Inventions and Patents

We can support you in all matters relating to inventions and patents, including for example

  • Advice on what is patentable (patentability)
  • analysis of portfolios
  • challenges to competitor patents
  • commercial arrangements with patents
  • commercialisation
  • drafting and filing patent applications
  • due diligence
  • enforcing patents against competitors
  • examination (prosecution) of patents to have them granted by national patent offices
  • freedom to operate (infringement clearance) advice and strategy
  • invalidity analysis
  • internal processes you can use for capturing inventions and managing patents
  • international patent applications
  • inventorship advice
  • licensing
  • maintenance and renewal of patents
  • managing your patent portfolio / estate
  • monitoring competitor activity and patents
  • ownership advice
  • patent disputes including oppositions and litigation
  • patent strategy
  • protection strategies
  • searching (infringement, novelty)

Insights relating to patents

Tangling in your pre-litigation strategy

There can be a lot of uncertainty in deciding whether to commence patent infringement proceedings. They are expensive, and you want to get this decision right. A key factor is often a lack of detailed understanding of the alleged infringing product or process. The patent…

IP update: vaccines, counterfeits, textbook piracy and tm translations

Here’s an update on what’s been happening in the world of IP lately: Silfab acquires EnPV’s solar panel patent portfolio including the Self-Aligned Back Contact (SABC) technology and an associated trade mark. PV Tech, Solar Quarter, Technology News, South Korean Supreme Court held that SK…

AI & IP – a brief update

Artificial intelligence (AI) is impacting many facets of intellectual property law and practice. We have to keep in mind both the challenges AI presents and the opportunities it creates for innovators and legal professionals. Copyright and AI: The US Copyright Office has released reports examining…

Patents – which countries to file in?

List key markets in size order. Add countries where competitors will manufacture. Add other particularly important countries for logistics – eg. is there a country that everyone will have to transit through? Review and reorder the list based on overall strategic importance with the above…

Patenting patent processes

How do you protect your IP Processes?  More importantly, have you ever done a freedom to operate clearance on them? To kick off this short series of posts, here are a few insights on some of the top ‘patent process’ patent filers, what they are…

Taylor Wessing’s new European patent litigation tool

Thanks to Taylor Wessing’s brand new Patent Map, anyone can now quickly compare European jurisdictions on key litigation factors. Those who have litigated in Europe will know that this comparison is at the heart of every strategic litigation campaign, whether seeking to launch a new…

Patent strategy 101 – Keep it secret

Do you have an invention ready in hand but are not able to file a patent? How will you protect it from being disclosed if you intend to eventually file a patent? Often disclosure is essential with partners, collaborators, investors, while developing advanced technologies with…

Patent Strategy and the Paradox of the Problem Solver

You cannot expect anyone to sell against their own vested interests with enthusiasm.  Any person who makes a living solving problems has a vested interest in the continued existence of those problems.  Doctors and disease, police and criminals, lawyers and lawsuits, among others, intertwine in…

Is a Patent Really Defensive?

I have often compared patents to castles when discussing high stakes invalidation exercises.  Some are inherently stronger than others, but given enough resources, none of them are invulnerable.  Castles, like patents, are often viewed as defensive structures.  So it was interesting to hear a narrator…

Medical Patent Law – a special offer

Eddy Ventose’s ‘Medical Patent Law – The Challenges of Medical Treatment’ explores the medical treatment exclusion to patentability; when and why it came into being;  how it has developed in the US, EU and other key regions; and its impact on the new frontiers of…

Patent Strategy for China

So what is the best strategy for patenting in China?  I recently gave my “10 Ways to Improve and IP Strategy” talk at IQPC in Florida, and a general consensus among IP managers at the conference was to start filing patents in China now, as…

Circular Logic in Patent Analysis

If you encountered an alien from another world and wanted him to understand the concept of what a word is, chances are you would put words (and their object or idea representation) into context with the letters from which we write them and the sentences…

The Basis of Patent Portfolio Value

Guest post by Marc Kaufman Determination of the quantitative value of patents has been elusive.  Complex statistical analysis and accounting methods have been applied to patents in an effort to ascribe a value to individual patents and patent portfolios.  While these endeavors are useful, it…

Twitter patent strategy, China innovation and trolls

Welcome to the IP Think Tank podcast for Thursday 4 November 2010. In this show Duncan is joined by Kim Chotkowski, Stan Abrams and Robert Cantrell to discuss: China innovation and indigenous innovation Correlating innovation and patent filings in China Reverse guest host strategy US…