Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) intellectual property (IP) have been around for some time now, but how do they relate to the Metaverse? And how will VR and AR patent rights change as the Metaverse continues to evolve? The Patently Strategic Podcast will be exploring these topics in our next installment of Into the Patentverse.

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Inventors and practitioners alike are continually trying to push the bounds of protection on innovations. Whether it’s describing a telegraph as a means for communication or a lightbulb as a means for lighting an environment, using broad language, like “means for” language, to cover all the possible workarounds might seem more advantageous than disadvantageous, at first glance. In patent law, this broad language or “means for” phraseology is called functional language because it describes the device or system in terms of what it accomplishes rather than the actual structure. However, using functional language has lost favor over time. For example, a blog published by Patently-O in 2011 shows that the use of “means for” language has dropped precipitously from about 1990 to present day. What has turned this seemingly advantageous practice into a disadvantageous one?In this episode of Patently Strategic, the panel walks through several court cases that either: invalidated a patent for failing to define structures in the specification for the all the means-plus-function claim terms or maintained validity of the patent because the specification provided sufficient structure for all the means-plus-function claim terms.

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Just when we thought things couldn’t get worse, the state of patent law around eligible subject matter has fallen further into limbo with court decisions that dissenting opinions have said will “lead to insanity,” can only be the product of “result-oriented judicial activism,” have moved the system from its once reliable incentive to innovate “to a litigation gamble”, and could “threaten most every invention for which a patent has ever been granted.” Despite cries for help and urges to provide clarification from multiple presidential administrations, the Solicitor General, members of Congress, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, IP bar associations, and the Patent Office, the Supreme Court refused to hear American Axle’s recent bid to overturn a lower court decision that invalidated the company’s patent in a closely followed legal battle with rival Neapco Holdings.

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You have your big idea and now it’s time to breathe it into existence, but you need some help with the development. Like many others, you may turn to the aid of an engineering firm or dev shop. This relationship is a marriage of sorts. But it’s a marriage that is designed to inevitably end in divorce. How cleanly, smoothly, and successfully this separation goes depends on the steps that you take before it officially begins. The end goals are a great product and clean asset separation. You’ll want your IP and any newly created devices, infrastructure, etc. – and the engineering firm will want to not be inhibited from doing their job with other clients going forward.

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The life sciences are currently facing at least two major plagues in our patent world. The first is that many life science innovations have been deemed ineligible in terms of patentable subject matter. In other words, the courts and the patent office believe that the patent laws are not meant to protect these innovations. The second plague is that the courts believe that many life science patents are not enabled. In other words, they are not described in sufficient detail to enable one of skill in the art to make and use the invention.

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“Metaverse” is the buzziest of the buzzwords in tech and will soon be joining the ranks of “AI” and “ML” as requisite keywords in the next generation of pitch decks and patent applications. But what are the core components of the Metaverse? And what are their implications in the world of intellectual property? The Patently Strategic Podcast will be exploring this topic over the course of several upcoming episodes.

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