There are many misconceptions or ‘myths’ about patents that have found their way into popular discourse, ranging from what type of innovations are patentable, to how important it is to own and protect your intellectual...more
Blockchain patent applications may be divided into two types: underlying technologies of blockchain, such as consensus methods, security, etc., and applications of blockchain in, e.g., fintech, legal, and other industries. In...more
In an apparent conclusion to the patent at the heart of the Federal Court of Canada’s decision in Yves Choueifaty v Attorney General of Canada, 2020 FC 837 [Choueifaty], Canadian patent application no. 2635393 (CA ‘393) was...more
For emerging companies, a patent application should combine legal skill with technical and business knowledge to produce a document that will serve as a foundation to the company’s valuation and future profitability....more
On August 28, the Federal Circuit issued its decision in Egenera, Inc. v. Cisco Systems, Inc., offering a timely reminder of the importance of carefully drafting claim language as well as the technical specification that is...more
This article is Part II of a study on the patent eligibility of graphical user interfaces. Part I was published yesterday. We continue from where we left off, with overviews of a handful of Federal Circuit § 101 decisions...more
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board recently designated as informative its decision instituting post-grant review and addressing the issues of design patent functionality in Sattler Tech Corp. v. Humancentric Ventures, LLC. ...more
On Wednesday, the Federal Circuit, in a per curiam order, denied SHzoom's motion to make the Trading Technologies opinion precedential. The order of course gave no reasons for the decision. Nonetheless, the underlying...more
Functional language is often employed in claims in order to obtain a broader claim than one that recites purely structural limitations. The premise for this is that there is more than one way to perform a function. So, an...more
The process of developing software typically involves the use of abstractions of concrete concepts to describe the operations performed by a computer and objects of such operations. Some software abstractions are so familiar...more
In Bayer Cropscience AG v. Dow AgroSciences LLC, the Federal Circuit upheld the district court’s claim construction that interpreted “2,4-D monooxygenase” in accordance with its established scientific meaning, even though...more