U.S. Patent Office (USPTO)

Allergan’s assignment of the patents on one of its blockbuster drugs to an American Indian tribe in an attempt to dismiss a USPTO inter partes review (IPR) proceeding on “tribal sovereign immunity”…

Masaba Inc. did not infringe five Superior Industries patents that disclosed a conveyor system for drive-over truck dumps and a braced, telescoping support strut, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the…

Lord Hoffman (former Court of Appeal judge and presently at Queen Mary University) spoke about what can be done to harmonise the law. He said that the governments of most jurisdictions accept that…

The USPTO has issued new Guidance For Determining Subject Matter Eligibility to help examiners apply the principles of Myriad and Prometheus to any claim "reciting or involving laws of nature/natural…

On June 13, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its long-awaited decision in the “ACLU/Myriad” gene patents case (Association For Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc.). In a unanimous opinion…

The first-inventor-to-file provisions of the America Invents Act (AIA) took effect on March 16, 2013. While the effective date provisions for the first-inventor-to-file provisions are complicated,…

As of September 16, 2012, third parties have been able to make "Preissuance Submissions" of printed publications in pending U.S. patent applications. To date, the USPTO has received just over 100…

The next wave of U.S. patent reform changes embodied in the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act takes effect on September 16, 2012. The following is a list of some key changes that may impact granted,…

Practitioners and applicants have been wondering how the USPTO would respond to the July 20, 2012, U.S. Supreme Court decision in Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc., which…