The USPTO has suspended expedited examination of design applications
The PTO had suspended expedited examinations of design applications back on April 17, 2025, but has issued a final rule to eliminate them altogether, as part of effort “to combat…
USPTO to Charge Extra for Late Continuation Applications — Don’t Get Caught by the Six- and Nine-Year Traps
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) just rolled out a new “late-filing penalty” for continuation applications that come in six or nine years after the earliest priority date in…
From Brain Scans to Rain Scans: How Tumor-Detecting AI Is Predicting the Weather
In a twist that sounds like science fiction, researchers in Xi’an, China have taken artificial intelligence designed to find tumors in brain scans and taught it to forecast the weather—fast.…
Bored Apes, Confused Courts, and the Question of Whether NFTs Are “Goods”
If you’ve ever wondered whether the law treats an NFT like a Beanie Baby, a baseball card, or just a bunch of ones and zeros, the Ninth Circuit just gave…
USPTO Clarifies AI and Machine Learning Patent Eligibility
The USPTO issued a memorandum on Aug 2, 2025 to help examiners assess subject matter eligibility in software-related inventions, especially those involving AI and machine learning. The memo does not…
China Finally Gets Serious About Fair Play in the Marketplace
For years, China’s business environment has been a bit like the Wild West—only with more knockoffs, keyword hijacking, and fake online reviews than a shady eBay seller convention. If you…
When “Close Enough” Isn’t Good Enough: Colibri v. Medtronic and the Push–Pull of Patent Law
Patent law has its own version of “close enough,” called the Doctrine of Equivalents (DOE). It says that even if a product or method doesn’t match the exact words of…
Fair Use and AI Training: Buy It or Bye-Bye
A recent court decision gave AI developers a roadmap for staying out of copyright trouble—and a big flashing warning sign for what not to do.The case: Anthropic, the folks behind…
The Trump-Lutnick Patent Tax: Turning the USPTO into the IRS
Every so often, Washington cooks up an idea so outside the bounds of good patent policy that you have to check the calendar to make sure it’s not April 1st.…
The USPTO’s “Settled Expectations” Doctrine — and Why It Matters to You
The USPTO has a new trick up its sleeve — and if you own older patents, you might just like it. It’s called the “settled expectations” doctrine, and Acting Director…