Will the Supreme Court Finally Clarify Patent Eligibility?

By Ashley E. Holland

To be eligible for a patent, an invention must be a “useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter.” However, in recent years, the U.S. Supreme Court has narrowed the scope of patent eligibility. In the landmark cases Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc. (2012) and Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International (2014), the […]

Iowa Governor Signs into Law Comprehensive Consumer Privacy Law

By Sarah M.D. Luth

On March 28, 2023 Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signed into law Senate File 262 (SF 262). SF 262, scheduled to go into effect January 1, 2025, makes Iowa just the sixth U.S. state to pass a comprehensive state privacy law. The new law is a “global” consumer rights privacy law focused largely on general consumer […]

Stealing Home: MLB Attempts to Trademark “Boston,” “Houston,” and “Seattle”

By Nicholas J. Krob

Boston. Houston. Seattle. What comes to mind? The Boston Red Sox, Houston Astros, and Seattle Mariners? Major League Baseball sure hopes so. Last week, the MLB filed federal trademark applications for “Boston,” “Houston,” and “Seattle” with the USPTO on behalf of the aforementioned teams. Naturally, this raised some eyebrows. How can a baseball league or […]

Federal Circuit Confirms “Known-Technique” Rationale as an Indicator of a Motivation to Combine

By Joseph M. Hallman

In KSR Int’l Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 419 (2007) (“KSR”) the U.S. Supreme Court criticized rigid application of the so-called “teaching, suggestion, or motivation” test (“the TSM test”) which, prior to KSR, had often been applied by courts when determining obviousness of patent claims. Under the TSM test, “a patent claim is […]

Celebrating International Women’s Day

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As part of International Women’s Day and since this is the 50th Anniversary of the National Inventors Hall of Fame we thought it would be fitting to recognize the following women who have been inducted into this prestigious organization: Mary Anderson-Windshield Wiper; Lynn Conway-Very Large-Scale Integration (VLSI); Margaret E. Knight-Machine for Making Flat-Bottom Paper Bags; […]

Copyright Law Tips for In-House Counsel

Copyright law can be complex. Issues are usually fact specific, require significant interpretation and a case-by-case analysis. The answer to most copyright law related questions is some iteration of “it depends” but some simple education is often the best tool to avoiding issues and combating copyright myths and misinformation. 1. Copyright Law Does Not Protect […]

Federal Circuit Holds That For Ornamental Plants, Mere Display Counts As “Public Use”

By Melissa M. Mitchell

How does one “use” an ornamental object? This question was at issue in the recent case of In re WinGen LLC (Fed. Cir. 2023). In a nonprecedential opinion, the Federal Circuit held that the display of an ornamental plant at a private marketing event constituted invalidating prior public use under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. § 102(b). […]

Patent Office (Again) Seeking Comments on AI Inventions

By Kirk M. Hartung

On Feb. 14, the United States Patent and Trademark Office published a notice in the Federal Register requesting comments by May 15 from stakeholders regarding the current state of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and inventorship issues. Acknowledging that AI is playing a greater role in the innovation process, the USPTO is seeking input for incentivizing […]

Luddites, Lawyers, Illustrators: Embrace AI as a Tool

By Cassie J. Edgar

The Unhappy Painter, by Theodor Hosemann, 1843, illustrating a painter as a victim of technology, made obsolete by photography. Artificial intelligence (AI) is disruptive and will change the way we create and innovate – similar to disruption from the printing press, the camera, Photoshop, and gene editing. Use of any tool does not remove the […]

How A.I. and Big Data Will (And Should) Change Your IP Strategy

By Sarah M.D. Luth

The last two decades have seen an increasing recognition of the value of patent rights. In many industries, ownership of a substantial number of patents is a clear sign of a company’s innovation capacity and leadership in the industry. Despite the growing interest in patent protection, the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and […]