Patent ‘claims’ appear at the end of a patent and determine what is protected by the patent. One purpose of the claims is to inform competitors of what they can do without infringing. Consider the following (entirely bogus) patent claim to an automobile: An automobile, the automobile having four attractive wheels supporting an optimized frame […]
All posts by: Robert Yarbrough
63 million U.S. jobs, or 44% of all U.S. employees, work in intellectual property (‘IP’) intensive industries that rely on the value created by patents, trademarks or copyrights. That’s from a report published by the USPTO.In other highlights from the report, employees of IP-intensive industries are likely to: The highest incomes are in copyright-intensive industries (that’s content […]
The Parable of the Three Bears and their Camera
March 10, 2022
Patent
Whether an invention is abstract or new. They are different issues.
David Whips Goliath in the USITC (What’s that?)
February 3, 2022
Litigation, Patent
The United States International Trade Commission (USITC) is not a Federal court – in many ways, it’s better than a Federal court where U.S. patents are concerned. The USITC is a U.S. administrative agency charged with, among other things, handling claims by a U.S. patent owner that imported products infringe a U.S. patent. To trigger USITC […]
And the Award for Patent Troll of the Year Goes to… Caltech?
January 6, 2022
Patent
About a decade ago, there was a huge uproar over ‘patent trolls,’ also known as ‘non-practicing entities’ – companies that did not make products but that owned patents. The business model of the patent troll was to sue or threaten infringers and to collect patent infringement damages. The coordinated attack on the U.S. patent system […]
Covid and Patents
December 2, 2021
Patent
Should the Covid vaccines be set free in the world, so that everyone can gain immunity? Few would argue that’s a bad idea, since more variants may arise in under-vaccinated populations, those variants will undoubtedly spread to us, and those variants may be resistant to our vaccines. But what about the rights of the creative […]
If Artificial Intelligence is the Inventor, Who Gets the Patent?
October 14, 2021
Patent
Artificial intelligence (‘AI’) can be pretty smart – smart enough to create new, useful and non-obvious inventions. Take, for example, Dr. Stephen Thaler’s AI tool ‘Device for the Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Sentience’ (‘DABUS’). DABUS created two inventions, a light beacon and a food container. Dr. Thaler applied for patents for those inventions around the world, […]
When is a Design Obvious?
September 2, 2021
Patent
When most inventors think of a patent, they think of a better-mousetrap type patent, known as a utility patent. A utility patent protects what an invention is and how it works. U.S. Patent 269,766 for a mousetrap that plugs a mouse with a bullet from a .44 is an example of a utility patent. Our […]
I’m as Mad as Hell and I’m Not Gonna Take it Anymore!*
August 12, 2021
Patent
‘It’ being the nonsensical state of U.S. patent eligibility, that is. Over the last decade or so the U.S. Supreme Court has restricted the patentability of numerous inventions as ‘abstract’ or ‘laws of nature,’ including business techniques (Bilski v Kappos), medical inventions (Mayo v Prometheus), biotech inventions (Myriad Genetics), and computer software (Alice v […]
Patent Death Squads? Who Cares?
July 8, 2021
Patent
Patent and invention owners should care. You should care. Barely a decade ago, Congress created the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) and gave it the power of life and death over patents. In the years since, the PTAB has done exactly what Congress intended – reduce the cost to challenge and kill patents and […]