Monthly notes on patent law since May 2021.
A new USPTO rule took effect this month requiring foreign-domiciled applicants to be represented by a registered U.S. patent practitioner for essentially all Office business. Here's what it means for foreign filers and the firms that route work to U.S. counsel.
Read more →The Patent Eligibility Restoration Act is back before the Senate Judiciary Committee, reviving the long-running effort to rewrite Section 101 and eliminate the judge-made exceptions from Alice and Mayo. Here's where things stand and how to plan around it.
Read more →This month marks five years of monthly patent law posts on patent.legal. We've covered Supreme Court decisions, Federal Circuit developments, PTAB practice, international changes, and practical guidance for inventors and businesses.
Read more →You file a patent application. Now what? Examination typically takes 2-4 years in the U.S., involving back-and-forth with an examiner who evaluates whether your invention meets all the legal requirements.
Read more →To get a patent, your invention must be new and non-obvious compared to "prior art"—everything that was publicly known before you filed. Prior art can be patents, publications, products, public uses, or sales.
Read more →Patent claims are the numbered sentences at the end of a patent that define what's protected. Everything else—the description, drawings, examples—is context. The claims are the legal boundaries.
Read more →New year, same patent system—but maybe new opportunities. 2026 is a good time to review your IP strategy and make sure it aligns with your business goals.
Read more →2025 continued trends from recent years: steady litigation volume, UPC maturation in Europe, ongoing eligibility uncertainty, and growing AI-related patent activity. No dramatic shifts, but meaningful evolution.
Read more →Getting sued for patent infringement is stressful and expensive. But you have options. Many defenses are available, and many cases settle for far less than the initial demand.
Read more →Patent licensing can generate significant revenue without manufacturing or selling products. But licensing isn't passive income—it requires strategy, negotiation, and enforcement.
Read more →Employees invent things. Who owns those inventions? Usually the employer, if the employee signed an assignment agreement and the invention relates to the company's business.
Read more →Patent litigation filings remain steady at around 4,000-4,500 cases per year. NPEs (non-practicing entities, sometimes called "patent trolls") account for about 40-50% of filings.
Read more →You've filed a U.S. patent application. Now you're considering foreign protection. You have two main options: file directly in each country within 12 months (Paris Convention), or file a PCT application that delays national filings until 30 months.
Read more →Building a patent portfolio isn't just about filing applications. It's about strategic decisions: what to patent, where to file, when to maintain, and when to abandon.
Read more →Companies often face a choice: patent your invention or keep it as a trade secret? Each approach has advantages. Patents give you exclusive rights but require public disclosure.
Read more →2024 saw the UPC mature in Europe, continued venue battles in the U.S., and ongoing uncertainty around patent eligibility. No blockbuster Supreme Court decisions, but steady evolution of existing doctrines.
Read more →You file a patent application. While it's pending, you realize you want to claim additional aspects, or cover competitor products, or adjust claim scope based on what's happening in the market.
Read more →Companies need to know what their patents are worth—for transactions, licensing, tax planning, and strategic decisions. But patent valuation is part art, part science.
Read more →Patent law has a simple rule: if you sell patented products, mark them with the patent number. If you don't, you can't recover damages for infringement that occurred before you gave actual notice to the infringer.
Read more →Ten years after the Supreme Court's Alice decision, software patent eligibility remains challenging but not impossible. Some software patents survive; most don't.
Read more →Patent ownership seems straightforward: the inventor assigns to the company, the company records the assignment, done. But in practice, chain of title issues cause real problems.
Read more →Patent litigation costs hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars. Patent litigation insurance can cover those costs—for a premium. The market has grown in recent years, with more carriers offering more products.
Read more →The Unified Patent Court launched on June 1, 2023. After nearly a year of operation, we can see how it's working. Several hundred cases have been filed.
Read more →In 2012, the Supreme Court decided Mayo v. Prometheus, making it much harder to patent diagnostic methods. The case involved a test that measured drug levels in blood to adjust dosages.
Read more →Modern cars use cellular technology for navigation, emergency calls, and connected features. That technology is covered by standard essential patents (SEPs).
Read more →Getting patents in multiple countries is slow and expensive. The Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) offers a shortcut: if one patent office says your claims are allowable, other participating offices will fast-track examination of corresponding claims.
Read more →Stephen Thaler tried to patent inventions created by his AI system, DABUS. He listed the AI as the inventor. The courts said no—only humans can be inventors under current law.
Read more →2023's biggest patent story was the Supreme Court's Amgen decision, which reinforced that patent claims must be enabled by the specification.
Read more →Apple sued Samsung for infringing design patents on iPhone features—the rectangular front face, the grid of icons, the black bezel. A jury awarded Apple hundreds of millions in damages.
Read more →Judge Alan Albright's courtroom in Waco, Texas has become the most popular patent litigation venue in America. In 2021 and 2022, over 1,000 patent cases were filed there—more than any other district.
Read more →When a product infringes a patent, damages should reflect the value of the patented invention—not the value of everything else in the product.
Read more →To get a patent, your invention has to be non-obvious—not just a predictable combination of existing knowledge. But how do you prove something wasn't obvious?
Read more →Getting a drug approved by the FDA can take 10 years or more. That eats into the 20-year patent term, leaving less time to recoup development costs.
Read more →The UK Supreme Court decided that British courts can set global FRAND licensing rates for standard essential patents—not just UK rates, but worldwide terms.
Read more →On June 1, 2023, Europe launched the Unified Patent Court (UPC)—a single court system for patent disputes across 17 European countries. Before this, you had to sue separately in each country where you wanted to enforce a European patent.
Read more →In 2021, the Supreme Court found that PTAB judges were unconstitutionally appointed—they were "principal officers" who should have been appointed by the President.
Read more →In May 2023, the Supreme Court unanimously agreed with the Federal Circuit: Amgen's antibody patents were invalid. The Court said you can't claim all antibodies that perform a function when you've only disclosed 26 specific ones.
Read more →Section 101 of the patent law says you can patent any "new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter." Sounds broad.
Read more →Amgen had patents on cholesterol-lowering antibodies. They disclosed 26 specific antibodies but claimed all antibodies that performed a certain function—potentially millions of different molecules.
Read more →2022 was a year of consolidation in patent law. No blockbuster Supreme Court decisions, but plenty of important developments in the Federal Circuit, district courts, and at the PTAB.
Read more →Before 2006, if you proved your patent was valid and infringed, you almost automatically got an injunction stopping the infringer. Then the Supreme Court decided eBay v.
Read more →When a company infringes a patent, they owe damages. The law says "adequate to compensate," but what does that mean in practice? Usually, it's either lost profits (what the patent owner would have made) or a reasonable royalty (what a license should have cost).
Read more →In 2012, Congress created a new way to challenge patent validity at the Patent Office itself, called Inter Partes Review or IPR. Instead of suing in federal court, you file a petition at the PTAB (Patent Trial and Appeal Board).
Read more →In patent litigation, the first big battle is often over what the patent claims actually mean. This happens at a "Markman hearing," named after a 1996 Supreme Court case that said judges, not juries, decide claim meaning.
Read more →Venue rules tell you which districts can hear patent cases. Personal jurisdiction is different—it asks whether the court has power over the defendant at all.
Read more →In 2014, the Supreme Court made it easier for courts to award attorney fees in patent cases. Before then, fees were rare—only for truly egregious conduct.
Read more →Lexmark sold toner cartridges for printers with a restriction: single use only. When a company called Impression Products refilled and resold those cartridges, Lexmark sued for patent infringement.
Read more →You can't get two patents on the same invention—that would extend your monopoly beyond the 20-year term Congress intended. But what if the second patent isn't identical, just obvious in light of the first?
Read more →Amgen had patents on a class of antibodies that lower cholesterol by blocking a protein called PCSK9. The problem: Amgen only disclosed 26 specific antibody sequences, but their claims covered all antibodies that performed this function—potentially millions of different molecules.
Read more →Patent claims have to be clear enough that someone skilled in the field can understand what's covered and what isn't. That's the "definiteness" requirement.
Read more →A man named Stephen Thaler tried to patent inventions that he says were created entirely by his AI system, which he calls DABUS. He listed the AI as the inventor and himself as the owner.
Read more →2021 was a year of significant change in patent law. The Supreme Court decided several important cases, the PTAB continued to evolve, and venue battles intensified.
Read more →Patents last 20 years from filing. But if the Patent Office takes too long examining your application, you lose patent term through no fault of your own.
Read more →Normally, patent infringement damages are what it would have cost to license the patent. But if infringement is "willful"—meaning the infringer knew about the patent and deliberately infringed anyway—damages can be tripled.
Read more →You don't have to make or sell the entire infringing product to be liable for patent infringement. If you sell components specifically designed for an infringing use, you can be liable for "contributory infringement." If you encourage others to infringe, that's "induced infringement." Both are real forms of liability.
Read more →Before 2017, patent plaintiffs could sue almost anywhere the defendant did business. A company selling products nationwide could be sued in any district.
Read more →Most patents never get litigated. Instead, they get licensed. A license is simply permission to use the patented technology in exchange for payment.
Read more →You invented something. Now you want a patent. The process of getting one is called "prosecution"—not because anyone's being prosecuted, but because you're "prosecuting" your application through the Patent Office.
Read more →A patent is a government-granted monopoly. In exchange for publicly disclosing your invention, you get the exclusive right to make, use, and sell it for 20 years.
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