Why intellectual property education belongs in every school—
and how to make it happen.
Originally published by Investor’s Digest. Reprinted with permission.
Even though intellectual property has become a central element of innovation, entrepreneurship, engineering and creative industries, and even though students encounter intellectual property issues long before they enter the workforce, most receive little
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AI a 2-Sided Coin
By Andrea Arndt
Heads: Lawful and necessary tool
Tails: Unregulated IP rights infringer.
Originally published by Investor’s Digest. Reprinted with permission.
Artificial intelligence has moved from novelty to necessity at a pace few technologies have ever matched. Generative AI systems now draft text, design products, compose music and write software code—often in seconds.
For inventors and creators, this…
Fewer Claims in the Fast Lane: USPTO’s Streamlined Claim Set Pilot Program
In a Federal Register Notice published October 27, 2025 (“Notice”), the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced a new pilot program called the “Streamlined Claim Set Pilot Program” (hereinafter “Pilot Program”). This article considers (1) requirements to participate in the Pilot Program, (2) effects on applications that are accepted to the Pilot Program, (3)…
Part 3: Key Takeaways from Claim Examples in the 2024 AI Patent Eligibility Guidance
Part 3
This is the third post in a 3-part series. Below, we describe Example 49 which focuses on using AI to assist with a medical treatment.
Example 49. Fibrosis Treatment
Key Takeaway for Claim 1: Example 49, Claim 1 includes a likely split-actor issue, because the entities collecting the sample, identifying the high…
Part 2: Key Takeaways from Claim Examples in the 2024 AI Patent Eligibility Guidance
This is the second post in a 3-part series. Example 48 is described below, which is directed to analyzing speech signals and separating desired speech from extraneous or background speech using AI.
Example 48. Speech Separation
Key Takeaway for Claim 1: Example 48, Claim 1 could be interpreted as receiving spoken audio, and deriving/calculating…
Key Takeaways from Claim Examples in the 2024 AI Patent Eligibility Guidance: A 3-Part Series
Part 1
On July 17, 2024, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (the Office) released new guidance on subject matter eligibility, entitled “The 2024 Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Guidance Update Including on Artificial Intelligence” (2024 AI SME Update). The 2024 AI SME Update is a lifeline for patent prosecutors prosecuting AI patent applications because…
Artificial Incompetence: How Generative AI Creates Latent Intellectual Property Issues
Previously Published in The Journal of Robotics, Artificial Intelligence & Law, Volume 7, No. 3 | May-June 2024
In this article, the authors examine the extensive legal risks that companies take when using generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), particularly within operations that create intellectual property or other intangible value represented within a business.
While any groundbreaking…
Free Mickey? (Don’t Be Goofy)
By Paul Bain
January 1, 2024, brought numerous hangovers along with an unprecedented amount of media attention to intellectual property law. That is because, as of the new year, one of the most famous cartoon characters in history – Mickey Mouse – was let loose from the magic kingdom. Freed from the shackles of copyright, Walt Disney’s iconic…
Patenting with Artificial Inventors
Guidance on using AI to Invent
Due to the quick rise of artificial intelligence (AI), most (if not all) of the laws relating to the US patent system were not written with AI in mind. Court precedent and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) guidelines have taken the place of written law to…