The Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) is a harmonization of the U.S. and European existing patent classification systems, the European Classification System (ECLA) and the U.S. Patent Classification (USPC). The change to the CPC was initiated through a joint partnership between the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the European Patent Office (EPO). The CPC is the result of the USPTO’s effort to provide a modern classification system that is internationally compatible; and a result of the EPO’s effort to eliminate the reclassification of U.S. patent documents and ensure compliance with International Patent Classification (IPC), administered by the World...
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Ryan Connell, “How to Handle a Client’s Intellectual Property”, Trusts & Estates (June 2015).
Beyond the Looking Glass: Patent-Eligible Subject Matter After Alice and Mayo
By Erik Wright and Austen Zuege From Intellectual Property Today, Vol. 21, No. 11 (November 2014) In recent cases such as Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank Int’l, 134 S.Ct. 2347 (2014), the Supreme Court has reiterated that abstract ideas, laws of nature, and natural phenomena cannot be patented. Inventions directed to any of these three categories must include sufficient extra material to form the basis of a patent. The Court has provided some guidance as to what kinds of claim language can satisfy this requirement, but has thus far declined to define the principal categories of patent-ineligible subject matter in...
Strategic Third-Party Submissions Against Patent Applications
By Austen Zuege From Intellectual Property Today Vol. 19, No. 12 (December 2012) The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA) expanded opportunities for third parties to submit publications and comments against patent applications pending before the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO). New procedures under 35 U.S.C. § 122(e) and 37 C.F.R. § 1.290 went into effect September 16, 2012 that provide a window for third-party pre-issuance submissions with explanations of relevance. Used strategically, these procedures can provide a powerful and cost-effective tool for reducing infringement risks from overly broad patent claims. Legislative history claims these submissions “will allow the public...
A New Era for Patent-Eligible Subject Matter
By Austen Zuege From Intellectual Property Today, Vol. 19, No. 5 (May 2012) The Supreme Court has announced a new approach to assessing patent subject matter eligibility under 35 U.S.C. § 101. Bilski v. Kappos “punted” and did little more than reiterate that laws of nature, physical phenomena, and abstract ideas are ineligible for patent protection, stating that the machine-or-transformation (“MoT”) test may be a useful and important clue or investigative tool but is not the sole test for deciding whether an invention is a patent-eligible “process”. [1] But in Mayo Collaborative Servs. v. Prometheus Labs., Inc., a unanimous Court...