Howard S. Jones, Jr. has been posthumously honored as a 2018 inductee into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for his innovative work in developing conformal antennas. This invention has been crucial for the development of enhanced capabilities for spacecraft, rockets and other aeronautical technologies. March 1, 2018 marked the 41st anniversary of the issuance of U.S. […]
Continue Reading →A New Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP), the ninth edition, Revision 08.2017, was made electronically available on January 25, 2018 According to the PTO bulletin for the new MPEP, the revision includes changes to chapters 200, 700-1000, 1200, 1400, 1500, 1800, 2000-2300, 2500, and 2700. Each section that has been substantively revised has an […]
Continue Reading →Nanotechnology has been taking innovation by storm for decades now and its only increasing its footprint. This is reflected in the growing number of granted patents and published applications directed to nanotechnology inventions. For example, according to StatNano (an organization that monitors and publishing information regarding nanotechnology global developments), more than 20,000 granted patents and […]
Continue Reading →IN MEMORIAM Michael G. Voorhees 1941-2018 We are deeply saddened by the loss of an exceptional friend, partner, advocate, and leader. Mike was born in Des Moines, Iowa on April 17, 1941 and received degrees from Iowa State University and Drake Law School. He practiced law in St. Louis, before joining the firm in 1970. […]
Continue Reading →Effectively protecting improved genetics requires a multi-pillared strategy considering the biological organisms themselves, methods of use, methods of breeding, and any regulatory data protection. The EPO recently upheld a patent (EP 2813141, granted August 5, 2015) drawn to methods of breeding using genome-wide estimated breeding values (EBVs) to identify combinations of individuals in a population […]
Continue Reading →In the middle of trial with Google’s self-driving car company, Waymo, Uber settled the trade secret litigation brought by Google. Uber will turn over 0.34% of its equity, which has been estimated at $245 million dollars in value. The dispute resulted when Uber hired a former employee of Waymo, not knowing that the engineer had […]
Continue Reading →In a surprising ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Katherine B. Forrest, recently ruled that several news organizations and publishers violated a photographer’s copyright when they “embedded” a photo from Twitter on their websites without permission. Judge Forrest’s decision to grant the plaintiff’s motion for partial Summary Judgement is sure to be controversial and could prove […]
Continue Reading →Following the United Kingdom triggering its formal exit from the European Union, negotiations regarding the details of the exit and the following transition period have begun. As one could expect, this negotiation process has brought to light underlying tensions between the UK and the EU. These tensions recently reached a peak when earlier this month […]
Continue Reading →Development of a new plant cultivar or varietal often requires substantial research and development. These costs can be recovered, however, if a breeder is able to successfully market, sell and/or license the resulting product, while maintaining exclusive ownership rights therein. There are, of course, a variety of intellectual property protection schemes available to maintain those […]
Continue Reading →In the past decade, the Chinese government has made substantial policy changes regarding protection for intellectual property, both for obtaining rights and enforcing rights. These policies are generally favorable to patent owners and are intended to incentivize innovation. In December, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) published statistics for worldwide patent application filings for 2016, […]
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