Insights

Patent Trends in Clean Energy Technology

Patent Trends in Clean Energy Technology

Today, the energy industry is responsible for nearly half of global greenhouse gas emissions. As such, various energy companies have been taking steps to create clean energy technologies, namely tidal, solar, and wind, to curb the effects of global w… Read More
Read More
Categories: Patents
Patent Office Proposes Electronic Patents

Patent Office Proposes Electronic Patents

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is proposing to implement the electronic issuance of patents. As the Federal Register explains, Currently, the USPTO issues “letters patent” (hereafter, patents) as paper patents under the sea… Read More
Read More
Categories: Patents
Being Careful about Your “Super Bowl” Promotions

Being Careful about Your “Super Bowl” Promotions

The Super Bowl isn’t just a football game – it’s a trademark. Thus, if your business is organizing any events or promotions around the Super Bowl, you need to be careful, or you could find yourself on the receiving end of a cease-and-desist let… Read More
Read More
Categories: Trademarks
Can Open-Source Software enforcement help save the planet?

Can Open-Source Software enforcement help save the planet?

#page-title:text-align: left; The Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) has sued smart TV manufacturer Vizio for alleged breaches of open-source software (OSS) licenses. Vizio smart TVs use the Linux operating system, which includes OSS. As opensource.c… Read More
Read More
Categories: Licensing
gavel on book

2021 Year in Review: Trademark Law

Here are some of the trademark law developments for 2021. Trademark Modernization Act One of the most significant changes was the roll-out of the Trademark Modernization Act (TMA): This rule establishes ex parte expungement and reexamination proceedi… Read More
Read More
Categories: Trademarks
2021 Year in Review: Copyright Law

2021 Year in Review: Copyright Law

Here’s a look back at some of the significant copyright law developments in 2021. Google vs. Oracle The most important copyright decision of the year, which some have called the “copyright case of the decade,” was the US Supreme Court’s decis… Read More
Read More
Categories: Copyright
2021 Year in Review: Patent Trial and Appeal Board

2021 Year in Review: Patent Trial and Appeal Board

Here are some of the significant developments from 2021 relating to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). As the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) explains, The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) is an adjudicative body within the U.S. Pat… Read More
Read More
Categories: Patents
USPTO logo

USPTO Pilot Aims to Increase Efficiency

In March of 2021, Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Tom Cotton (R-AR) asked the interim director of the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to “initiate a pilot program directing examiners to apply a sequenced approach to patent examination,” ra… Read More
Read More
Categories: Patents
tower at night

Software claims patent-eligible when directed to functionality improvements

The Federal Circuit has reversed a decision by a federal court that a patent claim involving radio communications was abstract and thus not patent-eligible. Mentone Solutions LLC v. Digi International Inc. involved a patent that “relates to dynamic… Read More
Read More
Categories: Patents
Exchanging geographic and demographic data isn’t patentable

Exchanging geographic and demographic data isn’t patentable

A federal district court in Arizona recently invalidated a 2018 patent for a “System and Method for Selling Customer-Specific Data Subsets on a Third-Party Website Using a Web Widget.” As the court noted about the patent, Its first and on… Read More
Read More