On Dec. 4, 2025, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Director Squires issued new guidance to patent examiners and applicants via a pair of memoranda (Guidance) encouraging the use of subject matter eligibility...more
On November 13, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts (court) found that patent applicant, Inline Plastics Corp. (Inline), engaged in inequitable conduct when it failed to disclose two inventors from...more
On November 21, 2025, United States Magistrate Judge Valerie Figueredo recommended that the Court conclude that Plaintiff Sholem Weisner’s conduct in “reviving the ’165 patent constituted inequitable conduct” because, inter...more
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued revised examination guidance on inventorship for AI-assisted inventions, rescinding its February 2024 guidance and replacing it with a clarified legal framework....more
A U.S. design patent protects how something looks, as opposed to how it works. An applicant conveys that look primarily using drawings. Typically they use line drawings, so that the scope of protection is focused on the shape...more
Another day, another change at the USPTO. If you have ever filed a patent application, you know there is a section that asks for your entity status: Large, Small, or Micro. If you have ever asked yourself whether size...more
Patent applicants are presently encountering long pendency periods, exceeding two years on the average, before the application is assigned to an examiner and begins its journey through the examination process....more
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has launched a new expedited examination pilot program: the “Streamlined Claim Set Pilot Program.” It is for certain patent applications with no more than one independent...more
On Oct. 27, 2025, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced it is offering a Streamlined Claim Set Pilot Program (Pilot Program), in an effort to further accelerate examination of currently pending...more
In this debut episode of Wait, what?, veteran patent attorneys Laura Gordon and Stephanie Lodise unravel the deceptively tricky world of Information Disclosure Statement (IDS) timing. Just because the USPTO says you can file...more
“While the ultimate question of whether a patent applicant derived a claimed invention from another inventor is one of fact, the determination of whether the accused deriver conceived is a question of law, which is based upon...more
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is rolling out a new Automated Search Pilot Program, offering applicants a first-of-its-kind opportunity to receive a pre-examination, AI-generated prior art search...more
Key Takeaways: The Federal Circuit held that provisional application language omitted from the final patent cannot support broader claim interpretations....more
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's (USPTO) Prioritized Patent Examination Program, known as the Track-1 Program, provides an accelerated patent application examination in exchange for additional filing fees to those...more
On July 17, 2024, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) launched a new electronic system and portal, MyCIPO Patents, as part of its Next Generation Patents initiative. The launch has been fraught with difficulties,...more
The U.S. Patent Office’s program for expedited examination of design applications under 37 CFR 1.155 (often called the design “rocket docket”), which was suspended earlier this year, was formally canceled in an amended...more
Over the past couple of years we have discussed the important role a broadening or narrowing reissue can play in proper portfolio development and resuscitation of a patent or patent family after invalidation in court or the...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
The recent 2025 fee setting by the USPTO includes not only fee increases, but the introduction of new fees. One of these new fees is the so-called Information Disclosure Statement (IDS) size fees, which adds a range of fees...more
In the biotechnology and chemical spaces, genus claims are often sought by patent applicants to protect not only a specific product of interest, but also as a means to protect against others making related products that...more
According to recent U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (Office) data, the Office receives a burdensome number (13%) of information disclosure statements (IDSs) having in excess of 50 total items of information. 89 Fed. Reg....more
In the mid-2000s, the U.S. Patent Office (USPTO) determined that reexaminations would be more consistent and legally correct if performed by a centralized set of experienced and specially trained Examiners. As a result, the...more
Based on feedback from the public on the use of After Final Consideration Pilot Program 2.0 (AFCP 2.0) and hesitancy to accept the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s proposal for a new fee to participate in AFCP 2.0, the...more