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
On April 16, 2025, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) denied institution of inter partes review (IPR) for several claims of U.S. Patent No. 7,187,307, owned by Universal Connectivity Technologies, Inc. HP Inc., Dell...more
Palo Alto Networks (PAN) filed a petition for inter partes review of Centripetal Networks’ patent—U.S. Patent No. 10,530,903—which is directed to a computing system for correlating packets in communication networks with a...more
The Federal Circuit in Voice Tech Corp. v. Unified Patents, LLC, No. 2022-2163 (Fed. Cir. Aug. 1, 2024) (Lourie, Chen, and Cunningham), affirmed the PTAB’s determination that claims of Voice Tech Corp.’s (“Voice Tech”) U.S....more
There is no special treatment for neural networks when it comes to UK patenting of computer related inventions. That is the essence of the English Court of Appeal’s conclusion, led by a Judge with a keen interest in computer...more
In this episode of Trending Now - An IP Podcast, Tom Bergert and Clint Brannon discuss considerations for AI patent applicants and investors in light of emerging AI state and federal regulatory laws....more
Is an invention developed with the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) patentable? On February 13, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued guidance that helps to answer this question while also...more
The United States Constitution provides the basis for patent laws; it says "Congress shall have power . . . to promote the progress of science and useful arts by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the...more
On February 14, 2023, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published a notice in the Federal Register (88 Fed. Reg. 9492) requesting public comments about 1) the current state of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Emerging...more
Avoiding § 101 Eligibility Issues in Internet-Centric Method Claims - In Weisner v. Google LLC, Appeal No. 21-2228, the Federal Circuit held that the specific implementation of an abstract idea, such as improving Internet...more
Summary: A patentee’s allegation that computer method claims made data analysis more efficient, without reference to the function or operation of the computer itself, was not sufficient to overcome a challenge under 35 U.S.C....more
On August 2, 2022, Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) introduced the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act of 2022 (S. 4734) (“PERA”). Senator Tillis characterized the bill to “restore patent eligibility to important inventions across...more
Key Points - On August 5, 2022, the Federal Circuit held in Thaler v. Vidal that the term “inventor” under the United States Patent Act must be a human being. This ruling precludes patent protection for inventions...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed on August 5 that only a natural person—not an artificial intelligence system—can be an inventor....more
GENUINE ENABLING TECHNOLOGY LLC V. NINTENDO CO., LTD - Before Newman, Reyna, and Stoll. Appeal from the Western District of Washington. Summary: A finding of prosecution disclaimer must be supported by an unambiguous...more
Our previous blog posts, Artificial Intelligence as the Inventor of Life Sciences Patents? and Update on Artificial Intelligence: Court Rules that AI Cannot Qualify As “Inventor,” discuss recent inventorship issues...more
No Assembly, No Infringement – Federal Circuit Declines to Expand the “Final Assembler” Theory of Direct Infringement In Acceleration Bay LLC v. Take-Two Interactive Software, Appeal No. 20-1700 the Federal Circuit held that...more
COSMOKEY SOLUTIONS GMBH & CO. KG V. DUO SECURITY LLC - Before O’Malley, Reyna, and Stoll. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Delaware. Summary: Patent claims directed to...more
UNIVERSAL SECURE REGISTRY LLC v. APPLE INC. Before Taranto, Wallach, and Stoll. Appeal from U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware. Summary: A patentee’s reference to existing known methods and techniques in...more
Electronic Gaming Patents Found Invalid under § 101 - In the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas (Houston Division), Plaintiff Epic Tech, LLC (a seller of so-called "sweepstakes games") sued...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
The COVID-19 pandemic and widespread shelter-in-place orders have hit every corner of the country’s economy, including tech companies of all sizes. Many tech companies have traditionally maintained large patent portfolios to...more
Claims for an Interactive 3D Virtual Environment Found Patent Ineligible - In the field of computer gaming, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California recently granted Defendants' Rule 12 motion...more
ART 2: EFFORTS TO CLARIFY PATENT ELIGIBILITY UNDER § 101 - In this four-part series, we take a look forward at the cases, legislation, and other trends that are likely to have a significant impact on intellectual property...more
In our first blog in this multi-part series, we explored key considerations for protecting artificial intelligence (“AI”) inventions in biotech and synthetic biology. In this part 2 of the series, we will examine some key...more
On January 13, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari in the following cases...more