The premise of the conversation was to identify solutions for a better patent system that would improve the current state of the system without empowering bad actors, such as patent trolls. I begin the conversation offering each of the panelists an open mic to start so they can set forth their preliminary thoughts… Ultimately, Judge Newman reached her conclusion: “I was wrong. We should not have formed the Federal Circuit and taken it away from the regional circuits. Maybe we should have looked elsewhere… And I have a very simple solution. We give the patent cases back to the regional circuits.”

The topic this week is quantum computers. It is quite a niche topic and finding people who actually know what they’re talking about is not particularly easy, but this is an enormously important topic that we should all know something about because for Artificial Intelligence (AI) to achieve all its full potential, we are going to need much better and much faster computers. And whether it is ultimately quantum computing or whatever comes next, quantum computers are going to be at minimum a bridge to go from where we are right now to where most in the public already think we are in terms of AI sophistication. What are quantum computers and how do they operate? Why are quantum computers necessary for the evolution of AI? Why can’t ordinary computers do what we need to have done? What is the particular advantage of quantum computing versus classical computing power?

This week on IPWatchdog Unleashed we explore the age-old question about whether it is best to keep an innovation as a trade secret or if it makes sense to seek patent protection. And while this question is not new, it is a question that has been getting more attention in recent years as patents in the United States become weaker, which makes trade secrets increasingly look like a viable alternative for a host of different innovations in a variety of technology fields. “I have a pretty easy formula that I use to balance the patent versus the trade secret [question],” Arash Behravesh said. “And that is, can it be reverse engineered? How much does it cost the competitor to reverse engineer it? And if we decide to keep it as a trade secret, how long will it be before somebody potentially discloses the information to the public?”