Features
Can a Licensor Receive Royalty Payments Beyond the Life of Patent Protection?
How do you determine if ongoing royalty obligations that extend beyond the life of underlying patent protection, even if agreed to by the contracting parties, are enforceable? A recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit shows what types of license arrangements pass the test.
Features
Federal Circuit Decision Clarifies Obviousness-Type Double Patenting and Patent Term Adjustments In Allergan v. MSN Laboratories
On August 13, the Federal Circuit issued a precedential ruling that reversed the District of Delaware's application of the Federal Circuit precedent in In re: Cellect to invalidate a claim in an earlier-filed parent application over admittedly patentably indistinct claims in later-filed (and earlier-expired) child patents. This decision has resolved some substantial questions about the application of obviousness-type double patenting that had been raised by last year's In re Cellect decision.
Columns & Departments
IP News
Federal Circuit: Affirms Preliminary Injunction on Cancer Assays Federal Circuit: Affirms Judgment of Unpatentability on the Pleadings for Claims Directed to Method of Assisting an Investigator in Conducting a Background Investigation
Features
Federal Circuit Overrules 'Improperly Rigid' Obviousness Test
In an eagerly anticipated decision involving the proper standard for assessing when a claimed design is obvious, the Federal Circuit overruled the Rosen-Durling test that courts and the USPTO have been applying for nearly 30 years, calling the test "improperly rigid" and inconsistent with Supreme Court precedent.
Features
Idaho District Court Imposes First-Ever Bond Order Under the State's Bad Faith Assertions of Patent Infringement Act
The Act is intended to guard against patent trolling and creates a private cause of action for those targeted by bad faith infringement assertions and contemplates two types of relief: remedies and a bond requirement.
Features
AI Can Facilitate Innovation, But It Can Also Become a Potent Patent Killer
When is an inventor not an inventor? It's when the inventor isn't human. So, if a non-human inventor can't, in the eyes of patent law, be an inventor, what role can the non-human inventor have in the patent system? The answer is straightforward. Even though it can't create, it can destroy.
Features
Patent Your Trade Secrets In Wake of Noncompete Ban
While it may be growing more difficult to protect business information with the FTC's noncompete ban, patents can provide strong protection over technical innovations, regardless of whether the inventor stays with the company or leaves.
Features
Key Takeaways from the Latest USPTO Guidance on AI
The April Guidance, which supplements prior guidance issued in February, seeks to remind practitioners of existing rules and to educate them on potential risks associated with artificial intelligence tool use, allowing practitioners to mitigate these risks.
Features
Federal Circuit Overrules 'Rosen-Durling' Test for Design Patent Obviousness
The downfall of the Rosen-Durling test will generally make it harder to obtain design patents and easier to invalidate design patents.
Features
Structuring Patent Licensing Agreements
Licensing inventions vis-a-vis the licensing of patents is not a new practice by any means. However, the explosion of innovation in industries such as technology and pharmaceuticals has placed patent licensing at the forefront of economic advancement.
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