5 Key Takeaways | Building a Winning Evidentiary Record at the PTAB (and Surviving Appeal)
Wolf Greenfield Attorneys Review 2024 and Look Ahead to 2025
Recognizing and Avoiding Trademark Scams and Hoaxes
The Briefing: A Very Patented Christmas – The Quirkiest Inventions for the Holiday Season
5 Key Takeaways | Alice at 10: A Section 101 Update
Director Review Under the USPTO's Final Rule – Patents: Post-Grant Podcast
(Podcast) The Briefing: Thirsty for Clarity – Brand Confusion In The Beverage Category
The Briefing: Thirsty for Clarity – Brand Confusion In The Beverage Category
SCOTUS and federal court rulings on TTAB decisions on granting trademarks and trademark renewals; Netflix settling an anticipated defamation case with a disclaimer and donation
Legal Alert: USPTO Proposes Major Change to Terminal Disclaimer Practice
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
Was the classic song “Over The Rainbow” plagiarized? How about a claim of copyright infringement against the script for “The Holdovers?” AI Legal strategies switch to claims of CMI removal
The Briefing: The Patent Puzzle: USPTO's Guidelines for AI Inventions
The Briefing: The Patent Puzzle: USPTO's Guidelines for AI Inventions (Podcast)
4 Key Takeaways | Updates in Standard Essential Patent Licensing and Litigation
Wolf Greenfield Attorneys Preview What’s Ahead in 2024
8 Key Takeaways | The Presumption of Irreparable Harm After the Trademark Modernization Act of 2020
(Podcast) The Briefing: SCOTUS to Determine if USPTO Refusal to Register TRUMP TOO SMALL is Unconstitutional
The Briefing: SCOTUS to Determine if USPTO Refusal to Register TRUMP TOO SMALL is Unconstitutional
Suppose a newly hired engineer on your team sketches a promising new concept for a health monitor in a notebook. Excited by the idea, you loop in marketing, and soon, your company is promoting the product’s features through...more
Recently, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) issued a series of discretionary denials of inter partes review (IPR) petitions, based on a new factor, the “settled expectations” of the Patent Owner....more
On June 6, 2025, the Acting Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”), Coke Morgan Stewart, issued a decision denying institution of five inter partes review (“IPR”) petitions filed by iRhythm, Inc....more
On June 6, 2025, the acting Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Coke Morgan Stewart, issued a decision in iRhythm Technologies v. Welch Allyn, Inc.1 that initiates a new basis for discretionary denial...more
Inter partes review (IPR) practices have seen significant changes since US Patent and Trademark Office Acting Director Coke Stewart assumed her current role in January 2025. Perhaps the most significant change has been Acting...more
Starting May 13, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will accelerate the time between issue notification and the issue date of a patent. That is, the time frame will be cut from about three weeks to two weeks –...more
Beginning May 13, 2025, the window between paying the issue fee and your patent officially issuing will become much shorter....more
On April 25, 2025, the USPTO issued additional information in response to frequently asked questions (FAQs) about the “Interim Processes for PTAB Workload Management” memorandum issued on March 26, 2025. As discussed in our...more
The US Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) announced that it has shortened the time between the issue notification and the issue date for patents. Historically, the time between these two events averaged about three weeks....more
The USPTO recently announced that they would expedite patent issuance by reducing the time between Issue Notification and Issue Date. Effective May 13, 2025, patents will now issue approximately two weeks after receiving the...more
This week, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) made two announcements of interest to patent holders and practitioners as part of modernization and efficiency efforts...more
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced today that effective May 13, 2025, the time between an Issue Notification and issue date of a U.S. patent will be reduced to about one week. Currently, it takes three...more
On May 13, 2025, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will expedite Issue Dates for patents. This will reduce the average time from three weeks to about two, so patent holders can bring their investments to market...more
A new interim process for the acting director to exercise discretion as to whether to institute an inter partes review ("IPR") or a post-grant review ("PGR") was announced on March 26, 2025, in which discretionary...more
On the heels of the rescission of the Fintiv guidance memorandum, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has again reshaped the PTAB’s approach to discretionary denials. On March 26, 2025, the Acting Director issued a new...more
On March 26, 2025, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced changes to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) trial institution process, creating a new bifurcated approach to institution decisions....more
Hot on the heels of rescinding former Director Vidal’s June 2022 memo providing guidance on discretionary denials, Acting Director of the USPTO, Coke Morgan Stewart, issued a memo yesterday outlining new “Interim Processes...more
It is taking longer to get a patent. Since 2020, the average time from patent filing to receiving the first action from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has risen from 14 months to 21 months, a 50% increase in...more
On March 26, 2025, the USPTO issued the attached memo titled “Interim Processes for PTAB Workload Management,” which significantly alters the pre-institution briefing procedure for IPRs and PGRs. Under the Interim Process,...more
Before Lourie, Prost, and Stark - Summary: In an IPR, a patent application is considered a “printed publication” as of the application’s filing date, not its publication date. Samsung filed a petition for IPR of a Lynk Labs...more
Since the America Invents Act (“AIA”) established a new venue for hearing patent disputes, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”), much ink has been spilled regarding the impacts of this forum on patent litigation and the...more
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has announced that its “After Final Consideration Pilot Program 2.0” (“AFCP 2.0”) will come to an end on December 14, 2024. First rolled out in 2013, the program was part of USPTO...more
The Federal Circuit's In re Cellect decision has caused a great deal of commentary and proposals to avoid its consequences, including changing prosecution strategies and filing prospective, precautionary terminal disclaimers...more
Precedential Opinion Addresses Conclusory Expert Declarations - In a precedential opinion in Xerox Corp. v. Bytemark, Inc., IPR2022-00624, Paper 9 (P.T.A.B. Aug. 24, 2022), the Board denied institution of an inter partes...more
On March 6, 2023, the US Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) introduced a new green energy category to its Patents for Humanity Program. This new award category provides business incentives for patent applicants, holders and...more