Celebrating National Farm Animals Awareness Week

As we celebrate National Farm Animals Awareness Week, we applaud our clients who represent universities and businesses worldwide in matters involving cattle, swine, and poultry, among others. The work we do with our clients helps ensure the health and well-being of these animals and includes work done in gene editing, CRISPR, disease treatment, controlled release […]

USPTO to Provide a Deferred-Fee Provisional Patent Application Pilot Program

By Luke T. Mohrhauser

In yet another effort to encourage innovation to combat COVID-19, the United States Patent and Trademark Office recently announced a pilot program that attempts to expedite the protection and disclosure of innovations. The pilot program, titled “Deferred-Fee Provisional Patent Application Pilot Program and Collaboration Database to Encourage Inventions Related to COVID-19”, allows inventors to file […]

Fungal Fashion: Mycelium ‘Leather’

By Sarah M.D. Luth

Cultivation of fungi has occurred for thousands of years. Evidence of fermented beverages using yeast dates back to as early as 7000 BCE. In the modern era, fungi are commonly used in the pharmaceutical industry, food and beverage industry, plastics industry, and others. The fashion industry is increasingly seeking methods of making and incorporating sustainable […]

Utility Models in China

By Gregory Lars Gunnerson

A utility model is a patent-like intellectual property right to protect inventions. American, Canadian, and British inventors and companies are often unaware that such rights exist, given that their laws do not allow for registration of these rights. Utility models are generally cheaper to obtain and maintain, have a shorter term (generally 6 to 15 […]

EPA Provides Draft Guidance for Regulation of Gene Edited Plants

By Cassie J. Edgar

Background Although the USDA gets the most attention related to the regulation of gene edited plants, in the United States products of biotechnology are regulated by the USDA, FDA and EPA under the Coordinated Framework for the Regulation of Biotechnology, updated most recently in 2017. Under this framework, the USDA, FDA and EPA each regulate in […]

Comparing Apples to Pears

Earlier this year, Apple, the holders of one of the strongest and most recognizable trademarks in the world, filed an opposition on the last day possible to a trademark application filed by Super Healthy Kids. Super Healthy Kids is a small business, currently only having around five employees, and created an iOS and Android application […]

In Da Courts: Second Circuit Affirms Lower Court Ruling in Rick Ross vs. 50 Cent Copyright Feud

By Nicholas J. Krob

Earlier this week, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed a ruling settling an ongoing dispute between rappers Rick Ross and 50 Cent. In 2015, 50 Cent sued Rick Ross over the unauthorized use of 50 Cent’s hit song “In Da Club” in a promo video. Due in part to the […]

PIXEL PIONEER PASSES

By Kirk M. Hartung

The computer scientist who created the pixel in 1957 passed away on August 11 in Portland, Oregon. Russell Kirsch was 91 years old.  His first digital image using pixels was a 2”x 2” black and white photo of his three month old son, with only 30,976 total pixels (176 per side).  In comparison, cell phone […]

US Patent Office Sued For Requiring Human Inventor on Patent Applications

By Kirk M. Hartung

On August 6, 2020, Stephen Thaler sued the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, case number 1:20-cv-00903 for requiring him to name a natural person as the inventor on two patent applications which he filed relating to a light beacon and a […]

Federal Circuit Reinstates Patent Claims Previously Found Obvious by Patent Trial and Appeal Board

By Julie L. Spieker

On July 31, 2020, in the precedential opinion Alacritech, Inc. v. Intel Corp., the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (hereinafter the “Federal Circuit”) reinstated three claims of Alacritech’s patent, holding that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (hereinafter the “Board”) did not adequately support its finding that the asserted prior art […]