Patent Law Weblog
recent posts
- Why the Alice Test is Stupid, Part III: Eligible Independent Claims Can Have Ineligible Dependent Claims
- Chewing the Cud: Are Tariffs Sucking IP Blud?
- USPTO Issues Notice Regarding Improper Small and Micro Entity Status
- Aortic Innovations LLC v. Edwards Lifesciences Corp. (Fed. Cir. 2025)
- Why the Alice Test is Stupid, Part II: The Mental Steps Doctrine Literally Makes No Sense
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Category: Patent Legislation
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By Kevin E. Noonan – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-DE), along with Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), have been the motivating force for patent reform for almost a decade, primarily in their efforts to roll back legislative efforts and judicial decisions having negative effects on U.S. innovation and the patent system (see "Senator Coons And Co-Sponsors Introduce the…
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By Kevin E. Noonan – Recent history of Congress's performance as a legislative body has been, to be kind, mixed, and a great many bills, resolutions, and other activities have appeared to be more for show than to accomplish anything worthwhile. President Truman's characterization of the 80th Congress as the "Do Nothing" Congress might effectively be resurrected;…
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By Donald Zuhn –- After reflecting upon the events of the past twelve months, Patent Docs presents its 17th annual list of top patent stories. For 2023, we identified ten stories that were covered on Patent Docs last year that we believe had (or are likely to have) a significant impact on patent practitioners and…
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By Michael Borella — They may have known that it was coming. Over the last several weeks, lobbying organizations and high-tech blogs have been slowly introducing the same old false, misleading, and deceptive arguments against patent law. These propaganda screeds are once again claiming that the patent system is awash with bad actors belligerently patenting…
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By Kevin E. Noonan – In addition to his efforts regarding patent subject matter eligibility law (see "Senate Bill Proposed to Provide Subject Matter Eligibility Solution", co-sponsored with Senator Tillis), Senator Coons, joined by Senators Tillis, Durbin, and Hirono, introduced the ''Promoting and Respecting Economically Vital American Innovation Leadership Act'' (the ''PREVAIL Act'') last month. This…
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By Michael Borella — Patent eligibility is broken. The only semi-cogent arguments that I have ever heard in support of the status quo is that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issues too many broad, vague patents, and that 35 U.S.C. § 101 affords defendants a low-cost way of quickly invalidating bad-faith patent assertions on…
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By Kevin E. Noonan – Through the vicissitudes of the continuing chaos of subject matter eligibility, Senators Coons and Tillis have been steadfast in attempting to provide a legislative solution. They chaired a series of Congressional hearings in 2019 (see "Senators Tillis and Coons Release Statement on Recent Patent Reform Hearings"), have asked the Patent and…
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By Donald Zuhn –- After reflecting upon the events of the past twelve months, Patent Docs presents its 16th annual list of top patent stories. For 2022, we identified ten stories that were covered on Patent Docs last year that we believe had (or are likely to have) a significant impact on patent practitioners and…
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By Michael Borella — The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is at it again, gaslighting the public in its ongoing crusade against patents. While the EFF does perform some commendable work, mostly in the areas of individual privacy rights, its track record on patents amounts to little more than a hit job. In particular, the EFF has…
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As promised in our earlier post (see "Professor Sarnoff Provides His Perspective on Tillis Bill"), here we turn to Professor Joshua Sarnoff's thoughts on the portions of Senator Thom Tillis' (R-NC) bill regarding diagnostic method patents. Those thoughts were presented in abbreviated form in the earlier post because we did not have the space the…
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