PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Trending Now: An IP Podcast - Artificial Intelligence Patents & Emerging Regulatory Laws
John Harmon on the Evolving Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Intellectual Property
What You Should Know About Seeking Patent Protection in Vietnam
JONES DAY PRESENTS®: Artificial Intelligence: The Growing Role of AI on Patents
Drafting Software Patents In A Post-Alice World
Dear Patenticity, My startup is working on what we believe is a game-changing software application and we are concerned about others taking our idea and fielding a competitive product based on our work. We would like to...more
On March 5, 2021, bipartisan members of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Senators Tillis (R-NC), Hirono (D-HI), Cotton (R-AR) and Coons (D-DE), sent a letter to the USPTO’s...more
With rapid changes, pressure to innovate, and acceleration of implementation of advanced technology across all stages of the supply chain over the past year, there are important intellectual property (IP) considerations that...more
The evolution of graphical user interfaces parallels the evolution of computing technology itself. As computers grow more powerful and sophisticated, so does their ability to display cutting-edge representations of...more
Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Alice v. CLS Bank, patent stakeholders have faced many difficulties navigating the world of patent-eligibility. Through many Federal Circuit decisions and Guidance given by the U.S....more
Artificial Intelligence (AI) inventions have aided development in nearly every industry, but perhaps none more so than synthetic biology. For synthetic biology researchers, AI has developed into a vital tool to create cutting...more
In 2014, the United States Supreme Court handed down its decision in Alice Corporation Pty. Ltd. v. CLS Bank International, et al., 573 U.S. 208, which significantly altered the patentability of software, business methods,...more
Much of the modern economy is driven by software development. Companies are creating and refining new apps that run on mobile devices, and using machine learning to provide users with personalized user interfaces and...more
In a second notice of proposed rulemaking (besides the one for patent eligibility) announced January 4, 2019 and published in the Federal Register on January 7, 2019, the Patent and Trademark Office has proposed guidelines...more
Recent USPTO Guidance Offers Insight for Software Patent Eligibility - By now most of you have probably heard that "software patents" and "software patent applications" have had a rough time for the past 4 ½ years. Some of...more
For the last several years, a major part of prosecuting software-related patents at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) has been dealing with the USPTO’s inconsistent interpretation of patent subject-matter...more
As we’ve covered in other summaries, the Federal Circuit continues to define the line between computer-implemented claims that are patent ineligible under 35 U.S.C. § 101 for being directed to an abstract idea with no...more
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s Mayo and Alice decisions, uncertainty has surrounded what inventions are patent eligible in the United States. In Mayo and Alice, the Supreme Court developed a two-step test to determine...more
This second part of a two-part article discusses four decisions by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit finding subject matter eligibility under step 2 of Alice Corporation Pty. Ltd. v. CLS Bank International, et...more
As you read this article, hundreds of startups and other organizations are working on blockchain applications in such areas as energy trading, data storage trading, peer-to-peer lending, and verifying professional or other...more
Post-Alice, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”) is aggressively rejecting software claims under the Alice two-part test, the parameters of which many examiners are still trying to understand. Not...more
Many people have misperceptions about what intellectual property (IP) protects, and some common IP misconceptions are debunked below. (1) Ideas Cannot Be Patented. Only inventions can be patented. The legal...more
In the past year, several Federal Circuit decisions defined situations in which software inventions could be eligible for patenting in the United States. However, two recent Federal Circuit decisions show that the path for...more
I'd like to go back to some first principles and history. Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution neatly divided the promotion of, on the one hand: Science, the fields of knowledge and ideas, by securing exclusive...more
On December 5, 2016 the USPTO will hold its second Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Roundtable to discuss issues in patent eligibility. The USPTO published a list of eighteen questions in anticipation of the event, dealing...more
A recent U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) memorandum to the Patent Examining Corps, in combination with precedential cases from the Federal Circuit, provides positive guidance to owners of software patents and patent...more
The Federal Circuit's recent decision in McRO has been interpreted by many in the patent community as a further signal that the so-called "pendulum" is swinging back to a more favorable position for patentees. There is some...more
My previous blog on McRo focused on the direct aspects of the decision, but there are other excellent points that the court makes and that can be derived from the opinion, and that should play an important role in how the...more
The Federal Circuit overturned a District Court ruling that a patent directed to automated lip synchronization and manipulation of animated characters’ facial expressions was invalid under Section 101 as being an abstract...more
The Federal Circuit has released its long-awaited opinion in McRo v. Bandai, reversing the lower court’s decision that the claims were ineligible subject matter. McRo’s invention in U.S. 6,307,576 was a method used in 3D...more