Category: Patents

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The Supreme Court’s Adjudication on Whether a Post-grant Amendment of a Granted Patent Constitutes an Amendment of the Litigation Claim

When granted with a patent right, the patentee may file a request for amending the description, claim(s) or drawing(s) of the granted patent.  Hence, once an alleged infringer has presented prior evidence sufficient to establish that the patent at issue lacks patentability in a patent infringement litigation case, the patentee is likely to file post-grant … Continue Reading

Can Lawsuits under Breach of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Clauses Be Suspended Through Preliminary Injunction?

When civil disputes arise, in addition to seeking binding judgment through civil proceedings, parties can resolve the disputes through Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanisms such as arbitration, settlement, and mediation.  To avoid the complexities of possible future litigation and expedite dispute resolution, parties to an agreement commonly include an “ADR clause” in their agreement such … Continue Reading

Rebranding or launching a new product in the CPG space? Don’t neglect intellectual property

The coronavirus pandemic has presented many challenges for those in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) space, and beyond. Supply chain disruptions, rapid migration of point-of-sale from brick-and-mortar outlets to online retail, and overall shifts in consumer preference, eating and cooking habits, and personal safety needs has required many CPG companies to reevaluate and reinvent their … Continue Reading

WIPO introduces new business online-service that provides evidence of an intellectual asset’s existence

On 27 May 2020 WIPO launched new online business service, WIPO PROOF1, that provides tamper-proof evidence of the existence at a point in time of any digital file, including data sets, in any format. The WIPO PROOF service generates tamper-proof evidence proving that a digital file existed at a specific point in time, and that … Continue Reading

Can Patent Claims be Cancelled Based on Indefiniteness by the PTAB during an IPR?

For the Patent and Trail Appeal Board (“PTAB”), the PTAB allows a petition for inter parties review (“IPR”) to request cancellation of claims in a U.S. patent.  For an inter parties review of a patent, the PTAB institutes review and determines if claims of a patent are unpatentable.  Can the PTAB cancel claims based on … Continue Reading

The Open COVID Pledge

Intellectual property rights are – by definition – monopolistic. How, then, can researchers, charities and NGOs collaborate with business in the development of new technologies to control and eradicate COVID-19? The Pledge The Open COVID Pledge[1] is intended to encourage business and academia to pledge to make their intellectual property (IP) available free of charge for … Continue Reading

A Recipe for Patent Protection: Are food products patentable?

In the past several years, the food and beverage space has seen an explosion of innovation—alternative meat products, plant-based dairy and protein alternatives, CBD- and collagen-infused everything, and functional foods and beverages and containing everything from pre/pro/post-biotics to nootropic and adaptogenic herbs, just to name a few. And many of these innovations have led to … Continue Reading

Compulsory Licensing in Russia in the view of COVID-19

Nowadays the sphere of healthcare is becoming one of the mostly discussed because of a mass spread of the coronavirus pandemic (also COVID-19). Confirmed cases of COVID-19 around the world have passed more than a 2.4 million. As the disease is continuing to surge the World Health Organization is warning that there are no specific … Continue Reading

Not Only Will We March Again: Committed, Resilient IP Lawyers Marching Still In Time Of COVID

A few weeks back, as remote working and social distancing were becoming the order of the day (and interesting phrase, given what quickly became the norm in many US states and cities, as executive orders abounded), my son tossed a statement in my direction that was both compliment and challenge:  “Isaac Newton developed calculus, among … Continue Reading

COVID-19 and Intellectual Property

Despite the COVID-19 closures and cancellations, some governmental intellectual property offices have not extended deadlines, so parties should remain mindful that protections for individuals and businesses should not be overlooked. Many patent and trademark offices around the world are providing relief for businesses that may have difficulty tending to their intellectual property filings due to other pressing COVID-19-related concerns; some … Continue Reading

Hong Kong’s Patents (Amendment) Ordinance 2016 ( “the Ordinance” or “PAO” ) came into force on 19th December 2019 to further improve the Hong Kong’s system of protecting intellectual property rights on inventions

To ensure that Hong Kong’s system continues to meet present-day circumstances and be in alignment with Government’s vision of developing Hong Kong into a regional innovation and technology hub, Hong Kong Government appointed an Advisory Committee on Review of the Patent System in Hong Kong in 2011(the “Advisory Committee”) to review and advise it on … Continue Reading

Selling Your Products on US Online Marketplaces

Before you begin selling your products on a U.S. online marketplace like Amazon, Etsy or Rakuten, there are three intellectual property considerations to make: clearance, acquisition and enforcement. This article provides a summary of all three considerations and includes steps to take to help mitigate risk, decrease instances of infringers and position your product for … Continue Reading

Can Appointment of Administrative Patent Judges be Unconstitutional?

For the Patent and Trial Appeal Board (“PTAB”), the Administrative Patent Judges (“APJs”) are appointed by the Secretary of Commerce in consultation with the Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office.  For an inter parties review of a patent, three APJs conduct the instituted review and determine if claims of a patent are … Continue Reading

Recent judgment from the CJEU may have consequences for preliminary injunctions in Denmark

In a recent judgment from The Court of Justice of the European Union (the “CJEU”) in case C-688/17, the CJEU had the chance to provide an interpretation of adequate compensation contained in article 9(7) of Directive 2004/48 (the “enforcement directive”) and whether article 9(7) precludes a national legislation that provides that a party should not … Continue Reading

Can Design Patents Be Limiting in Enforcement?

Suppose that you have an invention disclosure for a design of an article that you want to protect?  When you review the invention disclosure, you notice that the design is ornamental, for example a pattern, on an article such as a chair.  You draft and file a design patent application on the pattern described as … Continue Reading

The District of Delaware Holds Patent Description for Bacon Product Indefinite

An indefinite patent description will pass muster when pigs fly.  In HIP, Inc. v. Hormel Foods Corporation et al., C.A. 18-615-CFC (D. Del. June 24, 2019), the United States District Court for the District of Delaware held that a patent failed to meet the requirement of 35 U.S.C. § 112 that a patent’s description must … Continue Reading

The Role of Artificial Intelligence

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the fashion and beauty industries — and the marketing of the same — has steadily gained traction over the last few years and it’s not hard to see why. AI provides a myriad of opportunities and potential applications within the fields of fashion and beauty, but it can … Continue Reading

PATENT TROLL SUITS DOWN, NOT OUT IN 2018

Over the past half-decade, Congress and the courts have made aggressive efforts to curb the worst abuses of the patent system. In 2013, Congress passed the America Invents Act (AIA), which established the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) to hear patent validity challenges outside of the federal court system. In 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark ruling … Continue Reading

A NEW MECHANISM FOR PROTECTING FASHION COMPANIES IN RUSSIA

At the end of June a mechanism providing for temporary protection of industrial designs was introduced into the Russian legal system. In short it requires somebody who uses an industrial design during the period of its patenting to pay compensation to the future holder of the patent.  Previously, this type of protection was available only … Continue Reading

“Patent Attorneys Academy” established in Greece

While in some jurisdictions the concept of a “patent attorney” or also a “patent judge”, referring to persons who not only have knowledge of patent law but also acquire technical expertise in relation to patents, is common, this is not the case in Greece. Of course, there are lawyers with high-level expertise in patent law, … Continue Reading
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