What do you do when a rival sends you a cease and desist letter accusing you of patent infringement? If you said, “nothing,” that was the wrong answer. If you are eventually sued for infringement and you made no effort to investigate
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In our experience, startups and founders often treat design patents as a lesser form of protection – cheaper than a utility patent, perhaps useful for marketing, but not really a serious patent. That view ignores some real strategic benefits they can provide.
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In recent months, we have been working extensively with customized AI tools to assist with both administrative and substantive aspects of our practice. Tools like these can deliver real efficiency gains, and in some cases, they let us operate at a level
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The USPTO’s most recent guidelines (November 2025) concerning AI-assisted inventions may place the validity of patents at risk if the development of the claimed inventions relied heavily on AI tools. The guidelines also pose some perplexing questions about how much AI involvement
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A recent Federal Circuit decision has settled the question of whether a patent can be invalidated under the America Invents Act for improper inventorship. The answer, the Court has now confirmed, is yes. In Fortress Iron, LP v. Digger Specialties, Inc., the
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The International Energy Association (IEA) released its 2026 Report on the State of Energy Innovation in February. A copy can be obtained here: https://www.iea.org/reports/the-state-of-energy-innovation-2026. It contains extensive data on the global patenting of energy technologies and has some surprising findings for companies in
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It is often necessary or desirable for two companies to partner up to develop technologies. One context that frequently arises is when a component supplier is developing a product for an original equipment manufacturer (OEM). In these cases, the design of the
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Another shift in favor of patent holders has been the increased availability of patent litigation funding. Due to its expense, patent litigation has been referred to by some as the “sport of kings.” We have also heard patents referred to as a
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If you practice law long enough, you see the pendulum shift between the respective rights of patent owners and accused infringers. The pendulum seems to be shifting, at least somewhat, back toward the inventors. In October of last year, John Squires, Director
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Not only do we help our clients get U.S. patents, but we help them get patents in places like Europe, Canada, Japan, China, Australia, Mexico, and Brazil. In order to prosecute a patent in a foreign patent office, we have to retain counsel
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