Staff · Patent decisions, prosecution practice and AI in patent work
Stories under this byline are reported from the primary documents: Federal Circuit opinions, PTAB decisions, USPTO notices and European rulings.
A patent family groups the published documents for the same invention. How WIPO defines simple and extended families, and why family size can vary.
5 documents6 min read
Patent offices that apply WIPO standards code the front page. What the bracketed numbers mean, what A1 or B2 signals, and which part sets the scope.
9 documents7 min read
A first patent filing in one Paris Convention country lets the applicant file elsewhere within 12 months and keep its date. How the priority year works.
11 documents8 min read
An invention must be new, inventive and industrially applicable. Where the three tests are written and how U.S., European and Japanese law word each one.
11 documents8 min read
A patent’s term generally ends 20 years after its application was filed, not after grant. What starts the clock, what extends it and what ends it early.
15 documents8 min read
The Supreme Court’s 2023 rule that a specification must enable everything a claim covers now governs examination and litigation. Here is how it is applied and where claims fail.
5 documents8 min read
A used product makes a manufacturing method public if a skilled person could work it out without undue burden, and no reason to analyse it is needed.
2 documents7 min read
A final rule effective 13 August 2026 halves the two-year threshold for extra information and the higher petition fee in unintentional-delay petitions.
4 documents5 min read
The court affirmed that Google failed to show any claim of the ’704 patent unpatentable: file metadata independently corroborated the inventor’s testimony.
3 documents5 min read
The panel rejected a per se rule that claims covering an impossibility are indefinite, then held them invalid under Amgen’s full-scope enablement test.
5 documents7 min read
