Imagine That IP Law Blog

Newly developed artificial intelligence systems have been used to generate new inventions (e.g. Dr. Stephen Thaler’s “Device for the Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Sentience” or DABUS), works of authorship (e.g. Alice and Sparkle, created by Ammaar Reshi using the ChatGPT large language model), and works of art (e.g. Zarya of the Dawn, created by Kristina Kashtanova using the Midjourney image generator). The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the U.S. Copyright Office have each held that artificial intelligence systems cannot qualify as inventors or authors for ... Read More ›

Last week’s non-precedential decision by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Cioffi v. Google LLC, No. 2018-1049, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 9142 (Fed. Cir. Apr. 18, 2023) serves as a warning for both holders of reissue patents and patent owners considering filing a reissue. The Court held that the “original patent” requirement is the standard for support in the specification for claims in a reissued patent under 35 U.S.C. §251. In order for a claim to be supported under the original patent requirement, there must be an express disclosure of the exact embodiment claimed on reissue ... Read More ›

The summer of 2023 marks the most significant summer for concert goers since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. With a highly anticipated concert line up ranging from Taylor Swift and Beyoncé to Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks, fans are spending hours waiting in ticket queues and arriving hours early to shows to buy merchandise. When purchasing goods within the venue or from a distributor licensed by the artist’s team, consumers assume that the products are made to high quality standards and accurately reflect the artist’s brand. However, despite the quality assurance, many fans ... Read More ›

Earlier this week, the Federal Circuit issued an opinion in Sequoia Technology LLC v. Dell Inc. et al. that underscores the importance of intrinsic evidence when construing claim language in a District Court litigation. Of particular importance are the Court’s statements regarding the patent specification’s provision of an “express purpose of the invention” and a “preferred embodiment,” as well as the Court’s reliance on statements made by the Patent Owner in its pre-institution filings and on a document cited in an Information Disclosure Statement (IDS) during ... Read More ›

In Salazar v. AT&T Mobility LLC, the Federal Circuit found that a claim reciting "a microprocesser" that performed several functions was not infringed by a system where the claimed functions were distributed among multiple microprocessors. The Court reasoned that “for a dog owner to have ’a dog that rolls over and fetches sticks,’ it does not suffice that he have two dogs, each able to perform just one of the tasks.”  Salazar v. AT&T Mobility LLC, Nos. 2021-2320, 2021-2376, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 8071, at *15 (Fed. Cir. Apr. 5, 2023). 

The claim in Salazar recited:

1. A communications ...

In Arbutus Biopharma Corporation, FKA Protiva Biotherapeutics, Inc. V. Modernatx, Inc., FKA Moderna Therapeutics, Inc. (Fed. Cir. 2020-1183, April 11, 2023), Moderna challenged claims 1–22 of Arbutus’ U.S. Patent No. 9,404,127 (the ’127 Patent) by Inter Partes Review. The Board found all challenged claims anticipated by U.S. Patent 8,058,069 (Yaworski). The Board’s determination of anticipation relied on inherency and the disclosure of documents incorporated by reference by both Yaworski and the ’127 Patent.

The ’127 Patent was directed to compositions of ... Read More ›