On April 5th, a federal judge in the U.S. District Court of Virginia heard summary judgment arguments on this very issue in Thaler v. Iancu.  Thaler brought this action to challenge the current legal definition of inventorship of patent applications after the United States Patent & Trademark Office had rejected two of his patent applications for failing to identify a person as inventor in non-compliance with the Read More

The recent January 13, 2014 opinion by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in In Re Raymond Giannelli drives home the point that the burden of establishing a prima facia case of obviousness rests with he USPTO.  Conclusory statements about obviousness will generally be insufficient to establish obviousness.  Furthermore, a detailed, well-written description may well play a key role in allowing the Read More

Patent licensing agreements are often critical to the financial success of the patent owner (licensor).   Such agreements are generally lengthy and subject to extensive negotiation between the parties.   After all of the blood, sweat, and tears that went into just obtaining the patent, a patent licensor may think that any resulting patent licensing agreement is merely icing on the cake.               Yet a recent Read More