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…
You might not call your lawyer when it’s allergy season, but Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti P.C. (HRFM) played an important role in helping patent the chemical formula for a drug that provides allergy relief to millions. Pharmaceuticals are just one area of legal expertise for HRFM. As the largest intellectual property (IP) law firm…
Juristat has ranked Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti fourth among the Top Patent Firms in patent applications relating to Computer Architecture Software and Information Security. HRFM ranked fourth in USPTO Technology Center 2100, which includes patent applications from companies such as IBM, Microsoft, Intel, Oracle and HP. Juristat’s rankings consider both volume and performance and…
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…
New York State Chief Judge Janet DiFiore has proposed amendments to the State Constitution that would eliminate New York’s complex maze of 11 separate trial courts and replace it with a simplified three-level structure to make the courts easier to navigate, increase operational efficiency and reduce costs to litigants, among other potential benefits. These proposed…
By Stephen P. Scuderi This article will present an overview of some of the issues pertaining to the disposition of patent rights to inventions made under a government R&D contract. As will be seen, without careful adherence to the statutes and regulations governing such patent rights, it is possible for a contractor to unintentionally lose…
By Kristian Ziegler As more than half of the states in the U.S. have recently decriminalized cannabis/marijuana to some extent, the domestic cannabis business has been growing rapidly. As of the date of this publication, marijuana is legal for medical use in 33 states and the District of Columbia, and for recreational use in 11…