On Oct. 27, 2025, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced it is offering a Streamlined Claim Set Pilot Program in an effort to further accelerate examination of currently pending applications with a limited...more
The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is navigating a period of significant transition. Driven by workforce shifts, operational restructuring, evolving approaches to subject matter eligibility, and new fee structures,...more
In the recent case Causam Enterprises, Inc. v. International Trade Commission, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (the “CAFC”) found that an invention assignment agreement that broadly assigned the...more
The video game industry is a dynamic space that encourages innovation, with game developers often creating and employing novel technology and game design elements....more
As companies and markets increasingly view patents not just as a defensive shield but as strategic assets (e.g., for licensing, enforcement, or other potential revenue generation), the prosecution phase is critical....more
In a Federal Register Notice published October 27, 2025 (“Notice”), the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced a new pilot program called the “Streamlined Claim Set Pilot Program” (hereinafter “Pilot Program”)....more
In Causam Enterprises, Inc. v. ITC, No. 23-1769 (Fed. Cir. Oct. 15, 2025), the Federal Circuit addressed whether Causam was the owner of the asserted patent and, thus, had Article III standing. The central issue was whether...more
Parallel, divisional, or continuation applications can be strategically filed to pursue additional or broader claims. Yet, claim scope across related applications can be constrained by the judicially created doctrine of...more
Most life sciences transactions result in intellectual property (IP) due diligence being carried out on underlying IP assets that are often central to the transaction. Typically, this includes a focus on patent due diligence...more
In Google LLC v. Sonos, Inc., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed in part a district court ruling that had held Sonos’s “Zone Scene” patents unenforceable due to prosecution laches. The Federal Circuit...more
The practice of serially filing continuation applications through a patent’s lifetime has come under increased pressure in recent years from newly implemented continuing application fees to expanded case law on non-statutory...more
In Google v. Sonos, the Federal Circuit soundly disposed of arguments that the patent-in-suit was unenforceable due to laches based on an “unreasonable delay” in patent prosecution. Does the court’s reasoning foreclose the...more
In October 2023, we reported on the district court decision in Sonos, Inc. v. Google LLC. The decision was notable for reviving the prosecution laches doctrine to render unenforceable a continuation patent filed 13 years...more
For startup founders and CTOs navigating the patent landscape, understanding the prosecution timeline is essential for strategic planning and resource allocation. After filing your patent application with the USPTO, the...more
Reissue applications represent a very small fraction of the total number of applications filed at the USPTO each year. Indeed, at the midpoint of 2025, over 1.2 million utility applications have been filed, with less than 300...more
Effective May 13, 2025, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will implement a significant change to its patent issuance process, substantially reducing the time between issue notification and patent issuance....more
In the fast-paced world of innovation, inventors sometimes realize that their patents do not fully protect their inventions until after the patent issues. If the patent family has an application still pending at the patent...more
Beginning May 13, 2025, the window between paying the issue fee and your patent officially issuing will become much shorter....more
New fees affecting trademarks and patents have taken effect at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The new fee structures will dramatically influence trademark and patent filings. Applicants need to rethink...more
Provisional patent applications are popular in the U.S. for the various advantages they may provide applicants, including lower filing costs, less restrictive United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) filing...more
The USPTO has announced fee increases and new fees for patents and trademarks to take place on January 18, 2025, for trademarks, and January 19, 2025, for patents. The increase in fees and the introduction of new fees by the...more
As expected, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is raising its fees this year, effective January 19, 2025. However, the USPTO is doing something a little unusual this time—they’re raising the cost of filing...more
The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) recently announced that it will increase patent fees effective January 19, 2025. The USPTO will raise almost all existing patent fees. Although the USPTO made a few exceptions for...more
Major technology paradigm shifts are typically followed by a wave of patent application filings. If you don’t believe that, a quick patent search will validate this for your technology of choice. What you’ll also find is...more
A recent district court decision in Sonos v. Google has set forth a novel application of the prosecution laches doctrine to a patent with a post-1995 priority date. Sonos Inc. v. Google LLC, 20-06754 WHA, 2023 WL 6542320...more