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Full-Text Articles in Law
Determining What’S Not Obvious: Should A Reasonable Expectation Of Success Invalidate Patent Applications?, Natalie Peters
Determining What’S Not Obvious: Should A Reasonable Expectation Of Success Invalidate Patent Applications?, Natalie Peters
University of Massachusetts Law Review
Patents are necessary to incentivize innovation because they grant owners the right to protect inventions. To be patentable, an invention must be useful, it must be novel, and it must not be obvious. But the judiciary has struggled to apply the latter requirement, non-obviousness, particularly for highly technical innovations subject to FDA regulations. For these innovations, the progression through the regulatory jungle can take ten to twenty years and millions of dollars (2.6 billion for a pharmaceutical drug). The complexities of the regulatory process can also render an innovation unprotected by patent rights because, by the end of the process, …
A Statistical Analysis Of The Patent Bar: Where Are The Software-Savvy Patent Attorneys?, Ralph D. Clifford, Thomas G. Field Jr., Jon R. Cavicchi
A Statistical Analysis Of The Patent Bar: Where Are The Software-Savvy Patent Attorneys?, Ralph D. Clifford, Thomas G. Field Jr., Jon R. Cavicchi
Faculty Publications
Among the many factors that impact the declining quality of U.S. patents is the increasing disconnect between the technological education patent bar members have and the fields in which patents are being written. Based on an empirical study, the authors show that too few patent attorneys and agents have relevant experience in the most often patented areas today, such as computer science. An examination of the qualification practices of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”) suggests that an institutional bias exists within the PTO that prevents software-savvy individuals from registering with the Office. This paper concludes with suggestions of …
The Federal Circuit’S Cruise To Uncharted Waters: How Patent Protection For Algorithms And Business Methods May Sink The Ucita And State Intellectual Property Protection, Ralph D. Clifford
The Federal Circuit’S Cruise To Uncharted Waters: How Patent Protection For Algorithms And Business Methods May Sink The Ucita And State Intellectual Property Protection, Ralph D. Clifford
Faculty Publications
The realm of intellectual property law now changes at an incredible pace, with the courts discarding venerable concepts rapidly. This is not surprising as the transition from a goods-based society to one based on information increases the importance of intellectual property law. Nowhere has this been more apparent than the Federal Circuit’s recent reworking of the scope of federal patent law. Today, it is difficult to imagine anything for which a patent cannot be sought and received. Furthermore, the expansion of the patent law’s scope has a corresponding impact on state powers. Because the patent law serves to implicitly preempt …