Posts Tagged: "Holiday posts"

As we get ready to usher in the new year tonight, it is once again time to look back on the year behind us and to reflect on the biggest moments and key events in the world of intellectual property for 2019. Each year, we look back on IPWatchdog coverage to publish the top 10 patent stories, which this year included the top 10 patent stories from 2019, as well as from the decade 2010-2019. Likewise, we also ask a panel of industry experts for their insights for our Biggest Moments in IP series, which is the longest running series on IPWatchdog.com. This year, unsurprisingly, Section 101 reform, Federal Circuit jurisprudence, and the Arthrex decision on the constitutionality of Patent Trial and Appeal Board judges were among the biggest moments most mentioned. But other less high-profile developments, such as the USPTO’s decision on the trademark side to require U.S. counsel for foreign trademark filers, the Supreme Court’s copyright decision in Fourth Estate v. Wall-Street.com, and forum shopping trends in FRAND litigation, also made the list.

As we prepare to enter a new year—and a new decade—it is time once again to look back on the year behind us to assess its impact for the IP world. All in all, it was very much a year of “almosts.” While the Supreme Court is still considering some cases that could herald massive change for patent law, its most notable move this year has largely been to keep its head planted firmly in the sand, particularly when it comes to Section 101 and patent eligibility, signaling that it seems to either believe everything is fine, or that Congress or the Federal Circuit will fix the problem they initially created. Similarly, Congress has been perhaps more active than ever before on IP issues across the board, but has thus far failed to enact or move forward on meaningful legislation at any level. At the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Andrei Iancu made some heroic changes in examiner guidance on Section 101 that promised to clear up the massive confusion that has developed over the last decade, but the courts refused to acknowledge the USPTO’s authority on the matter, thereby making the changes virtually useless.

With the end of 2019 upon us, the holiday season is a great time to take a look back at the most influential patents—rather than patent stories—representing a variety of important developments from this year. As we explore some of the patents and technologies that have had the greatest impact on the previous year, our focus will be upon both patents that have led to court decisions having major ramifications on the U.S. patent system, as well as those patents representing major advances in technological sectors that are growing more important by the day. From Athena v. Mayo to brainwave device authentication methods, 2019 offered no shortage of impressive innovations and depressing patent-eligibility decisions.

This year, we wind down not only the year, but the decade. So, it is time to reflect upon the biggest patent related stories of the last ten years. As with any Top 10 list or ranking, there will undoubtedly be disagreements. For example, be forewarned, Mayo v. Prometheus did not make the list, but rest assured the ineptitude of the Supreme Court with respect to patent eligibility is well represented. Before jumping to the top 10, represented in chronological order, I want to mention several honorable mention stories that were close but didn’t make the list. First, although completely inconsequential, on June 22, 2015, in Kimble v. Marvel, the United States Supreme Court rejuvenated a 50-year-old rule that limits collecting patent royalties after a patent expires. In that decision the Supreme Court cited the importance of stare decisis, saying that there needs to be an overwhelmingly important rationale for disturbing well settled law, which is laugh-out-loud funny given how they did precisely that when they completely rewrote all of patent eligibility law with Bilski, Myriad, Mayo and Alice this decade. I’m sorry, but the Supreme Court citing stare decisis shows just how out of touch and ignorant they have collectively become.

Christmas is in just a few days, but if you’re still looking for gifts for the patent attorneys, engineers, scientists or inventors in your life, here are a few can’t-miss gifts for your consideration.

Today marks 20 years since the date of IPWatchdog.com’s launch. Happy Birthday to Us! As IPWatchdog Founder and CEO Gene Quinn recalled at the 10-year mark, in 1999 he was living in Orlando, Florida, and planning to embark on a career as a full-time law professor. But things didn’t quite turn out that way. Quinn first purchased the IPWatchdog URL in 1998 with the intention of providing a service to evaluate stocks based on IP portfolios. But when his partners in that plan slowly began leaving the dream behind for law firm jobs, Quinn decided to create a platform of his own, mainly summarizing “literally every IP case in America” in one paragraph each week. “The target audience was potential clients and IP attorneys,” Quinn recently told Eli Mazour for the Clause 8 podcast. “I had more of a belief than a plan that what I was doing was going to be worthwhile,” Quinn said. “Even if I didn’t figure out how to turn it into a business, I knew it would be beneficial because more people would know who I was.” Tonight, IPWatchdog will celebrate its 20th anniversary in style with the many close friends, colleagues and readers Gene and Renée have met over the years. Below, we share some of their thoughts on what IPWatchdog, and Gene and Renée, have meant to them and to the IP community over these past two decades.

IPWatchdog has been publishing readers’ and staff picks for the Top 25 songs of all time for the past four years on the Fourth of July. See previous posts here, here, here, and here. Not one to snub tradition, this year it’s my turn. I was raised chiefly in the 1980s and 90s, but my heart has always been with 60s/70s folk music and classic rock (while my tween friends were fawning over NKOTB I was renting Yellow Submarine and Help! at Blockbuster). At nine years old, my father took me to Tower Records to purchase all of his favorite Beatles albums on cassette—loving the Beatles is passé now, but it’s sentimental in my case. The first song I fell in love with was Maxwell’s Silver Hammer, because it’s silly, and I was nine. That one didn’t make the list, but the Beatles—and Lennon specifically—set the standard for my musical tastes going forward, lyrics being key. This exercise was much harder than I expected, and my final list looks nothing like I thought it would off the top of my head. There are so many great songs across so many genres and eras from a musical and lyrical perspective that it would be impossible to choose—so in the end I just went with the songs that have had personal meaning to me throughout my life. Some of them may not be so technically “top”, but this list is all about the memories.

Many readers will know that IPWatchdog, Inc. is run by partners in marriage and business, Founder and CEO Gene Quinn and Chief Operating Officer Renée Quinn. But fewer may know the story behind the couple, or how and why Renée chose to make the obscure world of intellectual property—a term she had not heard prior to meeting Gene—her own.