reshape Patent Law
  25. Mea Culpa: Trump Administration Moves Swiftly on Tariffs Appeal
  26. Hyatt v. Stewart: Why Petrella and SCA Hygiene Don’t Save Long-Delayed Patent Prosecutions
  27. POPA Challenges Trump’s Union Busting “National Security” Designation for Patent Examiners
  28. Same Evidence, Different Label: “Reference Recycling” in IPR Estoppel
  29. Remedial Restraint and the Rule of Law: When Courts Find Violations But Limit Relief

August 2025

  1. Power Shift at Patent Office: Senior PTAB Leaders Reassigned in Surprise Move
  2. Marbury in the Trade Context: CAFed Declares Trump’s Tariffs Illegal, but Limits Relief
  3. Anthropic Settles the Authors’ Class Action on Training Data: What It Means for Fair Use, Compensation, and Competition
  4. Non-IP En Banc: Federal Circuit Limits Federal Procurement Protests
  5. Remote Work on the Chopping Block: How Union Exclusion Reshapes USPTO Employment
  6. Google v. Sonos: Federal Circuit Validates Strategic Patent Continuation Practice (With Limits)
  7. Love Letters Gone Wrong: Federal Circuit’s First AIA Derivation Appeal Hinges on Valentine’s Day Emails
  8. F-Bombs Away: Federal Circuit Sends Brunetti Back to TTAB to Consider its Failure to Function Doctrine
  9. Hips Don’t Lie, But Patent Specs Might: CeramTec’s Color Conundrum and Trade Dress After Patenting
  10. When ‘Patented’ Becomes False Advertising: Crocs Takes Its Dastar Fight to the Supreme Court
  11. New Clothes for the Doctrine of Foreign Equivalents?
  12. No Fault for USTA: Federal Circuit Protects Non-Party Defenses against Attempted Default Slam
  13. Obviousness-Type Double Patenting: Challenging the Allergan First-Issued Safe Harbor
  14. Guest Post: Quintara Clarifies — and Complicates — Trade Secret Identification Under the DTSA
  15. Wilco v. Weeks Marine: When Expert Disagreements Don’t Create Genuine Disputes of Material Fact
  16. Federal Circuit Reverses Another Jury Verdict Favoring Patent Holder in LabCorp v. Qiagen
  17. After “Schedule A”: The Cross-Border IP Enforcement Gap
  18. Fintiv Patent Case Against Apple Ends; Fintiv RICO case Against Apple Begins
  19. Upcoming Public Events
  20. Patent Damage Arguments Move to the Supreme Court: Built-In-Apportionment
  21. The Federal Circuit’s Heavy Lifting on Automation Patents
  22. Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let Down Your Generic Hair (and Let the Supreme Court In)!
  23. USAA v. PNC: Costume Changes in the IPR Theatre
  24. CAFC: Even Anticipation Requires Explanation
  25. Red-Lining Revelations: Edits between Patent Families Continue to be Highly Relevant to Claim Construction
  26. Exception Meets Exception: The Federal Circuit’s Collateral Estoppel Morass
  27. OED: Supreme Court Petition Challenges USPTO’s Moral Character Standards
  28. Mandamus Denied: Fintiv’s Trial Moves Forward
  29. Federal Circuit Extends EcoFactor Framework to Patent Damages Apportionment in Jiaxing Decision

July 2025

  1. USPTO Closes AAPA Door: New Memo Practically Reverses Shockwave from Below
  2. Ideology, Expertise, and the Evolving Federal Circuit
  3. Federal Circuit Steps Into Apple-Fintiv Discovery Fight Days Before August 4 Trial
  4. The New Trump-Lutnick Patent Tax: Trading Innovation Policy for Deficit Reduction
  5. The Great Power Competition: Federal Circuit Reinforces Commerce’s Anti-China Trade Arsenal
  6. Copyright Thicket and President Trump’s AI Training Data Solution
  7. Fuel of Interest, Fire of Genius: Lincoln’s Patent Philosophy
  8. En Banc Update from the Federal Circuit
  9. When 100 Years of Use is Not Enough
  10. No CA Fed Jurisdiction in _This_ Arbitration Award Challenge
  11. The Services Problem That Undermines Crocs’ Textualist False Advertising Defense
  12. More Briefs in SAP and Motorola
  13. The Power of Unreviewability
  14. Fungi, Bacteria and the U.S. Plant Patent Act
  15. Does US Innovation Drive the Dollar’s Global Dominance?
  16. Federal Circuit Expands Prosecution History Estoppel to Simple Claim Cancellations in Colibri Heart Valve
  17. Uncomfortable Truths: Prosecution History Disclaimer in Design Patents
  18. In re SAP America: Sharpening the Dispute over PTAB Discretionary Denials
  19. Thinking back on Milburn and Secret/Springing Prior Art
  20. The Narrow Semantic Line on AAPA: Federal Circuit’s Latest Take in Shockwave
  21. Timing is Everything: PTAB’s Renewed Reliance on Litigation Timelines and Patent Longevity
  22. En Banc Ineligibility Petition in Longitude Licensing v. Google
  23. Federal Circuit Wrestles with Prosecution Laches in Sonos v. Google
  24. Motorola Follows SAP with Mandamus Challenge to Acting Director Stewart’s IPR Policy Reversal
  25. Google v. Sonos: Oral Arguments
  26. Overlapping Ranges and the Presumption of Obviousness
  27. Prior Art Document vs. Prior Art Process: How Lynk Labs Exposes a Fundamental Ambiguity in Patent Law
  28. Corcept v. Teva Oral Argument: Infringement by Drug Label, Again
  29. Quick Post on Egenera
  30. Back to 1789: How Founding-Era Equity Could Resurrect NPE Injunctions
  31. PTAB’s New “Settled Expectations” Doctrine
  32. SAP’s Mandamus Petition Challenging Trump Admin’s Discretionary Denial Policy Shift
  33. Supreme Court Grants Cert in First (and only) IP Case of 2024: Billion-Dollar ISP Copyright Contributory Liability Case

June 2025

  1. Eye Therapies v. Slayback: Federal Circuit Abandons Standard Transition Construction
  2. Hedging on Claim Construction: USPTO Says Keep It to One IPR Petition
  3. USPTO Updates for 2025 – Free Webinar
  4. Preview: Federal Circuit Oral Argument in Google v. Sonos (July 10, 2025)
  5. U.S. Government: NPEs Deserve Injunctive Relief when their Patents Are Infringed
  6. Seeds of Doubt: Sexual Reproduction and Territorial Limits in Plant Patent Law
  7. USPTO Implements Penalty System for False Small/Micro Entity Status Claims
  8. Label-Plus Infringement: The Tinderbox Theory of Generic Inducement
  9. USPTO Discontinues Accelerated Examination Program for Utility Applications (Design Patent Rocket Docket is also Suspended)
  10. Prosecution Laches from Woodbridge to Sonos: A 170-Year Continuation?
  11. Article III, the PTAB, and Expired Patents: Constitutional Analysis After Oil States
  12. Cert Petition Preview: Federal Circuit’s Broad Reading of TrafFix in CeramTec
  13. The $1 Million Bounty Clause and Unreviewable Sanctions Order
  14. Federal Circuit Offers Some Loosening of the Nexus Standard for Objective Indicia of Nonobviousness
  15. Federal Circuit Vacates $300 Million Jury Verdict on Multiple Grounds
  16. The Federal Circuit’s Shifting Political Balance
  17. USPTO Hiring Examiners (for non-union role without telework)
  18. Federal Circuit Reverses Equitable Estoppel Defense: Reliance Requires More Than Business Pragmatism
  19. Federal Circuit Sets Quick Schedule for Trump Tariff Constitutional Challenge
  20. The Federal Circuit and the Trump Tariff En Banc Ruling
  21. Federal Circuit Clarifies Enablement Standards: Amgen Doesn’t Apply to Anticipatory Prior Art
  22. SCOTUS: Pairing RADesign’s Discovery Rule with Jem’s Laches Defense
  23. The Boundaries of Equivalence: Vitiation in the Complex Arts
  24. Discovering the Crown Jewels: Irreversible Harm in the Digital Age
  25. Maintaining a Speedy and Robust IPR Process Should Be a Major Focus of John Squires’ Patent Quality Efforts
  26. Federal Circuit Dismisses Patent Owner’s Appeal of Favorable IPR Decision for Lack of Standing
  27. Strict Standard for Overriding Patent Lexicography in COVID Vaccine Patent Battle
  28. The USPTO’s Statement on Required Practitioner Review of Information on an IDS
  29. USDOJ: Contributory Infringement Requires Conscious and Culpable Acts
  30. Federal Circuit Decisions – 2024 Stats and Datapack
  31. The Ethics of When Lawyers Make Mistakes

May 2025

  1. Federal Circuit Takes Center Stage in Trump’s Tariff Campaign
  2. On the Edge of Claim Construction: Federal Circuit Splits Over What Counts as a Tile’s ‘Edge’
  3. Uninvited Guests: The Federal Circuit’s Problematic Revival of Waived Arguments
  4. Injury vs. Discovery: The Goldilocks Problem and Copyright’s Statute of Limitations
  5. Inherent Disclosure and Implicit Construction
  6. Perlmutter v. Trump: Does the President Control the Copyright Office?
  7. Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let Down Your Generic Hair (and Let Us In)!
  8. The Remedies Remedy is Almost Complete: EcoFactor v. Google
  9. Federal Circuit Confronts “Divide and Conquer” Briefing Strategy in Patent Appeal
  10. An IDS is Now the Best Defense Against IPRs: Ecto World v. RAI
  11. Thin Ice That Held: Samsung’s IPR Strategy Survived Scrutiny at the Federal Circuit
  12. Federal Circuit on Negative Limitations and Secondary Considerations
  13. Jurisdictional Boundaries in Patent Licensing Disputes: Misuse Counterclaim Creates CAFC Jurisdiction
  14. Formalism, Fictions, and Federalism: Post Expiry Royalties Return to SCOTUS
  15. The Standard for Conception: Don’t Ask “Will it Work”
  16. Transformative Changes: Copyright Leadership Dismissed as AI Report Questions Industry Practices
  17. Reference Recycling and the Case for Sua Sponte Rehearing in Ingenico
  18. Federal Circuit Affirms Trademark Refusal for “US SPACE FORCE” Mark
  19. Throwing Out the Jury: How the Federal Circuit’s ‘Particularized Testimony’ Rule Further Threatens the Doctrine of Equivalents
  20. Estoppel Gutted: A Pelican’s Guide to Patent Litigation
  21. Clinical Trials Get a Legal Shield: Federal Circuit Reverses Pharma Patent Injunction
  22. The Federal Circuit’s Rigid Approach to Secondary Considerations
  23. Legacy of In re Rijckaert: Inherency’s Limited Role in Obviousness Analysis
  24. AI and Cognitive Laziness for Lawyers
  25. By all Means: When Software Functions Lack Correspnding Structure

April 2025

  1. Color Mark Denial on Dark Green Medical Gloves
  2. Privies, Prior Art, and Procedure: Stewart’s Triple Rebuke of PTAB in favor of Patentees
  3. The USPTO’s AI Inventorship Guidance: A Legally Problematic Half-Measure
  4. Soto v. US: Will the Court Require Congress to Say the “Magic Words?”
  5. World IP Day 2025
  6. Federal Circuit Affirms: Rule 60(b) Motion Filed Too Late to Revive Patent Case
  7. Masters of Their Own Petition: The Federal Circuit’s Latest Stance on AAPA
  8. The Priority Paradox: In re Floyd Highlights the Dual Standards of Written Description and Anticipation
  9. The Hughes-Reyna Divide Continues: Dongkuk v. US
  10. Seymour’s Shadow: Reviving the Supreme Court’s Standard for Prior Art Enablement
  11. “Do it on AI” claims are Abstract Ideas
  12. I Know I’m Going to Love a Brief That Repeatedly Cites Marbury v. Madison
  13. Patent Issuance Timeline Accelerated
  14. PHOSITA is no Ordinary Person
  15. Jack Dorsey and Elon Musk Call for Abolition of “All IP Law”
  16. Silicon Valley Judicial Ties: The Cellspin Recusal Case
  17. Judge Shopping vs. Judge Dodging: Federal Circuit Denies SAP’s Transfer Request
  18. When Five Years of Use Isn’t Enough: The High Bar for Highly Descriptive Marks
  19. Non-Tariff Countermeasures to U.S. Tariff Hikes: IP, Services, and Investment Implications
  20. Federal Circuit on Trade Secret Remedies in AMS-OSRAM v. Renesas
  21. No Provisional Rights for Expired Patents
  22. Judge our 14th Annual Patent Moot Court Competition
  23. Challenging the Server Test for Image Embedding
  24. The Return of Robust Discretionary Denials
  25. Convoyed Sales: Federal Circuit Washes Away $2.6M in Patent Damages
  26. En Banc: Lesko v. US and the Future of Agency Deference Post-Loper Bright

March 2025

  1. PatCon 13, April 10-12
  2. Diamond Art Club Challenges USPTO’s Mass Termination of Chinese-Origin Applications in Federal Court
  3. Federal Court Partially Blocks Executive Order Targeting WilmerHale: USPTO Acting Director Among Named Defendants
  4. USPTO Director Takes Control of Expanded Discretionary Denials Amid PTAB Staffing Concerns
  5. Statutory Text vs. Precedent: Analyzing the AIA’s On-Sale Bar for Secret Processes in Celanese v. ITC
  6. Federal Circuit Redefines Prior Art Requirements Under § 102(e)/102(a)(2): In re Riggs
  7. The OxyContin Conundrum: Can a Creator of Crisis Patent Its Solution?
  8. Sheet Music v. Sound Waves: When Old Copyright Law Meets Modern Music
  9. Prosecution Disclaimer Across Patent Family Members
  10. Tax Victory for Generic Drug Companies: Federal Circuit Affirms ANDA Litigation Expenses are Deductible
  11. New PTAB Informative Decision Demands MPF Construction and Parallel Litigation Consistency
  12. Narrowly Broad: The Federal Circuit’s Improper Expansion of Unreviewable Agency Discretion
  13. Guest Post by Profs. Masur & Ouellette: Patent Disclosure and After-Arising Technologies
  14. Secretary of Commerce Clears House at USPTO Advisory Committees
  15. Patent Law Year in Review: Top-Nine Topics for 2025
  16. IP as an Antitrust Exception: SCOTUS Denies Review in $1.6B BMC-IBM Dispute
  17. Design-Around Victory: Amgen’s Self-Buffering Innovation Regeneron’s Claims
  18. Federal Circuit Rules Jepson Claims Need Full Written Description: Another Nail in the Coffin
  19. EcoFactor v. Google: Quick Review of Oral Arguments
  20. EcoFactor v. Google: Listen Live This Morning
  21. Federal Circuit Rejects “Once Generic, Always Generic” Rule in Trademark Dispute Between Whiskey Makers
  22. Convergence: Island IP Points to Wave of Rule 36 Petitions
  23. What Does it Mean to Prove Prior Art Date by a Preponderance of the Evidence?
  24. President Trump Formally Nominates John Squires as USPTO Director
  25. Method Claims can Cover an Entire Process Flow – Including All Conditional Branches
  26. Descriptive or Highly Descriptive? The Federal Circuit Reviews the iVoters vs iVoterGuide Trademark Dispute
  27. Back to the Classics: Importing Limitations from the Specification into the Claims
  28. Federal Circuit offers Another Important Expansion of the Domestic Industry Requirement for USITC Jurisdiction
  29. Estoppel Timing and Procedural Traps in Patent Challenges
  30. USPTO Withdraws Biden Era AI Strategy
  31. PTAB Bar Association Advocates for Stability Amid USPTO Turmoil
  32. The Last Word: ParkerVision’s Reply Brief Makes Final Push for Supreme Court Review of Rule 36
  33. Second-Guessing the Jury: The Federal Circuit’s Flawed Take on Enhanced Damages in Halo v. Pulse
  34. OpenEvidence v. Pathway: The Legal Battle Over AI Reverse Engineering
  35. The Fintiv Pendulum Swings Again: More Discretionary Denials Coming Soon

February 2025

  1. Ninth Circuit Rejects Patent Misuse Defense in Minimum Royalty Dispute, Setting Up Potential Supreme Court Review
  2. The USPTO’s Innovation Double Standard: Which Diversity Initiatives Survive
  3. Federal Circuit Denies Patent Agent Registration for Former USPTO Examiner Who Failed to Disclose Workplace Suspension
  4. USPTO Facing Additional Cuts: What’s Core vs. Expendable
  5. Corporate Shells and Legal Loopholes: The Dewberry Decision’s Trickster Legacy
  6. Patent Office News and Turmoil
  7. Republican Administration Maintains Exclusivity Stance in GLP-1 (Tirzepatide) Compounding Dispute
  8. Privilege Gone Too Far? How a 250-Year-Old Privilege Cost Atturo $10 Million
  9. Bane and Antidote: Copyright Statute of Limitations
  10. The Doctrinal Merger No One Asked For: How Enablement Swallowed Utility
  11. Reimagining Patent Examination: A (Half-Baked) Proposal for Pre-Filing Certification
  12. New USPTO Leadership on the Horizon: Lutnick Confirmed as Commerce Secretary, Squires Expected as Director
  13. Generic Drugs, Skinny Labels, and Liability for Off Label (Infringing) Use
  14. Supreme Court Patent Challenges February 2025
  15. The Burden of Proving Prior Art Enablement
  16. When Properties Define Structure: Eligibility of Composition Claims
  17. Federal Circuit Tightens Expert Testimony Standards in Trudell, Previewing Potential Approach to EcoFactor
  18. Docket This: Working with Clients to Manage the USPTO Continuation Surcharges
  19. Patent Applications After Final Rejection: A One-Year Follow-Up Study
  20. From Sculptors to Headnotes: Chiseling Out Copyright Protection for Westlaw Content
  21. Different Burdens of Proof Prevent IPR Estoppel from Extending to Non-Challenged Claims
  22. Million-Dollar Mysteries: Recent Complex Patent Cases Lost to Rule 36
  23. USPTO After Final Practice: More Rejections, Fewer Appeals, and the Future of RCEs
  24. Federal Circuit Upholds ITC Import Ban: Key Rulings on Storage Defense and Domestic Industry Requirements
  25. Vaishali Udupa Resigns as Commissioner of Patents
  26. Preemption Lost: The Federal Circuit’s Abandonment of Supreme Court Patent Eligibility Doctrine
  27. Federal Circuit Affirms PTAB’s Obviousness Decision Despite Claim Construction Error
  28. Companies Leading in Patent Counts
  29. Most Patent Examiners Protected from USPTO Return-to-Office Mandate (for now) Through Union Agreement
  30. Blurring the Line Between Law and Fact in Patent Eligibility
  31. Attorney Fees in Copyright Cases, Part II
  32. USPTO’s Rapid Policy Shifts Threaten Patent System Stability
  33. The Upcoming Trade Wars: Intellectual Property Rights at Center Stage

January 2025

  1. Federal Circuit Outcomes from the Past Four Years
  2. Follow-up on Peterson v. Minerva: LIFT OUR VOICES Amicus Brief
  3. Biologics Patent Enforcement: Regeneron Patents Block Biosimilar Entry for EYLEA
  4. Discussions of Inequitable Conduct in CAFC Decisions
  5. Is Google Simply Asking for More Efficient Infringement?
  6. Discovery, Injury, and Diligence: Reconciling Subjective and Objective Copyright Limitations Standards Post-Warner Chappell
  7. USPTO’s Remote Work Program Faces Potential Rapid Dismantling Under New Federal Guidelines
  8. Fraud on the Court: Finality and the Ghost of Hazel-Atlas
  9. Reset password
  10. The Reverse Doctrine of Equivalents: An “Anachronistic Exception” Lives Another Day
  11. Detailed Return-to-Office Implementation Guidance: Potentially Major Disruption for USPTO Operations
  12. Federal Circuit (Again) Upholds Ravgen’s Fetal DNA cffDNA Patent
  13. Rocky Start for the USPTO under President Trump and Director Stewart
  14. Heartbeat of the USPTO
  15. Trading Technologies Files Supreme Court Petition on Patent Eligibility, Rule 60(b)(3), and Federal Circuit Procedural Issues
  16. USPTO Faces Twin Challenges: Return-to-Office Mandate and Hiring Freeze Could Significantly Impact Patent Operations
  17. Welcome USPTO Director Coke Morgan Stewart
  18. Fast Track: Chinese Origin Patents Racing Through USPTO via PPH
  19. Priority by Two Days: TTAB Grants Cancellation in Domain Name Dispute Turned Trademark Battle
  20. Stays of District Court Litigation Pending Appeal of IPR Decisions
  21. The Extraterritorial Reach of Trade Secret Law
  22. Federal Circuit’s Filing Requirements: A Trap for Even the Experts
  23. What are your thoughts on the TikTok Ban
  24. The Inviolable Nature of Jury Verdicts
  25. USPTO AI Strategy
  26. Publications Before Publishing and the Federal Circuit’s Temporal Gymnastics
  27. Federal Circuit: State Law Conversion Claim Preempted Where Pleading Seeks Patent-Like Protection
  28. Supreme Court Asked to Expand Fee Recovery in Patent Cases: Can Courts Make Attorneys Pay and What about IPR Fees??
  29. Federal Circuit Rejects Invalidation Based on After-Arising Technology
  30. Racing to the Deadline: Office Action Response Patterns
  31. Federal Circuit: Pink Hip Implants Are Functional, Cannot Be Protected as Trade Dress
  32. Patent Term Adjustments Cut by Applicant Delays: A 23,000 Year Impact
  33. Not Quite Teaching Away: Federal Circuit Clarifies Evidence Needed to Defeat Motivation to Combine
  34. Ripe for Review: Digital Access to a Banana taped to the Wall
  35. Patents as Product Liability Admissions: A Cert Petition Highlights Novel Use of Patent Filings in Whistleblower Case
  36. Federal Circuit Internal Debate over Reversal versus Vacatur
  37. Supreme Court Preview: Will “Skinny Labels” Get a Weight Check?
  38. 2024 Federal Circuit Review

2024 338

December 2024

  1. Patent Grants for 2024
  2. Federal Circuit Affirms Invalidity of Purdue’s OxyContin Patents
  3. Voluntary Dismissals and Attorney Fees
  4. Trade Secret Protection in the Digital Age: When Does Web Scraping Cross the Line?
  5. TikTok – A First Look at the Briefs
  6. Some numbers from this week
  7. Non-Patent IP Cases at the Supreme Court: December 2024 Update
  8. The Federal Circuit’s Divided Path on Divided Infringement
  9. Recent Patent Cases at the Supreme Court
  10. DABUS AI Again Denied European Patent
  11. Orange Book Device Patent Listings: Understanding Teva v. Amneal
  12. Federal Circuit Affirms $95 Million Verdict in E-Cigarette Patent Battle Between Altria and Reynolds
  13. The RESTORE Patent Rights Act: One Little Sentence that Could Change Everything
  14. TikTok at the Supreme Court: First Amendment Meets National Security
  15. Assembling the Obviousness Puzzle: Why Piecemeal Prior Art Analysis Falls Short
  16. The Next USPTO Director: IPO Weighs In
  17. The Abstract Divide: BBiTV Likely to Seek Supreme Court Review of Software Patent Eligibility
  18. Invisible Hand of Patent Licensing: EcoFactor and the Market Realities of Partially Performative Pricing and Lump Sum Licenses
  19. When (and Where) Does Amazon’s APEX Create Personal Jurisdiction
  20. The Silent Circuit: The Growing Backlash against Rule 36 No Opinion Judgments from the Federal Circuit
  21. Mass joinder: Falling apart in the NDIL?
  22. Price Quote’s Written Acceptance Requirement Fails to Shield Patents from On-Sale Bar
  23. Institutional Stonewalling: The Federal Circuit’s Silent Treatment Through Rule 36
  24. Making Changes: (Negative) Impact of Rewriting the Provisional Specification
  25. Dual Sanctions: Courts Can Layer Inherent Power Sanctions on Top of § 285 Awards
  26. A Hole in the Whole: Federal Circuit Makes Inherency an Easier Path to Obviousness
  27. The Federal Circuit’s Blind Spot: ParkerVision and the Problem of Invisible Reasoning
  28. Expert Witness Ethics and Economics: Unpacking the Federal Circuit’s En Banc Review of Damages Testimony in EcoFactor v. Google
  29. USPTO Withdraws Controversial Terminal Disclaimer Rule – But Core Issues Remain
  30. Many Paths to Patent Issuance

November 2024

  1. Thorner and the (Not So) Bright Line Rules of Claim Construction
  2. The Next USPTO Director: Duffy’s Four Factor Test
  3. USPTO Patent Grant Rate and Growing Backlog
  4. Two Decades and Counting: The Never-Ending Section 101 Battle Over Financial Analytics
  5. Genius, Gratitude, and the Patent System
  6. Howard Lutnick and the Patent System
  7. The Federal Circuit’s Oracle: When Silence Speaks Louder Than Words
  8. Supreme Court Requests Response in Edwards Safe Harbor Case
  9. The Art of Attribution and Three Unlikely Theories of AI Authorship
  10. Senate Committee Advances PREVAIL Act
  11. Paws and Effect: Federal Circuit Rejects Indirect Causation Theory in Furbo Infringement Case
  12. USPTO Implements Substantial Fee Increases for 2025: Revenue Needs and Behavioral Incentives
  13. The NHK-Fintiv Saga Continues: USPTO and Amicus Defend Discretionary Denials
  14. Safe Harbor at a Crossroads: Examining Regulatory Development Shield of 271(e)(1) in Edwards v. Meril
  15. The Team-Based Reality of Modern Innovation: Average Patent Now Lists More Than Three Inventors
  16. Patent Claim Count
  17. USPTO Timeliness Slipping: Patent Term Adjustment Data Shows Growing Examination Delays
  18. The Rise of ‘Non-Transitory’ Claims: How a Single Word Became Key to Software Patent Eligibility
  19. Raw Story v. OpenAI: The Constitutional Hurdle That Tripped Up Raw Story’s AI Lawsuit
  20. Federal Circuit Summarily Affirms Invalidity of Geolocation Patent Under Section 101
  21. Damages Experts Analysis on the Front Burner: How Much Analysis is Enough for the Hypothetical Negotiation?
  22. USPTO Director Vidal Announces December Departure
  23. Supreme Court Patent Cases – November 2024
  24. IP Rights and AI Regulation: Finding the Right Balance
  25. From Chief Judge Markey’s Promise to Rule 36: We Do Not Just Render One-Worded Decisions
  26. Oral Arguments Preview: Teva v. Amneal Tests Scope of Orange Book Device Patent Listings
  27. The Federal Circuit’s Antisuit Injunction Decision in Ericsson v. Lenovo has Broader Implications for Global SEP Litigation
  28. Text vs. Purpose: The Hughes-Reyna Divide Reaches Veterans’ Benefits in Soto
  29. A Tale of Two Dewberries: Corporate Structure vs. Trademark Remedies
  30. Supreme Court Asked to Address Constitutionality of Judge Newman Removal
  31. IP & Ski 2025: The Ultimate Intellectual Property Conference Returns to Vail
  32. AI’s Role in U.S. Elections: Republican vs. Democratic Views
  33. Federal Circuit Issues Twin Decisions in Cellspin Cases: Procedure and Timing Matter

October 2024

  1. Federal Circuit’s “Red Flags” Fee Analysis Under Fire: DISH Seeks En Banc Review
  2. Federal Circuit Vacates Denial of Anti-Suit Injunction in FRAND Dispute, Clarifying “Dispositive” Analysis
  3. The Enduring Patent Owner/Licensee Standing Distinction
  4. Text vs Precedent: Celanese and the Secret Process On-Sale Bar
  5. Trade Secrets vs. Patents: Pioneer’s Plant Patent Strategy Raises Thorny Issues (Corny Issues?)
  6. Doctrine of Equivalents: Expert Testimony Must Include Particularized Links
  7. Free Post: Patent Exceptionalism and Procedural Silence: A New Challenge to Federal Circuit Practice
  8. Navigating Unexpected Results: PTAB Decision Outlines Key Requirements for Rule 132 Declarations
  9. Seeds of Doubt: PTAB Rejects Plant Patent Challenge, Citing Genetic Uncertainty
  10. SPEX v. Western Digital: $316 Million Verdict for Means Plus Function Claim
  11. Pleading Stage Claim Construction
  12. Federal Circuit’s Rule 36 Affirmances: A Concerning Trend in Light of Loper Bright
  13. Recent Patent Law Scholarship
  14. Allergan: En Banc Support for Stronger ODP Rules
  15. USPTO Tweaks PTAB AIA-Trial Counsel Rules; NO Major Overhaul
  16. The Substance of OpenAI’s Patent Pledge?
  17. Federal Circuit Revives Patent Suit Against Aetna Over Health Savings Cards
  18. Third-Party Litigation Funding in Patent Cases: Transparency, Ethics, and Policy Concerns
  19. Pink Ceramic Hip Implants: When Functionality Trumps Trade Dress
  20. USPTO Terminates Thousands of Chinese-Origin Patent Applications Due to Forged Attorney/Agent Signatures
  21. Free Post: En Banc Review in Allergan: Rehearing Petition Tackles ODP Safe Harbor and WD Essential Elements
  22. Supreme Court denies Cert
  23. Treading Carefully: Federal Circuit Expands “Absolute Litigation Privilege” and Affirms Trade Dress Invalidity in Toyo Tire v. Atturo Tire
  24. Distinguishing Dastar: False Patent Marking Claims Get New Life Under the Lanham Act
  25. Secret Springing Prior Art and Inter Partes Review
  26. Federal Circuit Slices Through Patent Infringement Verdict: A Damage Apportionment Preview
  27. Diamond in the Rough: Can a Composition of Matter Claim Be an Abstract Idea?
  28. USPTO announces End of AFCP 2.0

September 2024

  1. Animated Arguments: Can Plotagraph’s Digital Animation Patents Survive Alice?
  2. Check your Patent Term Adjustments (PTA): What you Need to Know about the USPTO Error
  3. The Historical Roots of Patent Injunctions: Revisiting Horton v. Maltby (1783)
  4. Free Post: Not Yet in Effect: Clarifying Misconceptions About the USPTO’s Proposed Terminal Disclaimer Rule
  5. Federal Circuit Grants En Banc Rehearing in EcoFactor v. Google, Limiting Damages Expert Testimony
  6. Disparaging in Context: Motivation to Combine Exists Even For a Markedly Inferior Element
  7. Justice is Not Silent: The Case Against One-Word Affirmances in the Federal Circuit
  8. Eligibility, IPRs, and Diversity: The Faces of 2024 Patent Reform
  9. 101 Ways Not to Invalidate: Federal Circuit Rejects Sua Sponte Eligibility Ruling
  10. Announcing FRAND: German Case Law and Global Perspectives
  11. Traditional Principles of Equity Acknowledge that Ongoing Infringement is an Irreparable Harm
  12. Teva v. Amneal: Orange Book Listing Requirements Under Scrutiny
  13. The Enduring Impact of In re Keller on Obviousness Analysis
  14. Supreme Court’s Patent Docket: A Preview of the October 2024 Term
  15. “Directed to” vs. “Reciting” vs. “Involving” an Abstract Idea
  16. If the Barcode Doesn’t Fit: Reconsidering ‘Bodily Incorporation’ in Patent Law
  17. Federal Circuit’s New Hands-Off Approach: Recent Mandamus Denials Signal Shift in Venue Transfer Landscape
  18. Managing tipping payments is an administrative problem, not a technological problem
  19. 2nd Innovator Diversity Pilots Conference: Advancing Inclusion in Innovation
  20. Future of Patent Practice: Balancing Big Firm Mergers and the Boutique Draw
  21. Drafting for Eligibility: Insights from the Federal Circuit’s Contour IP v. GoPro
  22. The Patent Eligibility Restoration Act (PERA) of 2024: From Oz to Earth
  23. Thorn in USPTO’s Side: Judge Fitzpatrick’s Whistleblower Victory
  24. Hindsight 20/20: Federal Circuit Okays Retroactive Expertise
  25. From Knobs to Pixels: UI Patent Eligibility on Trial
  26. Did Jarkesy Undermine Oil States? ParkerVision Thinks So
  27. Tapping our Full Potential: Nominations for US Council on Inclusive Innovation

August 2024

  1. The Art of Losing Gracefully or How Koki’s appellate loss is truly a win.
  2. Omitted Elements and Written Description: Federal Circuit’s Split Decision in Allergan v. Sun Pharma
  3. One Bite at the Apple: WARF’s Second Infringement Theory Gets Precluded
  4. Eye-Opening Verdict: Lashify’s Patent Win Curls Industry Expectations
  5. Rehearing Requested: Hikma Challenges Federal Circuit’s Skinny Label Ruling
  6. Red Flags Waved Off: Federal Circuit Rejects Overzealous Fee Award against Patentee
  7. Old Dog, New Tricks: Government Defends 200-Year-Old ODP Doctrine Even Under Modern Statutes
  8. ITC Patent Jurisdiction: Roku’s Petition and Contreras’ Critique
  9. Deference to District Courts: Federal Circuit’s New Approach to Venue Transfer Petitions
  10. Emphasizing Context in Claim Construction
  11. Apple v. Vidal: APA Compliance in IPR Discretionary Denial Rules
  12. Government Opposition to Chestek’s Cert Petition
  13. EcoFactor Responds: Defending the Federal Circuit’s Damages Ruling Allowing Qualitative Apportionment
  14. No Concrete Plans, No Standing: Federal Circuit’s Latest on IPR Appeals
  15. Defense Side Amici Support for Tighter Reins on Damages Expert Testimony
  16. Policy Considerations: The On-Sale Bar for Secret Processes
  17. Family Planning Patent Style: Allergan, Cellect, and the ODP Maze
  18. No Sugar-Coating: Post-AIA Patent on Secret Process Barred by Pre-Filing Sale of Product
  19. Zebra’s Stripes: Just So Stories about Patent Standing
  20. Patently-O Updates for Friday, August 9, 2024
  21. Bleak House Revisited: Lemon Bay Cove and the Regulatory Takings Quagmire
  22. Means-Plus-Function Claims in Patent Eligibility and Infringement Analyses
  23. Welcome to Patently-O
  24. Federal Circuit Narrows AIA Grace Period: Public Disclosure Must Make Invention ‘Reasonably Available’
  25. Federal Circuit Slices the Bologna Thin with IPR Rehearing Waiver Decision

July 2024

  1. NO FAKES Act: Unpacking the New Bipartisan Bill on Digital Replicas
  2. Presumption of Injunction: How the RESTORE Act Aims to Re-Empower Patent Holders
  3. Federal Circuit Closes Book on TRUMP TOO SMALL Trademark Saga
  4. Degrees of Disagreement: Google Petitions En Banc on Smart Thermostat Patent Damages
  5. Lovevery Argues that APEX Jurisdiction Holding Undermines Anti-Counterfeiting Efforts
  6. Deja Vu All Over Again: SCOTUS Asked Again to Revisit Patent Eligibility
  7. Obtaining vs. Maintaining: How SoftView v. Apple Reshapes Patentee Estoppel
  8. Clever Pleading Can’t Save Koss’s Patents from Issue Preclusion Invalidity
  9. Patent Puzzles after the Supreme Court’s 2024 Administrative Law Cases: Stare Decisis, Rulemaking, and Discretion
  10. Animated GUI Design Patents
  11. The Shift Towards Primary Examiners: Implications for Patent Prosecution
  12. Ejusdem Generis Goes to War in Reservist Pay Dispute
  13. Alice Backs Anna: Federal Circuit Finds Miller Mendel’s Background Check Patent Abstract
  14. Expired Patent, Exploding Sanctions: A Costly Litigation Lesson for VDPP and its Attorney
  15. USPTO Issues 2024 Guidance on Patent Eligibility for AI Inventions
  16. The Phantom Menace: Federal Circuit Upholds Judge Connolly’s Investigative Powers Even After Dismissal
  17. Zimmer v. Insall: The Power of Arbitration Agreements in Patent Royalty Disputes
  18. Post-Loper Bright Patent Law: Will SCOTUS Redefine PTAB Discretion?
  19. The Long Arm of APEX: When (and Where) does Amazon’s Private Enforcement Mechanism Create Personal Jurisdictional
  20. Data on Terminal Disclaimers Across Art Units
  21. Guest Post by Profs. Lemley & Ouellette: Fixing Double Patenting
  22. Fixing Double Patenting: The Procrustean Solution?
  23. Cellect: Unveiling the Potential Impact on Patent Term Adjustment
  24. The Emperor’s New Judgments: Rule 36 and the Invisible Cloth of Patent Law
  25. A few initial thoughts on Loper Bright and the end of Chevron Deference

June 2024

  1. Pending IP Cert Petitions at the Supreme Court
  2. Texas Startup Must Litigate Apple in California because of Convenience to the Tech Giant
  3. Amarin v. Hikma: Federal Circuit reverses Inducement Dismissal in Skinny-Label Case
  4. Dewberry Group: Structuring the Firm to Avoid Trademark Liability
  5. Sitting By Designation, Judge Albright Pens First Federal Circuit Opinion Vacating PTAB Decision for Failing to Consider Petitioner’s Reply Brief Claim Construction Arguments
  6. Does Justice Thomas Hate Invention or Just the Hubris of Inventors?
  7. Patentees Out of Luck Again: CAFed Sides with DraftKings that Remote Gambling Patent Ineligible
  8. Double Trouble: IPO asks for Supreme Court review of PTA/ODP Cellect dispute
  9. Trade Secret Misappropriation Preliminary Injunction Reversed
  10. Democracy on Trial: Chestek and the Future of USPTO Accountability
  11. Federal Circuit Affirms Patent Rejection for Lack of Enablement in In re Pen
  12. Trump Too Small: Supreme Court Upholds Lanham Act’s Restriction on Registering Marks With Living Individual’s Names Without Consent
  13. Pending En Banc Petitions at the Federal Circuit
  14. Design Patent Examination Updates
  15. Veterans’ Benefits at the Supreme Court: The Battle Over Benefit-of-the-Doubt
  16. Supreme Court Update: June 2024
  17. Father’s Day Gear Guide
  18. Mishandled Disclosures: A Greek Tragedy in IP Law
  19. Patently-O Bits and Bytes
  20. 1 minute design patent survey
  21. Guest Post: Diversity Pilots Initiative Comment on Proposed Changes to PTAB Practice
  22. LKQ v. GM: Join us on June 4 at Noon (ET)
  23. Goodbye Rosen references, hello Jennings references?

May 2024

  1. Commenting on the USPTO’s Proposed Rule on Terminal Disclaimers
  2. The NYIPLA Brief: Advocating for Patent Term Adjustments
  3. Implied Contracts with the Government over Counterfeit Coins
  4. Celebrity Names and Trademark Claims: Insights from the Hobbs Winery Case
  5. WIPO Adopts Treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources, and Associated Traditional Knowledge
  6. USPTO Adapts to CAFC’s New Guidelines: What Design Patent Examiners Need to Know
  7. Speck v. Bates: Federal Circuit’s Two-Way Test for Pre-Critical Date Claims Limits Belated Interferences and Derivation Proceedings
  8. Decoding Patent Ownership beginning with Core Principles
  9. Nominate Someone (Yourself?) for the USPTO’s Advisory Committees
  10. Federal Circuit Overrules Rosen-Durling Test for Design Patent Obviousness
  11. Cellect or Reject? SCOTUS Asked to Consider Fate of ODP Doctrine
  12. Federal Circuit Limits Defendant Attorneys’ Fees Awards for IPR Expenses
  13. Discussing Stern’s “Myth of Nonrivalry” for Patent Law
  14. USPTO ARP Panel Restores MPF Sanity, but Still Rejects Xencor’s Claims
  15. Navigating the USPTO’s Regulatory Wave: Key Comment Deadlines for Summer 2024
  16. The Legacy of A.B. Dick and Motion Picture Patents: How these 100+ Year Old Ruling Reshaped Patent Law
  17. PREP Act Immunity and its Silent Treatment of Intellectual Property Rights
  18. How Chestek Impacts USPTO’s Rulemaking Authority and the Push to Restore
  19. Gorsuch’s “Dead Letter” Prophecy: Hearst v. Martinelli may Settle Copyright’s Discovery Rule following the Warner Chappell Avoidance
  20. Terminal Disclaimers: A Growing Concern in Patent Practice
  21. Major Proposed Changes to Terminal Disclaimer Practice (and You are Not Going to Like it)
  22. Supreme Court Affirms Availability of Back-Damages Under Copyright Discovery Rule
  23. Finding More Than Studs: Domestic Industry Nexus Tightens
  24. Eolas Seeks Supreme Court Review of Federal Circuit’s Patent Eligibility Decision
  25. Patenting Informational Innovations: IOEngine Narrows the Printed Matter Doctrine
  26. Cycling Towards Confusion: Is there room for iFIT Fitness Services and iFIT Safety Glasses?
  27. Amazon Patent Enforcement Process Can Create Personal Jurisdiction
  28. Federal Circuit Untangles Trademark Dispute
  29. Post-Default Creditor’s Right to Assign, License and Enforce Patent does not Disturb Patentee’s Separate Right to Sue Infringers

April 2024

  1. Discerning Signal from Noise: Navigating the Flood of AI-Generated Prior Art
  2. Ikorongo Challenges Federal Circuit’s Heightened “Same Invention” Requirement for Reissue Patents
  3. The Non-Compete Ban: Impact on Patenting and Challenging Implementation
  4. Without Undue Experimentation vs Without Any Experiments
  5. Guest post by Profs. Chien and Grennan: Unpacking the Innovator-Inventor Gap: Evidence from Engineers
  6. Guest post by Lolita Darden: PPAC’s Bold Strategy to Transform Patent Inclusion
  7. SCT: False Claims Act Actions Based Upon Fraudulently Obtained Patent Rights
  8. UMKC School of Law Wins National Patent Application Drafting Competition
  9. What is Next for Enablement and Written Description of Antibody Claims?
  10. Supreme Court Declines to Hear Vanda’s Patent Obviousness Appeal
  11. AI Visualize and the Eligibility of Innovative AI Systems
  12. Seeking Clarity on Comparison Prior Art: Seirus Petitions Supreme Court in Heat Wave Design Patent Dispute
  13. Codifying Discretionary Denial of IPR Petitions
  14. AI as Author: Thaler v. Perlmutter Now Before the DC Circuit
  15. False Patent Marking as False Advertising: Overcoming Dastar
  16. What I’m reading from academic journals
  17. The Use of Mandated Public Disclosures of Clinical Trials as Prior Art Against Study Sponsors
  18. Proposed Changes to Patent Law’s Proper Venue Statute: Venue Equity and Non-Uniformity Elimination Act of 2024
  19. New USPTO Director Review Rules
  20. Patentee’s Unclean Hands
  21. What I’m doing with LLM-Based GenAI Tools
  22. Patent Term Adjustment and Obviousness-Type Double Patenting: Cellect’s Bid for Supreme Court Review
  23. The Design Law Treaty and the Struggle for International Harmonization of Industrial Design Protection
  24. Guest post by Prof. Holbrook: Extraterritoriality and Patent Damages Under § 271(a)
  25. Using AI in your Patent Practice
  26. Docketing Nightmare: CPA Global wins Despite their Docketing Error; Law Firm still on the hook for Missed Deadline
  27. Federal Circuit Affirms ITC Divided Opinion in Sonos v. ITC
  28. De Forest Radio v. GE: A Landmark Supreme Court Decision on the Invention Requirement
  29. Munsingwear Mootness in Sumitomo Pharma v. Vidal
  30. Guest Post: Where Are the Patent Judge Shoppers Going?
  31. USPTO Fees: Targeted Higher Fees to Push for Compact
  32. Rader on 101 and the Statutory Text
  33. In re Xencor: USPTO’s Inaction Following Federal Circuit Remand
  34. Dow Chemical’s 1945 ‘Perfectly Plain’ Test for Obviousness
  35. Patent Rights and Cell-Free DNA cancer testing
  36. Federal Circuit Affirms Invalidity of Blockchain Gemstone Tracking Patent Under Section 101
  37. Obviousness and Pharmaceutical Method of Treatment Claims

March 2024

  1. Jury Instructions and Objective Indicia of Nonobviousness: Federal Circuit Grants New Trial in Inline Plastics v. Lacerta
  2. Today’s Obviousness Key: Motivation to Combine
  3. Federal Circuit Debates Scope of 271(e)(1) Safe Harbor and the Meaning of “Solely”
  4. The Quest for a Meaningful Threshold of Invention: Atlantic Works v. Brady (1883)
  5. Law School Casebook Review: Patent Law Fundamentals (Brean & Snow) 2d Ed
  6. The Obviousness Hurdle
  7. Guidance on Examining Means Plus Function Claims
  8. Judge Dodging: Apple loses Mandamus Transfer Action This Time
  9. Reviving the Permanent Injunction Inquiry: Federal Circuit Rejects a Categorical Rule Against Injunctions for Licensing Patentees
  10. More on Reasonable Expectation of Success from the Federal Circuit
  11. Licensing by Acquisition: The High-Stakes Dispute Over Whether Intel is Licensed to VLSI’s Patents
  12. Inventorship Correction Affirmed for Patent on Intermodal Container for Transporting Gaseous Fluids
  13. The Judicial Conference and Its Random Assignment “Policy”
  14. When is a Government Official’s Social Media a State Action?
  15. Banning TikTok: Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act
  16. The Analogous Art Doctrine Post-KSR: Insights from the Federal Circuit’s Daedalus Decision
  17. Timeliness in Supreme Court Practice
  18. When ‘Interlock’ Causes Gridlock: Lessons from the Federal Circuit’s Decision in CoolIT Systems v. Vidal
  19. Magic Language in Patent Applications
  20. Newly Released CBP Ruling Reveals Apple Watch Pulse Oximetry Redesign
  21. Celanese v. ITC: The Overlooked 271(g) Wrinkle and Competing Policy Concerns
  22. No Contradiction ⇒ No Indefiniteness
  23. Pfizer v. Sanofi: Applying the Results-Effective Variable Doctrine in Obviousness Analysis
  24. AI and Society: Government, Policy, and the Law at Mizzou
  25. Celanese v. ITC: Can a Secret Manufacturing Process Be Patented After Sale of the Resulting Product?
  26. The AGI Lawsuit: Elon Musk vs. OpenAI and the Quest for Artificial General Intelligence that Benefits Humanity
  27. Eligibility and Physical Products

February 2024

  1. Four Funerals: Recent PTAB 101 Decisions
  2. Covenant to not sue “at any time” terminated with the license agreement
  3. Making a Proper Determination of Obviousness
  4. Burden of Proof Buffers Patent Owner Misconduct in Patent Revival Case
  5. Pour Me Another: The Supreme Court Revisits the ‘Bad Wine’ of the Copyright Discovery Rule
  6. The Sky’s the Limit: How Chestek Frees the USPTO
  7. Beyond the Limit: The Battle Over Copyright Back-Damages in Warner Chappell Music v. Nealy
  8. Obviousness: Is a Reasonable Expectation of Success Sufficient
  9. Federal Circuit Decisions – 2023 Stats and Datapack
  10. Incorporation by Reference Rules at the Federal Circuit
  11. Redefining Patent Continuation Strategy: Sonos v. Google Appeal
  12. Joint Inventorship: AI-Human Style
  13. Judge Newman’s D.C. Lawsuit Against Fellow Judges Largely Dismissed on Jurisdictional Grounds
  14. Playing From The Rough: Kirkland Signature™ Irons and The Doctrine of Equivalents
  15. March-In Rights
  16. Don’t Judge a Range by its Cover: Federal Circuit Sides with Patentee on Written Description Support
  17. Broad Bayh-Dole March-In Licensing Rights Affirmed in Alzheimer’s Mouse Patent Dispute
  18. Federal Circuit Reverses PTAB on Printed Publication Status of Operating Manuals
  19. AI and Patent Attorney Misconduct
  20. Judicial Misconduct Sanction Against Judge Newman Affirmed
  21. Livestream of LKQ v. GM
  22. The US Constitution as an Interpretive Tool for Obviousness Law
  23. LKQ Corporation v. GM Global Tech: Design Patent En Banc
  24. Two Mandamus Petitions: Transfer Granted, Improper Service Denied

January 2024

  1. Gogo Continues In-Flight Services as Federal Circuit Rejects SmartSky’s Preliminary Injunction Appeal
  2. Race to the Finish: Timing Battles in Parallel IPR and District Court Litigation
  3. Has Diehr been Overruled?; and How do you Prove Technological Advance
  4. Federal Circuit on TM Law’s Information Matter Doctrine
  5. Guest Post by Prof Burstein: Sanctions & Schedule A
  6. Judge Pauline Newman: Evaluate For Yourself
  7. USPTO Granted Remand in Important Antibody Written Description Case
  8. Vanda Seeks Supreme Court Review on Lower Standard for Obviousness
  9. En Banc Denied in In re Cellect: Double Patenting and Patent Term Adjustment
  10. See you Soon: Three Upcoming Events
  11. A present assignment of future continuation applications
  12. Federal Circuit Upholds PTAB’s Obviousness Finding and Joinder Decision in CyWee v. ZTE Smartphone Patent Case
  13. Federal Circuit Rejects Another PTAB-Bias Appeal
  14. Apple Watch Stays on US Market, But Pulse-Ox Disabled Pending Appeal
  15. The Carrot and Stick Approach to Innovation
  16. Ethical Infantilism in the Age of Technological Advancement
  17. Improving Efficiency to Increase Competition Act: Burdens of Bayh-Dole
  18. ITC: Apple is an “Adjudicated Infringer” Improperly Seeking “Permission to Continue Infringing”
  19. USPTO Guidelines: Amgen is a Nothingburger
  20. Claim Construction and its Role in Eligibility
  21. Yes, a “single biomolecule” means one biomolecule
  22. A publication “by others” under pre-AIA Section 102
  23. Supreme Court Denies Certiorari in Three Patent Cases
  24. Federal Funded Innovation and March-In Rights
  25. Sharon Israel, PTO New Chief Policy Officer
  26. Plagiarism Police come for Winston & Strawn
  27. Federal Circuit Affirms Invalidity of Genus Claims to Stevia Production Method Lacking Written Description and Narrower Claims as Combining Natural Phenomena with an Abstract Idea
  28. The First Precedential Patent Decision of 2024: Dexcom v. Abbott Diabetes Care
  29. Patent Law Exam 2023: Are you Smarter than a Law Student?
  30. Coffee and Claim Construction: The Plain and Ordinary Meaning of “Barcode”

2023 289

December 2023

  1. Patent Grant Total 2023
  2. Trademark Influencers and Aspen Mountain
  3. Artificial Intelligence and Copyright in China: Lessons from a Recent Court Case
  4. Federal Circuit Appellate court Grants Emergency Stay of Apple Watch Ban
  5. Fed Cir affirms PTAB decision Invalidating 1996 Patent on Mobile Base Stations
  6. Emergency Appeal of the Apple Watch Ban
  7. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Patently-O
  8. Guest post by Gugliuzza, Goodman, & Rebouché: Inequality and Intersectionality at the Federal Circuit
  9. Guest post by Heath, Seegert, & Yang: Open-Source Innovation and Team Diversity
  10. No Patent for Robot Inventions: UK Supreme Court Rules on AI Inventorship in Thaler v. Comptroller-General
  11. Dismissal but no Vacatur: Federal Circuit Declines to Disturb PTAB’s Upholding of Dafni’s Hair Brush Patent
  12. Serving Foreign Defendants: Navigating the Hague and Texas Substituted Service
  13. The Battle Over Domicile Disclosure by Trademark Applicants
  14. Bolstered by 5th Circuit, Federal Circuit Again Rejects WTDX Judge Albright’s Venue Analysis
  15. USPTO Stands Firm that Patent Term Adjustment Creates Double Patenting Risk
  16. Acadia: Easy Tricks to Skirt Double Patenting Challenges
  17. Emergency Motion Sheds some Light on the Litigation Funder – Law Firm Relationship
  18. Federal Circuit Continues to Apply Strict Obviousness-Type Double Patenting Analysis
  19. More Than Just “Inventory”: Some Professional Responsibility Implications of Third Party Patent Assertion Entity Funding
  20. Federal Circuit Decision Causes Confusion on Trademark Cancellation
  21. The FTC’s Misguided Comments on Copyright Office Generative AI Questions
  22. When is the use of a product a “substantial noninfringing use” for purposes of Section 271(c)?
  23. Drafting Functional Claims Still Risky Post-Alice
  24. Sonos v. Google: Late Claiming Estoppel
  25. Skinny Label Avoids Infringement
  26. USPTO again Asks for Remand in Xencor to reconsider its Decisions.
  27. Inferring Secondary Meaning from Product Design Copying
  28. Will AI lead to dramatic changes in patent prosecution over the next 5 years?
  29. Brushed Aside? Dafni Tries to Keep its PTAB Win against Ontel
  30. Join Me for the Ski CLE in Snowmass!
  31. VLSI’s $2.2b Infringement Verdict Rejected by Federal Circuit
  32. Permissible Repair versus Impermissible Reconstruction
  33. No Mandamus Relief in Privilege Ruling
  34. Motion for remand in Xencor

November 2023

  1. Jepson Claims
  2. Jepson Formats and Means Limitations Under More Fire
  3. Supreme Court on Patent Law: November 2023
  4. Seeing Clearly: Article III Standing of IPR Judicial Review
  5. A Question of First Impression: What Happens When the PTAB Fails to Meet the Statutory Deadline for Issuing a Final Written Decision?
  6. Sermon from the Bench: TTAB May Not “Altar” Course in Silence
  7. Prior Art as of the Effective Filing Date
  8. The Fate of Patent Term Adjustment: In re Cellect Seeks Rehearing on Double Patenting
  9. Guest Post: Judgment Preservation Insurance and the Federal Circuit
  10. The MPF Resurrection: Still Waiting for a Miracle?
  11. GUI Guidelines: The Old Rules are New Again
  12. Further Thoughts on Patent Eligibility and Predictability
  13. Failures to Function and Likelihood of Confusion: Takeaways from Two Recent Federal Circuit Trademark Decisions
  14. 14,000 Words to Win It: Why Medtronic’s Appeal Strategy Backfired
  15. Predicting Eligibility
  16. Design Patent Bar Now Reality
  17. The Predictability of the Mayo/Alice Framework – A New Empirical Perspective
  18. AI as an Inventing Tool – it’s Implications for Patent Law
  19. Guest post by Hampole, Truffa & Wong: Breaking the Glass Ceiling: The Power of Female Peer Networks
  20. Guest Post by Alice Li: Tips for Strengthening Innovation Ecosystems and Technology Transfer
  21. The Debate Over the PREVAIL Act in PTAB Patent Reform
  22. In re TikTok: Fifth Circuit Implicitly Backs Federal Circuit’s Use of Mandamus to Transfer Cases Out of W.D.Tex.
  23. Rounding the Bend: Claim Construction and the Role of Extrinsic Evidence
  24. The Price of Principled Dissent: Fee-Shifting as a Deterrent to Legitimate Critique of Patent Doctrine
  25. Nose of Wax: The Ongoing Ambiguity in Claim Construction Standards
  26. Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence

October 2023

  1. Prosecution Strategies for the AIA Era
  2. Post-Hoc Party: You Should Have Said That Before
  3. Techno-Optimism and Its Ties to the U.S. Patent System
  4. One Patent’s ‘Processor’ is Another’s ‘Means for Processing’: Dueling Claim Constructions at the Federal Circuit
  5. Copyright-Free Sandbox: Implications of AI-Generated Content
  6. One or More: One Simple Trick to Invalidate this Patent
  7. Fraudulent Incontestability Declarations: Textual Fidelity vs. Fraud Deterrence
  8. The Complex Fact/Law Divide in Obviousness Analysis
  9. Amending Claims to Capture Post-Filing Market Activity
  10. Patent Continuation Strategies Face Major Threat
  11. Claim Construction and the Indefinite Article Shuffle
  12. Secondary Considerations Get Short Shrift in Airbed Patent Fight
  13. The History and Importance of the Jury Trial System – An Excerpt from a Patent Infringement Trial
  14. Sisvel v. Sierra Wireless – Useful Guidance for Prosecutors on Motivation to Combine and Means-Plus-Function Claims
  15. Upcoming Events
  16. VirnetX Seeks Supreme Court Review of IPR Joinder and Fake Acting Officials
  17. Kavanaugh Signals Openness to Revisiting Patent Eligibility Framework as Supreme Court Declines CareDx Petition

September 2023

  1. Discovering the Limit: Calculating the Copyright Damages Timeline
  2. Broad Claims Bite Back: Drafting Narrower Scope in the Age of IPR
  3. Seeking Comment on Standards, SEPs, and Competitiveness
  4. Guest post by Dr. Dimeglio – An Invitation to Inclusive Innovation
  5. Guest Post by Prof. Goodman – Unseen Contributors: Rethinking Attribution in Legal Practices for Equity and Inclusion
  6. Emails Analyzing Own Patents Likely Not Trade Secrets
  7. Federal Circuit Affirms Finding of Indefiniteness in Dispute Over Mobile Phone and Camera Patents
  8. Caddo v. Siemens: Microsoft Settlement Covers Downstream Use and No Jurisdiction Over Foreign Parent
  9. How Prosecution History Can Support a Motivation to Combine
  10. Federal Circuit Suspends Judge Newman for Refusing Mental Exam
  11. Enabled to Claim the Unknown? Federal Circuit applies Amgen v. Sanofi to invalidate broad antibody claims
  12. Supreme Court Patent Petitions: Seeking Guidance on Eligibility, Inventorship, and Procedure
  13. Logos Remain Relevant: Source Confusion and Design Patent Infringement
  14. Federal Circuit Narrows Scope of Egyptian Goddess
  15. A Point of View vs The Point of View: Federal Circuit’s Subtle Claim Construction
  16. Narrowing the Analogous Arts with a Problem-Solution Statement
  17. The Federal Circuit’s New Reluctance to Limit Claims
  18. Navigating Claim Construction and Broadening Amendments: Lessons from Sisvel v. Sierra Wireless
  19. Mandamus for Improper Venue
  20. US Copyright Office Generative AI Inquiry: Where are the Thresholds?
  21. USPTO Downsizes HQ; Building Owner Faces Financial Troubles

August 2023

  1. Venue Transfer Games Continue: Rafqa Star v. Google
  2. “Intent Engine” Claims Fail 101 for Lack of Technological Inventive Concept
  3. Taylor v. Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP: A Cautionary Tale for Inventors and Startups
  4. Double Patenting and Patent Term Adjustment
  5. Publicly Traded International Patent Firm IPH Continue Growth through Acquisition
  6. 9th Circuit Revives False Claims Act Action for Fraud on the Patent Office
  7. “Bald Girls Do Lunch” Unable to Sway the Federal Circuit in Case Involving Deuterated Drug for Alopecia Areata
  8. Third Circuit Allows Deduction of Generic Hatch-Waxman Defense Costs
  9. PTAB Captains Take Notice: Carefully Weigh Secondary Considerations
  10. Guest Post: Diversity Pledge: Boosting Innovation and Competitiveness
  11. Guest Post: Why Do Women Face Challenges in the Patent Process?
  12. Aseptic Patent Law: Which Side of Literal do you Favor?
  13. Looking Back: Graver Tank after 70 years
  14. Utility Patents Granted per Calendar Year, 1840-2022
  15. Size Matters: Element-by-Element Analysis in Obviousness
  16. DC District Court: AI-Created Works Ineligible for Copyright
  17. Three issues: Law/Fact Distinction in Obviousness; Envisaging the Invention; and Newman in Dissent
  18. New Amendment to FRCP Could Help Streamline Privilege Management in Patent Cases
  19. Meta Claim Construction: Finding Meaning in the Meaning
  20. ApoA1-Fc Fusion Proteins: Federal Circuit keeps Patent Hopes Alive, Holding that the USPTO Must Explain its Decisions
  21. Shifting Arguments at the PTAB
  22. Shamoon v. Resideo: Obviousness affirmed
  23. PTAB Strategy: Balancing the Sandbagging
  24. Special Committee: Newman Should be Suspended for 1 Year based upon Refusal to Undergo Medical Examinations
  25. Claim Construction Order Sets Stage for Moderna v. Pfizer Vaccine Patent Showdown
  26. Overlapping Patent Doctrines: Eligibility versus Enablement
  27. Federal Circuit Jurisdiction over Permissive Counterclaims raising Patent Issues

July 2023

  1. Federal Circuit’s Sleepy Obviousness Decision and Vanda’s En Banc Rehearing Petition
  2. Enablement, Written Description, and Anticipation: Takeaways from United Therapeutics v. Liquidia
  3. Registering Product Design and the Functional Limitation
  4. A National Right of Publicity: the Federal Anti-Impersonation Right (FAIR)
  5. Essential Elements Test for Reissues Patents
  6. User Matching Patent Fails 101 Test for Lacking Technical Improvement
  7. SNIPR v. Rockefeller: A Final Nail in the Interference Coffin
  8. Stay on Target: Proper Obviousness Analysis Requires Focus on Claimed Invention
  9. Guest Post by Prof. Koffi: A Gender Gap in Commercializing Scientific Discoveries
  10. Guest Post: “Design Patent Exceptionalism” Isn’t
  11. Claim Preclusion Across Infringement Types
  12. Building a Better BOTOX®? PGR and Enablement
  13. Stumbling in the Dark: Regional Circuit Law at the Federal Circuit

June 2023

  1. Reevaluating Design Patent Obviousness
  2. Guest Post by Kevin Ahlstrom: Closing the Gender Innovation Gap with Guided Inventor Sessions
  3. What is in the Final Rejections: Eligibility
  4. Promoting and Respecting Economically Vital American Innovation Leadership (PREVAIL) Act
  5. An Overview of Proposed Changes in the ‘Patent Eligibility Restoration Act of 2023’
  6. Claim Construction and the Power of Preferred Embodiments
  7. Certiorari Petition: Wakefield v. Blackboard – Challenging Judge Newman’s Competency
  8. Judge Newman’s Standoff with the Federal Circuit: Refusal to Comply as Misconduct
  9. Reframing ITC’s Role: The Advancing America’s Interests Act
  10. Proposing Locations for Southeast Regional Office
  11. En Banc: Is Obviousness Law or Fact?
  12. Recitation of a Previously Unappreciated Mechanism of Action Does Not Overcome Prima Facie Obviousness of Drug Combination
  13. Guest post by Prof. Robinson: How We Can Bridge the Innovation Gap
  14. USPTO Advisory Committees: An Opportunity to Advocate for Beneficial Innovation
  15. Providing a Detailed Explanation of the Evidence
  16. The Supreme Court to Decide if Trump is Too Small
  17. Apple v. Vidal: A Case for the Supreme Court on USPTO Discretionary Denial
  18. Has Trademark Law Become a Parody?
  19. Court Finds that it would be Inconvenient for Major Multinational Corporation (Microsoft) to Litigate in Texas
  20. Nike’s Patent Saga Highlights Controversial PTAB Practices
  21. Judge Newman on Saving Patent Law
  22. Patently-O Bits and Bytes by Juvan Bonni

May 2023

  1. Guest Post: Jillian Grennan, Charting New Paths in Innovation: Reflections from Harvard’s Innovation Economics Conference
  2. Questioning Conventionality and Redefining Process in Patent Eligibility Law
  3. The Silent Echo: Supreme Court’s Non-Engagement with the Federal Circuit in Amgen v. Sanofi
  4. Guest Post: Piers Blewett, Bridging the Gap: IP Education for All with SLW Academy
  5. Challenges of Proving Inventorship: Corroboration of All Inventive Facts
  6. Devil’s Dictionary of Patent Law
  7. Guest Post: Margo Bagley, The Diversity Pilots Initiative
  8. PTAB Finds Patentee Breached Duty of Candor During IPR But in Doing So Conflates Rule 56 and IPR Candor Rules
  9. Some Thoughts on Amgen v. Sanofi
  10. Summary Judgment Denial and Its Ramifications for Attorney Fee Motions
  11. Connect & Collaborate: Unpacking the NAPP 2023 Annual Meeting & Conference
  12. Shaping the Future of Patent Law: The Amgen v. Sanofi Decision and Bite-Sized Monopolies
  13. Assessing Judicial Fitness: Judge Newman’s Alleged Cognitive Decline
  14. Streamlining the Qualification Process: Key Changes to the USPTO Patent Practitioner Registration
  15. A New Horizon: Design Patent Practitioner Bar Proposed by USPTO
  16. Certiorari Denied in Eligibility Cases
  17. Judicial Disability and the “Great Dissenter”
  18. Petitioner’s Failure to Argue that Prior Art was Analogous to Challenged Patent Results in Reversal of IPR Decision
  19. Judge Newman vs. Chief Judge Moore
  20. Comments on USPTO Proposed Fee Changes
  21. Can States Legislate in the AI Rights Space?
  22. Attorney Fees on Undecided Inequitable Conduct Issues
  23. An API for the Human Mind
  24. Generative AI and Copyright
  25. Bringing Home the Bacon with Joint Inventorship
  26. The Split on Pleading Scienter for Inequitable Conduct
  27. The Supreme Court and Patent Protection for Medical Diagnostics: A Closer Look at CareDx and Stanford U v. Eurofins
  28. Supreme Court Holds Over Two Patent Cases, Considers Two More on Patent Eligibility
  29. Professional Liability risks of filing in DOCX
  30. Establishing Guidelines for Patent Damages: The Garretson v. Clark Case of 1884

April 2023

  1. Importance of Due Diligence for Patent Practitioners and the US/China Economic War
  2. Functional Claims: Morse, Halliburton & Amgen
  3. Patent Law Primer: A Newsletter Series on Key Patent Law Topics
  4. What Does it Mean to be an Inventor? The Inventor Diary Project and Kicking off the Diversity Pilots Initiative Blog Series
  5. Guidance on Patenting Inventions with AI Contributions
  6. Hrdy & Seaman: Are NDAs unenforceable when they protect more than trade secrets?
  7. AI Inventor and the Ethics Trap for US Patent Attorneys
  8. Amgen Scores Partial Victory in Efforts to Maintain OTEZLA Exclusivity
  9. Obviousness and Stereochemistry
  10. In re Charger Ventures: Federal Circuit Affirms TTAB Denial of Trademark Registration
  11. Claim Construction and Due Process: Examining NST Global v. Sig Sauer Inc. in the Supreme Court
  12. Inventorship; Ownership; and NDAs
  13. An AI Journey From Fractals to GPT
  14. Patently-O Bits and Bytes by Juvan Bonni
  15. Overlapping Ranges in Claims and Prior Art Result in Invalidation of Patent on Transdermal Patch for Parkinson’s Disease
  16. Federal Circuit Confirms its Scrutiny of Judge Newman
  17. An Opinion on Chief Judge Moore’s Reported Unprecedented Effort to Remove Judge Newman
  18. The EU’s Response to National Judicial Determinations of FRAND Royalty Rates
  19. Judge Newman
  20. Eligibility and the U.S. Solicitor General: Patenting the Scientific, Technological, and Industrial Arts
  21. Federal Circuit: Construing the Term “A” once Again
  22. Federal Circuit Narrows Scope for Copyrighting Software Function
  23. What should the patent attorney do?
  24. eGrants and Quick Issuances
  25. Small Jazz Musician Foils Apple Music Trademark Registration
  26. Skilled Searcher Test Allows Estoppel for Unknown References

March 2023

  1. The Brandeis Brief in Patent Cases
  2. Bye Bye Functional Claims
  3. Venue Transfer and Witness Credibility
  4. $469 Million: There and Gone
  5. Abitron v. Hetronic: Extraterritorial Application of U.S. Trademark Law
  6. All Inventors are Human; All Humans are Inventors
  7. Only Some of the Claims are Invalid
  8. Preparing for Automated Examination
  9. IPRs and the APA: Review of Director’s Discretion to Initiate IPRs
  10. Stipulated Judgment must be Unambiguous; and the Canon of Common Sense Claim Construction
  11. SVB and its Security Interests
  12. Publicly Traded International Patent Firms
  13. Multiple dependent claims, blaze marks, and ipsis verbis support
  14. Issue its “Mandate and Opinion”
  15. Laundry Lists of Components are Insufficient Written Description for a Particular Combination
  16. CHIPS and Science Act
  17. Eligibility for Dummies; Benson Redux
  18. IP Law in the 21st Century at Columbia Law in NYC
  19. Are Drill Bits Now Abstract Ideas Too?

February 2023

  1. Guest Post by Profs. Masur & Ouellette: Public Use Without the Public Using
  2. Patently-O Bits and Bytes by Juvan Bonni
  3. Federal Circuit: System is Not a Method (and therefore patent must be delisted from Orange Book).
  4. Federal Circuit Gives Stare Decisis Effect to a Judgment of Claim Validity
  5. Guest Post: Third-Party Litigation Funding: Disclosure to Courts, Congress, and the Executive
  6. Liability for Recommendations
  7. A Typical Eligibility Case in 2023
  8. A Free Speech Right to Accuse Others of Patent Infringement
  9. Once Upon a Time: The Patent
  10. UPC: First step – Opting-Out
  11. Introducing the Trade Secret Case Management Judicial Guide
  12. Subreddit Drama
  13. Update on the Akin Gump v. Xcential case
  14. Public use == “accessible to the public.”
  15. Federal Circuit: Software Function Equals Structure
  16. Got Milk? Forget about Patent Eligibility
  17. Attorney Fees for Not Quickly Dropping Meritless Lawsuit
  18. Standing to Challenge Inventorship
  19. AI and Inventorship – USPTO Request for Comments
  20. Models v. Strip Clubs and the Lanham Act
  21. Is the Federal Circuit facing a Chronic Problem of Inequitable Conduct?
  22. The Law is Moving Fast
  23. Dir. Vidal on Privity and Real-Party-in-Interest in IPRs
  24. Roundup Ready 2 Patent Litigation
  25. How Does One “Use” Flowers?
  26. Trademark Registration: 100% THAT BITCH
  27. Upcoming Supreme Court Oral Arguments in IP & Tech Cases
  28. Transfer Venue: Texas Corp Status Given No Weight
  29. Cancelling a Patent Claim

January 2023

  1. Federal Circuit Dataset & Stats: January 2023 Update
  2. Three New Supreme Court Cases:
  3. Chamberlain Closes on Overhead Door
  4. Rep. Issa – House IP Leader
  5. Jack Daniels vs Bad Spaniels: Funny Jokes and Free Speech
  6. Copyright and AI – Zarya of the Dawn
  7. An Update on AI Inventorship and Authorship Cases
  8. Mandamus Reasonably Denied
  9. Laching-On to Inexcusable Behavior
  10. Request for Comments on USPTO Initiatives to Ensure the Robustness and Reliability of Patent Rights
  11. Guest Post by Prof. Hrdy & Dan Brean: The Patent Law Origins of Science Fiction
  12. Director Review: Petitioner must Prove its Case
  13. Supreme Court asked to Review Federal Circuit’s Judicial Shell Game
  14. Supreme Court Taking Additional Look at Apple’s Estoppel Petition
  15. Push-Down on Drug Patents and Drug Pricing
  16. Trade Secrecy Rising
  17. Guest Post by Prof. Burstein: Design patents: Line drawing & Locarno
  18. Guest Post by Prof. Contreras: How the ‘Patent Eligibility Restoration Act’ Would Harm American Businesses and Endanger Global Health by Reintroducing ‘Pathogen Patents’
  19. New PatentlyO L.J. Article: What Every Patent and Trademark lawyer Should Understand About the MPEP, TMEP, and Other Guidance
  20. Patently-O Bits and Bytes by Juvan Bonni
  21. Patent Law Year in Review
  22. A Mathematical Model of a Rake
  23. Protective Orders and Appellate Jurisdiction
  24. Influencing PTAB Judges
  25. Chair of the Intellectual Property Subcommittee

← 2020–2022