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G Nagesh Rao

is a former U.S. patent examiner and senior policy adviser with the Department of Commerce-U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Nagesh represented the United States as a 2016 USA Eisenhower Fellow and is an advisory board member to the American Association for the Advancement of Science-Lemelson Invention Ambassadors Program.

Recent Articles by G Nagesh Rao

Apple v. Samsung Retrial: An Opportunity to Finally Clarify Design Patent Law

On May 14th the next chapter in the Samsung v. Apple smartphone design patent dispute will commence in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California with a retrial to determine a new award in the case. The most notable moment in this long winding history was the unanimous Supreme Court decision where the Supreme Court sided with Samsung in its appeal in late 2016. But while the Supreme Court’s ruling should have modernized our antiquated law governing design patents to fit into the modern 21st century world, that important outcome is still in doubt pending the retrial. A key question remains – namely, how to determine the “article of manufacture” and appropriate remedy for infringement of multifaceted products. And could this open up potential grounds of consideration for utility patent interpretation?