patent claim Archives

Tesla’s Lasers on Vehicle Patent

In May of 2019, Tesla filed a patent application for “Pulsed Laser Cleaning of Debris Accumulated on Glass Articles in Vehicles and Photovoltaic Assemblies.” Instead of using conventional windshield wipers, Tesla envisioned a system to clean debris from any glass…

Why Perform a Patentability Search before Filing Your Patent Application?

Patentability searches can be useful to get a better idea of whether an invention can be patented. A good search may prevent the cost of a wasted patent application on an already-invented and published invention, but can also be useful…

Amazon Brand Registry

What is Amazon Brand Registry? Brand owners work hard to protect their intellectual property (IP), including their trademarked brands. Amazon has recently become one of the largest companies in the world by providing a marketplace for sellers and buyers to…

How to Design Around and Avoid Patent Infringement

When a company is in the early stages of product development, a freedom to operate search may reveal potentially problematic patents. To avoid lengthy and expensive patent litigation, the company should at least consider potential modifications to the product’s…

Federal Circuit’s Dropbox Decision: Missing the Forest for the Trees?

On June 19, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the invalidation of three Dropbox patents. The Northern District of California had granted a motion to dismiss on grounds that the claims in those patents were…

Software Patent Claims Saved by Problem-Solution Approach

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed a lower court’s decision that software patent claims involving techniques for varying check data to verify data transmissions were ineligible for patent protection in KPN v. Gemalto, No. 2018-1863, 2019…

Watch Your Language! PTAB De-Designates Previously “Informative” Opinion on Claim Construction

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board recently designated a new group of opinions “informative.” In addition to precedential (i.e., binding decisions that the Board must follow) and nonprecedential (i.e., nonbinding decisions that may carry some persuasive weight, but the Board…

Watch Out for Claim Preambles in Light of Federal Circuit Decision

On November 1, 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the district court’s grant of a motion for judgment on the pleadings on subject-matter ineligibility grounds in Two-Way Media v. Comcast Cable Communs., No. 2016-2532, 2017…

Divided Fed. Cir. Panel Holds Government Has Standing for CBM Review

In Return Mail, Inc. v. U.S. Postal Serv., No. 2016-1502, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 16364 (Fed. Cir. Aug. 28, 2017), the Federal Circuit considered whether the government has standing to request covered business method patent review. Return Mail had argued…

Solo Inventor’s Claims to Methods of Rendering 3D Graphics Invalidated as Abstract Idea

On March 15, 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit concluded that the software patent claims before it were invalid because the claimed subject matter fell within one of the judicially created exceptions to 35 U.S.C. §…

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