Over the past two decades, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has been working on a Design Law Treaty focused on aligning examination and procedural guidelines associated with what have historically been...more
Your patent is finally filed in the United States Patent and Trademark Office (or the office of your local country). Then you remember your attorney saying something about patents being jurisdictional, whatever that means…....more
The enactment of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 includes the Unleashing American Innovators Act of 2022 (UAIA), directed toward increasing innovation of small businesses and inventors in America. Congress is using...more
Speeding up patent prosecution and quickly obtaining an issued patent is generally a good thing. The earlier a patent is issued, the earlier it can protect a product and be enforced against third party infringers. And...more
Continuing hostilities by the Russian Federation in Ukraine have garnered a number of responses from countries around the world. These include responses from patent offices, including the United States Patent and Trademark...more
The U.S. is unique in that a Patent Cooperation Treaty, or PCT, application can enter national phase examination via two distinct routes: as a national phase application under Title 35 of the U.S. Code, Section 371, or as a...more
The Leahy-Smith “America Invents Act” (hereinafter, “AIA”) was signed into law ten years ago, on September 16, 2011. We have learned extensively from the enactment and this article is part of a series of lessons learned. ...more
Kilpatrick Townsend partner Karam J. Saab, in cooperation with GreyB, offers his key takeaways for “Taking Advantage of Bypass Continuations based on Recent USPTO Practice Trends for US National Phase Entry.” ...more
Patent prosecution—everything that takes places after a patent application is filed until it issues—can be a complex and lengthy process. A majority of time and attention is usually spent on getting a patent application...more
Carbon capture technologies generally pertain to the capture of carbon dioxide (CO2) by certain materials or systems. Such materials or systems can then process the captured CO2 in various manners, such as through storage at...more
Two important, but sometimes overlooked issues in patent prosecution, particularly for companies with worldwide patent portfolios, are: 1) when a foreign filing license must be obtained; and 2) how to determine when an export...more
On Wednesday, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom declared that the COVID-19 outbreak "can be characterized as a pandemic," cautioning that the WHO has "rung the alarm bell loud and clear." At the time...more
In a Patent Alert e-mail distributed last week, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced that beginning July 1, 2019, the Office would once again be accepting new International applications to the IP5 Patent Cooperation...more
Legal or not, the cannabis industry is booming. Indeed, analysts have projected that in North America alone it will grow from $9.2 billion in 2017 to $47.3 billion in 2027. Despite marijuana’s illegal status in most...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit found that the US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) erred in calculating a patent term adjustment (PTA) for a patent covering an oral osmotic form of an antihypertensive drug,...more
This article is first in a two-part series focusing on various issues related to priority claims in U.S. patent applications. Part 1 is a general overview of how to make a proper priority claim, without addressing how to...more
In preparing a patent application, one of the basic questions to be addressed is the type of application to file. Applicants are faced with the choice of filing a non-provisional application, a provisional application or a...more
The recent Actelion Pharmaceuticals Ltd. case brought to light a little-known quirk in how national stage patent applications affect the length of one’s patent term. That case involved a drug company losing five days of...more
Innovation and Traditional Patent Process - When you develop an innovation, its potential patentability is typically unknown, thus making it difficult to determine whether it is worth the significant expense involved if...more
Is innovation a key component of your business plan? Will you distinguish yourself with unique product offerings? Whether protecting our men and women in uniform, advancing the treatment of medical conditions, or adding to a...more
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced this week that the Global Dossier program has expanded to include access to more patent applications worldwide. The public including applicants, patent holders,...more
If you’ve ever overheard water-cooler banter about patents, chances are it was about utility patents, the most common kind of patent issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). What is a utility...more
Earlier this month, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced two new collaborations with the Japan Patent Office. In a press release issued on July 1, the USPTO announced an agreement with the JPO in which the JPO will...more
In February 2015, the United States completed steps to become a member of the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs (Hague Agreement). The Hague Agreement went into effect for the...more
Addressing whether third parties have the right to challenge a patent revival ruling by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal...more