Inventors, Inventions, Joint Inventors

Blurring the Line Between the Dry and Wet Lab: Joint Inventorship in AI-Assisted Life Science Inventions

Jones Day on 4/4/2025

In 2024, not one but two Nobel Prizes (in Chemistry and Physics) were awarded to researchers for their work in artificial intelligence ("AI"). Particularly noteworthy for the life science community is the Nobel Prize in...more

Who Solved the Problem? Joint Inventors, That’s Who

McDermott Will & Emery on 4/4/2024

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a district court’s decision to correct inventorship in a post-issuance inventorship dispute, finding that the alleged joint inventors’ contributions were significant...more

USPTO Issues New Guidance for Inventions Assisted by Artificial Intelligence: Human Contribution Is Key

Jones Day on 2/19/2024

The Background: In response to the Biden administration's "Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence" on October 30, 2023, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office...more

HIP Inc. v. Hormel Foods Corp. No. 2022-1696, _ F.4th ___ (Fed. Cir. May 2, 2023)

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP on 7/27/2023

This case addresses the requirements necessary to establish a prima facie case to correct inventorship under 35 U.S.C. § 256. Background - Hormel Foods appealed the District Court’s ruling that David Howard should be...more

Inventorship Hosed Clean: Contribution, Corroboration and Collaboration Prove Joint Invention

McDermott Will & Emery on 6/22/2023

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a decision to correct inventorship, finding that the alleged joint inventor’s contribution to a claimed invention was significant and adequately corroborated by...more

Blue Gentian’s Efforts to Maintain Sole Inventorship Were Hosed by the Federal Circuit

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP on 6/14/2023

Last week, the Federal Circuit issued another precedential decision on inventorship. However, unlike in HIP, Inc. v. Hormel Foods Corporation (22-1696) where the appellate panel found the purported inventor’s contribution to...more

Federal Circuit: Contributions to Patented Cooking Method Not Meaty Enough for Joint Inventorship

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP on 6/8/2023

The Federal Circuit has reversed the District of Delaware’s ruling that added an inventor to a patent. The Federal Circuit found that the contribution by the added inventor was not significant when measured against the...more

Bacon and a Heavy Burden: Significant Contribution Required To Be a Joint Inventor

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP on 5/9/2023

Efforts by HIP, Inc. to have David Howard added as an inventor to Hormel’s U.S. Patent No. 9,980,498 (Bacon Patent) were recently scorched by the Federal Circuit. More specifically, in HIP, Inc. v. Hormel Foods Corporation...more

Federal Circuit Appeals from the PTAB and ITC: Summaries of Key 2022 Decisions

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C. on 2/8/2023

As part of the recovery from the global COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit took steps to return to normal operations. It began requiring live oral arguments in August 2022 and, by November,...more

Sovereign immunity shields university from inventorship dispute

Hogan Lovells on 4/27/2017

In a case involving medical methods invented by two Nobel laureates, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled that sovereign immunity prevents a third researcher from pursuing his claim of co-inventorship...more

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