The European Unitary Patent – Coming Soon
A new European Unitary Patent (UP) system is expected to come into effect in the second half of 2022, making it possible to get patent protection in up to 25…
The Latest Case in Enforcement of Design Patents
In 2021, Wepay Global Payments LLC obtained a design patent (US Pat. No. D930702) for “a display screen portion with animated graphical user interface,” as shown in the pictures below.…
Should Patents be Granted to AI “Inventions”?
On June 6, 2022 the Federal Circuit heard the oral arguments in the future landmark case Thaler v Vidal, which discusses the recent question on whether an AI could be…
Update on the Chinese Foreign Filing License Requirement: Was Your Invention Developed in China?
When an invention is developed in China, Chinese Patent Law requires an applicant to obtain a foreign filing license before filing a patent application outside of the country. Even where…
St. Patrick’s Day video
We've put together a fun video about St. Patrick's Day. It explains who St. Patrick was, how his birthday came to be a celebration of Irish culture, and some related…
Ignorance Of The Law May Be An Excuse In Copyright Registration
On February 24th, 2022, the Supreme Court has published a decision, Unicolors v H&M, that will make challenging the validity of a copyright registration much harder. Under the US Copyright…
Deferred Subject Matter Eligibility Program
The USPTO is implementing a pilot program called the Deferred Subject Matter Eligibility response.The point of the program is to defer the whole question of subject matter eligibility until a…
European Unified Patents Update
We posted an update on this back in November 2021, but all 13 countries have now ratified the Protocol on Provisional Application of the Unified Patent Court Agreement. The European…
Valentine’s Day Video
We've put together a little video about Valentine's Day. First, we give the historical background about who Saint Valentine was, and how he came to be celebrated. Then the transformation from…
Supreme Court: Less focus on patent matters post-Alice
Alice v CLS (2014) was a landmark case for patent eligibility. The decision held that Alice’s patents were invalid because the claims were drawn to an abstract idea and implementing…