As the first quarter of 2021 kicked off, we looked back at the worldwide data tracking issuance of Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality patents. As a brief overview, Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality (“AR/VR”) refers generally to a class of technologies that merge a view of a real-world environment with virtual objects and information or provide an entirely virtual environment as a user experience. AR/VR technologies are drawing renewed attention due in part to availability of cheaper and powerful…

The USPTO extended the deadline for submitting comments on the state of patent eligibility jurisprudence, and its effect on investment and innovation in the US, to October 15, 2021. The Federal Register Notice requesting comments was published on July 19, 2021, and a link can be found here. Read more…

In Chemours Company FC, LLC v. Daikin Industries, Ltd., a CAFC panel reversed an obviousness determination by the PTAB (“Board”), holding that the Board improperly found motivation to modify a prior art reference, where the “inventive concept’ of the prior art reference taught away from that modification. Read more…

On September 15, 2021, the USPTO is transitioning the standalone Sponsorship tool and it will no longer be available. Instead, the Sponsorship feature in the USPTO’s Patent Center can be used to view and manage support staff sponsorships for EFS-web, Private PAIR, and Patent Center. Read more…

In the context of a district court litigation, a U.S. patent must be valid and enforceable or any potential reward for the Patent Owner will be moot. Defendants may argue that a patent is unenforceable in light of inequitable conduct committed during prosecution of the underlying patent application, but the standard to meet the requisite inequitable conduct to warrant unenforceability is supposedly higher after Therasense, Inc. v. Becton, Dickinson & Co., 649 F.3d 1276, 1290…

The USPTO website includes a web-based tutorial on how to conduct a preliminary US patent search. A link can be found here. Read more…