Patrick Kilbride argues for a system where novel work is protected by law, honoring the American founders’ vision that property rights should be tied to labor. Kilbride asserts, “Innovation is just an economic activity. What sets it apart is its complexity, requiring time, resources, and the right environment to flourish.” He stressed the global necessity for environments that support innovation, highlighting the shared human instinct to create and solve problems. He also explained that if an individual creates something demonstrably new, they deserve ownership and protection, reinforcing the essential role of strong IP laws in the economy.

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In the latest episode of IPWatchdog Unleashed, I had the opportunity to sit down with Ted Wood—a unique figure whose career spans military service, engineering and patent law. After spending time both in-house and at Am Law 100 firms, today Ted is Managing Partner of Wood IP. Our conversation, which took place August 8, was not only interesting and fun but a testament to the diverse pathways one can take to success, both in life and, specifically, in the engineering and patent law fields.

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The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has embarked upon a three-year plan to focus on and discuss standard essential patents (SEPs).To forward this laudable goal, WIPO will host a free SEP symposium in Geneva on September 18-19, which will be live streamed online… WIPO bringing the SEP community together for an IP conversation was the predicate for our IPWatchdog Unleashed podcast this week. I spoke with András Jókúti, who is the Director of the Patent and Technology Law Division at WIPO. Our conversation provided insights into WIPO’s approach to SEPs, the challenges at hand, why WIPO is attempting to navigate this complex terrain, the need for increased transparency and much more.

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I invited McNish to join us for a conversation about PTAB practice and how it has evolved over the last several months, and to specifically discuss one of the more intriguing criteria being used by the USPTO to discretionarily deny institution of IPR challenges—the settled expectations of the patent owner. And, according to McNish, “by all appearances, ‘settled expectations’ decisions are converging toward a bright-line rule warranting discretionary denial starting six years after issuance, which would track the Acting Director’s previous analogy to the six-year damages lookback in the Dabico decision.”

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This week on IPWatchdog Unleashed, we have a conversation about one of the hottest topics not just in the intellectual property world, but one that people are discussing both inside and outside of government. The cost of prescription pharmaceuticals is higher in the United States than anywhere else in the world, and many in the United States—including President Trump—are fed up with this imbalance. What makes drug pricing an intellectual property issue is the fact that those who do not like patents engage in a sophisticated and coordinated campaign to mislead the public into ignoring what really drives prices and instead blame patents. In other words—they lie.

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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?”

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I began my conversation with Wen Xie by giving her an open mic opportunity to share her thoughts on the state of the industry and she said: “You asked me just now before we started filming, should we be afraid of AI. And my answer is there’s no point in being afraid because it’s coming… AI is coming in every profession, every technology. And we shouldn’t resist it when it comes to patent drafting or patent prosecution.”

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This week on IPWatchdog Unleashed we dive into patent eligibility waters, with a discussion on how patent attorneys and litigators alike can cope with Alice. Our conversation will triangulate patent eligibility from the political perspective, from the perspective of a patent litigator who represents patent owners in federal court, and from the perspective of a patent attorney who represents clients as they attempt to obtain software patents. Joining us this week is the Honorable Andrei Iancu, former Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Vince Rubino, who is a patent litigator with Fabricant in the firm’s New York City office, and from the patent prosecution perspective we have John Rogitz, who is Managing Attorney at Rogitz & Associates.

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This week on IPWatchdog Unleashed, we enter the world of patent monetization and patent dealmaking. As you hear the conversation unfold, we discuss the reality that patent deals are getting done. Although the value of the patent deals currently being consummated has not increased in 2025 compared with the last several years, the number of patent deals being done has dramatically increased, which could be the first sign of a bounce in the patent marketplace on the horizon.

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This week on IPWatchdog Unleashed, we enter the patent litigation world for a conversation about gaming patent litigation. For too long, popular sentiment has been that patent owners are bad actors simply because they are patent owners. A more nuanced but still grossly overbroad view is that patent owners are not per se bad actors, but if you are a patent owner who has the audacity to enforce a patent against an alleged infringer then you are most definitely a bad actor. Obviously, just being a patent owner does not make one a bad actor, and neither does enforcing a patent against an alleged infringer. But this patent troll narrative has been quite successful

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This week on IPWatchdog Unleashed I speak with F. Scott Kieff, former Commissioner on the International Trade Commission, and Joshua Hartman, head of Merchant & Gould’s ITC practice group. Our conversation, which took place on June 4, focused on the landmark ruling by the Federal Circuit in Lashify, Inc. v. International Trade Commission, which was a big win for small business patent owners. We discuss the consequences of the Lashify ruling and the politics of the decision, including whether the decision fits within an America First view of domestic and global markets. Kieff also discusses the historical evolution of the ITC, why it was initially created, and how it is purposefully deadlocked politically to require cooperation.

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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.”

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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?

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Some who listened to the Squires confirmation hearing last week became concerned—having almost a flashback to everything that has transpired over the last generation leading up to this moment. These patent owners have been kicked again and again, with many having lost everything. And they have seen how the low-patent quality argument insidiously infects debate on patents. So, it is understandable that this group is skeptical. But what does Squires believe? Given how little time Squires was given to speak, and how he was repeatedly asked irrelevant “gotcha” questions, it is impossible to really know what Squires thinks, which is why the responses to the written questions he receives will be extremely important.

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This week on IPWatchdog Unleashed I speak with Allison Gaul who serves as legal counsel for Boston Consulting Group. We begin our conversation with me asking about what she believes are the biggest legal issues in the IP world today. Gaul did identify several things that stay top of mind for her, with various issues relating to data front and center as the top issue. The second area identified by Gaul was open source, and how many of the AI companies promoting “open source” are really not truly open source because often the model, weights and/or training data are not made available, which makes it seem like these companies are racing to gain market share and ultimately “doing a little bit of a switcheroo.” The third and final thing that Gaul identifies as being constantly top of mind is the overall speed of AI development.

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