Patent Law Weblog
recent posts
- Apple v. Squires: USPTO Director Has Unlimited Discretion on IPR Institution
- The Ghost in the Machine: Why GenAI Can Be Both a Brilliant Researcher and a Terrible Advocate
- Bayer Files Suit Against Trio of COVID-19 Vaccine Makers
- Allen v. Cooper (4th Cir. 2026)
- To Require an Inventor ID, or Not to Require an Inventor ID – That Is the Question
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Category: Patent Office Rules & Procedures
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By Donald Zuhn — 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 of the announcement, the WHO noted that there were 118,000 cases reported globally in 114 countries. In…
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By Donald Zuhn — Last week, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a notice in the Federal Register (85 Fed. Reg. 12222), in which the Office clarified its practice with respect to those situations where the Office will require additional information about whether a delay in seeking the revival of an abandoned application, acceptance…
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By Michael Borella — In August, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced that it planned on raising various fees. One of those involved an additional $400 fee for non-provisional utility application filings with a PDF specification. This fee would be avoidable if the specification was filed in DOCX format. The USPTO's electronic filing system…
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By Donald Zuhn –- After reflecting upon the events of the past twelve months, Patent Docs presents its 13th annual list of top patent stories. For 2019, we identified fifteen 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 Donald Zuhn –- After reflecting upon the events of the past twelve months, Patent Docs presents its 13th annual list of top patent stories. For 2019, we identified fifteen 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 — Last month the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published an update ("October Update") to its subject matter eligibility guidance. As we noted at that time, the October Update is more evolutionary than revolutionary, and primarily serves to provide clarifications to the more substantive January Guidance. Nonetheless, the USPTO did provide four…
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By Donald Zuhn — USPTO to Offer Seminars on DOCX In a Patent Alert e-mail distributed today, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced that it will be offering several seminars on how to use DOCX for EFS-Web filings and on PAIR. The DOCX Information Sessions will focus on the advantages of filing patent applications…
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By Aaron Gin — On October 30, 2019, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office released a Federal Register Notice requesting comments on issues of artificial intelligence (AI) and intellectual property, the second such request in the past three months. In a blog post on the USPTO "Director's Forum", USPTO Director Andrei Iancu and Deputy Director…
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By Michael Borella — Early today, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office released an update to its January 2019 Subject Matter Eligibility Guidance. Unlike the January Guidance, which represented a significant change in how the USPTO applies § 101 in examination and PTAB proceedings, this October Update is primarily an effort to clarify issues brought…
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By Aaron Gin — The public comment period regarding patenting of artificial intelligence (AI), which was scheduled to close on October 11, 2019, has been extended until November 8, 2019. In a Notice posted August 27, 2019, USPTO Director Iancu sought public input on issues relating to AI-based inventions in an effort to determine whether…
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