This article departs from the dogma that Funk Brothers delineates the limits of patentable subject matter and gives several rationales for why Funk Brothers is, in actuality, a case that outlines an obviousness standard. As an initial matter, one only needs to look to the historical background...

This article explores the use of artificial intelligence to help define the current test for copyright infringement. Currently, the test for copyright infringement requires the jury or a judge to determine whether the parties’ works are “substantially similar” to each other from the...

Less than a handful of casebooks are truly open source, in the sense of being fully modifiable. Patent Law: An Open-Source Casebook is the first patent law casebook that provides adopting professors, students, and others the ability to fully modify its contents. This file comprises the casebook...

Less than a handful of casebooks are truly open source, in the sense of being fully modifiable. Patent Law: An Open-Source Casebook is the first patent law casebook that provides adopting professors, students, and others the ability to fully modify its contents. This file includes the cover,...

Examiner interviews are one of the most powerful tools to help both inventors and examiners understand and overcome specific issues during prosecution. Direct discussions between an applicant and an examiner can help bridge the gap between misunderstandings of prior art, the invention or...

Pharmaceutical patents listed in the FDA’s “Orange Book” are some of the most valuable patents in the world. Accordingly, for this valuable subset of patents, it is paramount that the Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) correctly issue valid patents and preclude invalid patents from issuing....

It is no secret that some Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) examiners operate more quickly than others. Previous studies have shown that an applicant’s ability to obtain a patent is inexorably linked to the random assignment of a patent examiner. However, not all patent examiners are created...

In a set of two studies , I determine: (1) which examiners are sending patents to litigation and, of those, (2) which examiners are sending invalidated patents to litigation. Together, these studies determine what conditions might predict the likelihood of an examiner’s patents getting...

Biologic patents are the basis of some of the most valuable technologies in the pharmaceutical industry. Biologic patents include patents to vaccines, antibodies as well as gene therapy and isolated blood products. This study focuses on the changing nature of a key biologic product, namely...

Antibody patents form the basis of some of the most valuable biotechnology products on the market. In 2020 alone, the sales of the top three drugs exceed 10 billion dollars. Two of those three drugs are monoclonal antibodies (Humira and Keytruda). In the past, patent law offered broad protection...