Posts in Technology & Innovation

Judge Rader Inducted into IPWatchdog Masters™ Hall of Fame During SEP Program

Following a panel that examined the international landscape for standard essential patents (SEPs), IPWatchdog’s Founder and CEO, Gene Quinn, and Chief Operating Officer, Renee Quinn, presented The Honorable Randall Rader with the IPWatchdog Masters™ Hall of Fame award and a sketched portrait to add to the Wall of Fame at IPWatchdog’s headquarters. Judge Rader served as a circuit judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit from 1990 through 2010, and as the court’s Chief Judge from 2010-2014. He has won numerous awards and now works an arbitrator, mediator and consultant with the Rader Group. In his explanation of the origins of the IPWatchdog Masters™ Hall of Fame in 2022, Quinn said he wanted an IP Hall of Fame that included only “real IP professionals; people who mean something to me, people I want you to hear from.”

Build a Consumer Base with Innovation; Protect Sales with Design Patents

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued its one millionth design patent on September 26, 2023. U.S. Patent No. D1,000,000 claims the ornamental design for a dispensing comb. This milestone comes during a particularly prolific period for design patents. In 2022 alone, the USPTO received more than 50,000 design patent applications. The Office has seen a 20% growth in design patent applications over the last five years. It is not hard to understand why inventors are seeking design patent protection at previously unseen levels. In an age of complicated technologies, design patents can protect marketable appearances of products in the same manner generally as trademarks identify source. Understanding design patent benefits underlying the recent growth in application numbers is a good lesson for businesses seeking to distinguish a brand—but keep an eye out for further developments and be prepared to adjust business and IP strategies.

The Goose, The Golden Eggs, and AI: An Executive’s Guide to Choosing When—and When Not—to Patent

In today’s high-tech landscape, the ancient fable of the goose that laid the golden eggs imparts profound wisdom. The farmer in that tale weighed the decision to continue accumulating wealth slowly by selling the golden eggs that his magical goose laid (one per day) or taking a risk by killing the goose to harvest all of the gold within it at once. (Ultimately, the farmer chose the murderous path only to discover the goose did not contain any riches.) Just as the farmer faced thorny decisions in the tale, modern tech executives grapple with complex choices between immediate returns and long-term potential while also maintaining a competitive edge. In the real world, an artificial intelligence (AI) system that can generate patentable outputs (such as designs for new drugs) stands as the metaphorical “goose” while the inventions it produces are analogous to the “golden eggs.” Steadfastly guiding this delicate dance is the patent attorney with expertise in AI technology.

HTC Hit With $9 Million Damages Award After Losing Out on FRAND Rates as an Unwilling Licensee

On October 16, a jury verdict  entered in the District of Delaware awarded $9 million to 3G Licensing, a subsidiary of European patent pool operator Sisvel, after finding that Taiwanese consumer electronics company HTC Corp. willfully infringed upon a pair of cellular telecommunications patents. The verdict follows summary judgment rulings in the case against HTC and other defendants, who argued that the asserted patents were encumbered by fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) licensing obligations without establishing the patents’ essentiality to any standard.

Some Say Biden Executive Order on AI is a Missed Opportunity on Copyright Concerns

On October 30, President Joe Biden issued an executive order (EO) announcing a series of new agency directives for managing risks related to the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. The EO prioritizes risks related to critical infrastructure, cybersecurity and consumer privacy but it does not establish clear directives on copyright issues related to generative AI platforms that have garnered much debate in Congress in recent months.

How Brazil is Preparing for the Global Transformation in Connectivity

The world is increasingly connected, and semiconductors are essential to enabling this connectivity. Specialists project the semiconductor market to become a trillion-dollar industry by 2030 (McKinsey & Co., 2022). The term “semiconductors” covers a large amount of embedded technology that is advancing rapidly in its development. Semiconductor companies are highly innovative and rely on innovation to maintain their market share and expansion objectives. An indicator of innovation in this sector is, of course, patents. Of the 10 largest semiconductor companies, according to a ranking published by Investopedia in April 2023, five companies filed between 2,000 to 5,000 patent families between 2019 and 2022

Apple Loses at ITC with Apple Watch Import Ban

On Thursday, October 26, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) issued a limited exclusion order (LEO) and cease and desist order against Apple, potentially barring the technology company from importing Apple Watches into the United States. The ITC found Apple violated section 337 by importing Apple Watches that infringed on two Masimo patents that covered technology related to reading blood-oxygen levels.

Public-Use Bar: What Startups Need to Know

Startups often face many competing pressures. Two such pressures that are frequently at odds with each other are the need to adequately protect the intellectual property that will be the basis for future revenue and investment, and the need to bring such revenue and investment into the business to allow for continued technology development and commercialization. Many startups are aware of how the on-sale bar interacts with these pressures and the associated need to file patent applications on any technology prior to offering or placing it on sale. However, fewer startups are aware of the public-use bar and how activities pursued with the goal of growing their businesses may unwittingly invoke it.

Split Federal Circuit Panel Says Netflix Failed to Properly Raise Arguments in IPR Petition

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) today issued a precedential ruling finding that it is ultimately the petitioner’s burden to clearly present arguments in an inter partes review (IPR), and that Netflix failed to do so in challenging the relevant claims of DivX’s streaming technology patents. Judge Dyk dissented from the majority.  

USPTO Report on COVID-19 Diagnostics Shows Outsized Impact of Small Entities on R&D

On October 23, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) Office of the Chief Economist (OCE) published a report detailing patent application filing trends at the USPTO related to COVID-19 diagnostics technologies. The OCE found that filing activity surged following the arrival of the novel coronavirus in early 2020, with much of that increase driven by small companies and research institutions. The report found further evidence suggesting that federal funding had a significant impact on driving innovation into COVID-19 diagnostics at small R&D entities.

EU SEP Regulation Update: Reenvisaging the European ‘FRANDscape’

On  April 27, 2023, the European Commission published its proposal for how the licensing of standard essential patents (SEPs) should be governed in the EU. The draft regulation states that the initiative aims to incentivize participation by European firms in the standard development process and the broad implementation of such standardized technologies, particularly in IoT industries. The developments are of interest to any business that develops, implements or markets connective technologies.

Copyright Office Section 1201 NPRM Includes Petitions for New Exemptions on Generative AI Bias Research, Right to Repair

Last week, the U.S. Copyright Office issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NRPM) in the Federal Register as part of the triennial rulemaking process for exceptions to 17 U.S.C. § 1201’s prohibition against circumventing technological protection measures (TPMs) controlling digital access to copyrighted works. This proceeding is the ninth triennial Section 1201 rulemaking since passage of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in 1998, and it starts with the Copyright Office intending to recommend renewal of all but one existing exemption. The Office also announced that it has received petitions for seven classes of newly proposed exemptions for which the agency will initiate three rounds of public comments.

The Tax Burden on Innovation Just Got Much Heavier and Not Many People Are Talking About It

I was not even aware of the issue below until a CPA friend of mine happened to mention it during a friendly telephone call. But unless Section 174 of the Internal Revenue Code is restored to its previous state from prior to the 2017 Trump tax cuts, U.S. innovation will be greatly impacted. Section 174 of the Internal Revenue Code has been around since 1954. It was enacted to eliminate uncertainty in the treatment of research and development (R&D) expenditures and to encourage businesses to carry on research and experimentation.

Thirty-Five Years of the U.S. IP System, Part II—AIA Through Today

In Part I of this article, I recalled the early years of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, when the court was working well, and how it all went wrong. In this second half, I recount how the America Invents Act (AIA) has fundamentally shifted the power in patent enforcement and policy. I close on a positive note, detailing the current legislative efforts that, if enacted, will restore balance in the U.S. patent system, which is necessary for continued innovation leadership, economic success, and national security.

Latest Copyright Suit against Generative AI Targets Anthropic’s ‘Claude’

Music publishing companies Universal Music, ABKCO and Concord filed suit on Wednesday, October 18, in a Tennessee district court against generative artificial intelligence (AI) company, Anthropic, alleging “widespread infringement of their copyrighted song lyrics.” Anthropic’s core product is the AI ChatBot, Claude, which can be used to generate song lyrics to popular songs owned by the publishers or to generate “original” song lyrics in response to “requests to write a song about a certain topic, provide chord progressions for a given musical composition, or write poetry or short fiction in the style of a certain artist or songwriter,” for example, according to the complaint. These outputs also copy the publishers’ lyrics because Claude is trained on the infringing works and does not license the copyrights to those works, like other music lyric aggregators, said the publishers.