USPTO Issues Report on Current State of Patent Eligibility Law

By Ashley E. Holland

Earlier this week the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued a report to Congress regarding public comments and insight into the state of patent subject matter eligibility. See report here. Patent eligibility law has been complicated by recent Supreme Court decisions like Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank (2014) and Mayo v. Prometheus (2012). Even […]

Buckeye Controversy: THE Ohio State University Obtains “THE” Trademark Registration

By Nicholas J. Krob

As Sarah Luth discussed back in 2019, The Ohio State University (“Ohio State”) filed a trademark application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for the word “THE.” Last week, the trademark was granted as U.S. Trademark No. 6,763,118. At first glance, this seems absurd. The word “the” is one of the most used […]

Federal Circuit Vacates $2.75 Billion Ruling Against Cisco Because Judge’s Spouse Owned $5,000 of Cisco Stock

By Julie L. Spieker

Today, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed a decision holding that Cisco willfully infringed several patents owned by Centripetal Networks, Inc. The District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia had awarded enhanced damages and royalties exceeding $2.75 billion to Centripetal. The Federal Circuit held that the district court judge was disqualified […]

New Path to Accelerated USPTO Examination with the Climate Change Mitigation Pilot Program

By Jill N. Link, Pharm.D.

A few weeks back my colleague posted here about how to receive faster examination before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Now there is another avenue available for inventions related to climate change. On June 3, 2022 the USPTO announced a Climate Change Mitigation Pilot Program to speed up examination for certain types […]

MVS Is Proud To Announce Our New Firm Video

We are thrilled to introduce the new MVS Firm Video to everyone. The video is a culmination of months of work by our firm and the great production efforts of our partners at Bing Bang. The video is accessible at https://www.ipmvs.com/about-us/.

Federal Circuit sheds light on corroboration standards for testimony in IPR proceedings

By Joseph M. Hallman

On May 19, 2022, in Google LLC v. IPA Technologies Inc., the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“Federal Circuit”) vacated and remanded the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (“PTAB”) decision that Google LLC (“Google”) had not shown relevant claims challenged in three inter partes reviews (“IPR”) to be unpatentable. The Federal Circuit vacated […]

Conflicting Precedent for the Supreme Court in American Axle

By Kirk M. Hartung

The U.S. Department of Justice is encouraging the Supreme Court to grant certiorari to American Axle to clarify U.S. patent eligibility law. Thus, it appears that the chances are better than ever for this issue to get some much-needed attention. American Axle & Manufacturing, Inc., v. Neapco Holdings LLC involves a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals […]

CRISPR-based RNA editing – Cas7-11

By Brian D. Keppler, Ph.D.

While CRISPR technology is often thought of in terms of editing DNA, there have also been recent exciting advances in RNA editing. Editing RNA offers certain advantages especially when it comes to therapeutic applications – while changing DNA is permanent and can be inherited, RNA is a transient molecule so any effects from such a […]