Every year, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) issues thousands of decisions from ex parte (for one party) appeals, reexamination appeals, and America Invents Act trial proceedings. Although all decisions handed down by the board are considered “routine,” certain decisions receive the special designation “precedential” or “informative.”
Longtime IP professional Derrick Brent is the new deputy undersecretary of commerce for intellectual property and deputy director of the USPTO, effective August 1. The announcement was made by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo and Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Kathi Vidal.
Ray Dolby wasn’t afraid of the unknown. He accepted it as a known fact of inventing.
Wozniak was the main tech muscle behind the invention for which he is best known: the first true personal computer.
Equity is not just a current trend. It is a commitment to empowerment for all innovators that has far-reaching effects for society as a whole. The USPTO’s new inclusive innovation web resource details the importance of this commitment.
This program builds on the success of the USPTO’s Patent Pro Bono Program, which has matched more than 3,400 under-resourced inventors and small businesses with volunteer patent practitioners to file over 1,800 patent applications. This has totaled more than 84,000 hours of free legal help.
Best known as the inventor of the Segway—a motorized personal vehicle that fell short of some expectations it would replace the automobile—Kamen also developed many revolutionary medical devices including the IBOT Mobility System.
Ochoa was the first Hispanic female in space, an astronaut on the nine-day Space Shuttle Discovery mission in 1993.
Last month on these pages, we told you about the invention of the umbrella that can be protection from April showers. Now we’ll tell you about May flowers—specifically the beginnings of intellectual property protection for new plants and the emergence of plant patents—to celebrate passage of the U.S. Plant Patent Act of 1930, 92 years ago this month.
Not all inventors and entrepreneurs understand what intellectual property (IP) is, or its essential role in protecting their rights. So the USPTO has initiated a pilot program to ultimately reach people in locations where IP has not traditionally been maximized.
Newly confirmed USPTO Director Kathi Vidal will have many responsibilities. One is the authority to designate panels of at least three administrative patent judges in cases filed with the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB).
In any discussion about Nikola Tesla, the name of his rival—Thomas Edison—is likely to come up.