The America Invents Act ("AIA") mandates that a Covered Business Method Review is available only for challenging the validity of covered business method patents. On November 21, 2016, the Federal Circuit ruled in Unwired Planet v. Google that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) had...

On November 15, 2016, a split panel of the Federal Circuit, consisting of Judges Moore and O’Malley, ruled that the antedating standard demanded by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, requiring a “continuous exercise of reasonable diligence,” was too exacting and in conflict with...

Last week, Intellectual Ventures (IV) petitioned the full Federal Circuit to review the panel opinion in Intellectual Ventures v. Symantec, which invalidated two of its patents under section 101. Both patents - the ‘050 and the ‘610 - are directed to filtering email or file content. (IV...

Intellectual property (“IP”) rights can be the cornerstone of a business's value and competitive edge. IP rights are generally grouped into four categories: trademarks, copyrights, patents, and trade secrets.

An important question for any plaintiff alleging trade secret misappropriation is: “How much detail should I provide about the stolen trade secrets in the complaint?” Answering this question often requires the balancing of two important considerations. On the one hand, plaintiffs...

The Federal Circuit has ruled that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board cannot deny Patent Owner an opportunity to address portions of a prior art reference first discussed in Petitioner’s Reply, and then rely on those same portions to hold the claims unpatentable.

On November 2, 2016 the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued a memo to Examiners on its stance on subject matter eligibility in response to the McRO and BASCOM Federal Circuit decisions, previously discussed at Global IP Matters. The USPTO will be updating its subject matter...

Trade secret theft is a growing threat to American businesses. One obstacle to addressing misappropriation through a lawsuit can be a lack of direct evidence of theft. For example, if an employee leaves his company to work for a competitor and, some months later, the competitor comes out with a...

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) introduced the Ombudsman Program on April 6, 2010 with the ostensible goal of advancing patent applications that have stalled during the examination process. Since its inaugural year, which saw a mere 268 inquiries, the Ombudsman...

Michigan State University announced last Friday, November 18, that on November 13 unauthorized users gained access to university computer and data systems containing about 400,000 records of sensitive personal information of current and former students and employees, including names, Social...