By: Kristian E. Ziegler A patent confers the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale or selling an invention, as recited in the claims of the patent, within the jurisdiction or from importing the invention into the jurisdiction in which the patent is obtained. When most people think of patent protection, they…
By: Thomas L. Sica On June 30, 2020, the Supreme Court issued an opinion in the case of USPTO v. Booking.com B.V. The Court held that trademarks that combine a generic word or phrase with “.com” are not automatically considered to be generic. This decision will open the doors for many website owners to register…
By: Amanda Keys The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has made provisions and extended deadlines for responding to certain matters in light of the hardships created by the COVID–19 outbreak and has also created programs intended to spur innovation in the fight against COVID–19. Under section 12004 of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and…
By: Stephen P. Scuderi The World Intellectual Property Organization’s recent publication title: “WIPO Technology Trends 2019-Artificial Intelligence” defines artificial intelligence (“AI”) systems primarily as: “learning systems; that is machines that can become better at a task typically performed by humans with limited or no human intervention.” Inadvertently though, the ability of AI systems to perform…
By Lloyd J. Wilson There are unlimited examples of how businesses, organizations, and other entities are incentivized to use artificial intelligence (AI) technology to improve operations and performance. Thus, it is expected that, like any other entity, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) would also be interested in using AI to improve its…
By Aleksandar Nikolic In KSR Int’l Co. v. Teleflex, Inc., 550 U.S. 398 (2007), the Supreme Court indicated that general knowledge of a person having skill in the art may be used as part of an obviousness analysis. However, courts have been reluctant to apply “general knowledge” or “common sense” to an obviousness analysis because…
By Wayne F. Reinke In this update to my prior articles on the state of patentable subject matter in the wake of the Supreme Court Alice decision, CAFC decisions in 2019 identified as precedential and involving abstract ideas (computer-related inventions) are considered. The two-part Alice test for patentable subject matter starts by determining whether the…
By Stephen P. Scuderi Any person or organization that has accepted government funds for research and development has been touched by the Bayh-Dole Act. Bayh-Dole addresses the rights to inventions made in the performance of federally funded agreements and is implemented by title 37 of the Code of Federal Regulations parts 401 and 404 (37 CRF…
By Aleksandar Nikolic The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the courts have had difficulty determining whether computer, software and diagnostic method inventions qualify as patentable subject matter. Now, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“CAFC”) has expanded the subject matter confusion to include claims in the electrical and mechanical arts….
By Lloyd J. Wilson The idea that machines, rather than humans, could invent something on their own is a concept that was once thought to be a futuristic fantasy. However, the U.S. patent office is now being confronted with patent applications listing an artificial intelligence (AI) system as the inventor. Existing U.S. patent laws seem…