Posts in IPWatchdog Articles

CAFC Affirms District Court’s Inventorship Analysis

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) on Friday affirmed a district court finding that two inventors should be added as co-inventors to a patent for a method of transporting gaseous fluids. The CAFC concluded that the record “does not leave us with a definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been made” in finding the inventors contributed significantly to the invention.

Leveque Intellectual Property Law, P.C. is Seeking a Patent / Intellectual Property Attorney

Leveque Intellectual Property Law, P.C., one of America’s oldest continuously-operated patent practices founded and operated by a woman patent attorney, is seeking a registered U.S. patent attorney, preferably with a proven track record in patenting software, artificial intelligence (AI), convolutional network, medical devices, and other electrical technologies. Ideal candidates will have at least 10 years of recent experience in all aspects of utility and design patent drafting and prosecution practice; managing international patent prosecution of patent portfolios; analyzing and summarizing patent searches, drafting legal opinions, including patentability, validity, infringement and freedom-to-operate. The ideal candidate will also have recent experience providing IP clients with trademark, trade secret and copyrights guidance as well as drafting transactional and licensing agreements. This is a hybrid position with flexible hours. The ideal candidate will be available to work in our office in downtown Frederick, Maryland as needed. Full-time and part-time positions are available. 

Responding to Obviousness Rejections in Light of the USPTO’s New Guidance

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) recently released new guidance to patent examiners on making obviousness rejections. The guidance focuses on post-KSR precedential jurisprudence from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Some of the guidance is fairly mundane, some of it is not. The purpose of this article is to propose a few responses one might use to counter rejections that apply certain problematic aspects of the new guidance.

Becoming a Rainmaker: The Importance of Expertise, Reputation and Personality

The key to rainmaking for lawyers is understanding that those who have decisional authority to hire an attorney are hiring you. Perhaps, once upon a time, those who hired lawyers were more interested in the name of the firm, but the days of an attorney staying with a firm long term are over. Attorneys move, firms merge or sometimes collapse. What this means is that, as long as the firm you are with is large enough to do the work you seek, your name and reputation far and away supersede the name on the letterhead.

USPTO Wants Input on How to Better Commercialize Innovation

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) today issued a Request for Comments (RFC) that will be published in the Federal Register tomorrow seeking input from the public on how to better incentivize commercialization of innovation, particularly in green and critical or emerging technologies. According to the RFC, the comments received “will be used to evaluate possibilities for amplifying the impact of our current work, and to explore new ways to support the transfer of innovation to the marketplace.”

High-Tech Groups and EFF Revive Patent Troll Narrative and Other Lies

Efforts by high-tech companies to undermine both the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act of 2023 and the Promoting and Respecting Economically Vital American Innovation Leadership (PREVAIL) Act ramped up this week, with a joint letter sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee by a number of tech industry organizations on Monday and a campaign launched by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) yesterday.