I love my job.  Working with inventors to protect their amazing ideas is so rewarding.  When inventors come to me for patent protection, documentation (or lack of it) makes a huge difference.  This blog post addresses the use and value of invention disclosures for documentation purposes. Invention Disclosures How to memorialize and track inventions? Many companies employ a method of invention reporting which captures ideas in the form of an invention disclosure.  A standard invention…

Why Website Accessibility Matters Website accessibility in its simplest terms is the ability for everyone, regardless of their ability, to access your website and content. Disabilities come in many shapes and forms.   The CDC defines a disability as: “… any condition of the body or mind … that makes it more difficult for the person with the condition to do certain activities … and interact with the world around them…” When your website is designed…

(Co-authored with Pranita Dharmadhikari) E-commerce has had remarkable growth in recent years.  In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, businesses are moving online in unprecedented numbers.  Selling online makes it so easy to sell internationally.   Welcome to 2020. Protecting innovative products therefore has become more important than ever.  Many clients have come to us with amazing inventions; wanting to protect their invention globally.   Their question: “Can I get a worldwide patent?” That certainly makes sense,…

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) considers the Coronavirus outbreak an “extraordinary situation.”  As a result, the USPTO modified both patent and trademark regulations. “The USPTO stands shoulder-to-shoulder with inventors and entrepreneurs and is working on a variety of measures to incentivize, protect, and disseminate COVID-19 related innovation.” Andrei Iancu Kudos to the USPTO! USPTO COVID-19 Programs: USPTO COVID-19 Response Resource Center The USPTO’s COVID-19 Response Resource Center creates a central hub for…

A few weeks ago, I published a post about Artificial Intelligence Patent Inventors, which reported that three patent offices declined patent inventorship to an AI inventor. Recently, a client asked me whether a corporation qualifies as a patent inventor.  Great question.   Just like AI, corporations cannot be patent inventors. Patent Inventors A patent inventor contributes intellectually to an invention.  In other words, an inventor contributes to the conception.   Rephrased in this article: “…conception requires…

I am totally beat up today.  I mean that physically, not emotionally.  Bruises, swelling, aches and pains all over. Let me start from the beginning…I promise it’s nothing sketchy. Randi’s Epic “Failure” It happened yesterday evening. “What’s that pitter patter, mom?” asked my teenage daughter. Slowly we followed the sound to its source – a bee buzzing around the bay window of our kitchen table. It was trying over and over again to get outside…

On April 27, 2020 the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”)  published a  decision declining to extend patent inventorship to an Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) named DABUS. The decision found that the application did not name an “inventor.” Who is DABUS?  DABUS stands for “Device for the Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Sentience”. The USPTO is not alone.  Both the EPO and UKIPO also refused the DABUS applications. Each concluded that AI does not qualify as…