Pursuant to the 2020 Trademark Modernization Act (TMA), the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report examining fraud at the U.S.Trademark Office.  The GAO made recommendations to the Trademark Office to reduce the number of fraudulent trademark registrations.  The GAO reviewed the impact of changes made by the TMA and stated: Based on our analysis of USPTO data for the period December 21, 2021, through June 27, 2023, we found that the USPTO Director and trademark attorneys representing their clients used the TMA’s new expungement and reexamination procedures to r ..read more

Nikkei Asia has published an article by Kenjiru Suzuki titled, "Japan's Universities Fail to Make the Most of Intellectual Property: Due to Lack of Support, Patents Only Make 2% Compared to U.S. Schools."  The title provides a nice summary of the article's findings.  Research has pointed to differences between countries and their innovation systems as to why a specific country may not experience the relative success of U.S. universities in technology transfer.  For example, there may be differences in university culture, laws concerning taking a company public, corporate formati ..read more

US Department of Justice announced the indictment of former Google employee for stealing AI related trade secrets.  The press release states: A federal grand jury indicted Linwei Ding, aka Leon Ding, charging him with four counts of theft of trade secrets in connection with an alleged plan to steal from Google LLC (Google) proprietary information related to artificial intelligence (AI) technology. . . . According to the indictment, returned on March 5 and unsealed earlier today, Ding, 38, a national of the People’s Republic of China and resident of Newark, California, transferred sensitiv ..read more

The United States Patent Office has issued Guidelines on AI Assisted Inventions.  The press release concerning the guidelines provides: To incentivize, protect, and encourage investment in innovations made possible through the use of artificial intelligence (AI), and to provide the clarity to the public and United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) employees on the patentability of AI-assisted inventions, the USPTO has published guidance in the Federal Register. This guidance delivers on the USPTO’s obligations under the Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustwort ..read more

The National Academy of Inventors has released its 2023 university rankings for U.S. granted utility patents.  The top 10 include: “1) The Regents of the University of California -- 546; 2) Massachusetts Institute of Technology – 365; 3) The University of Texas System –235; 4) King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals –216; 5) Stanford University –199; 6) Purdue University – 198; 7) Harvard University – 186; 8) Zhejiang University –185; 9) Arizona State University –170; 10) California Institute of Technology –156.  Zhejiang University (2022, 16) passed Tsinghua University (2022 ..read more

The European Parliament (EP) is due to vote on the European Commission’s proposed legislation for Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) licensing of Standard-Essential Patents (SEPs) on 27th or 28th February 2024. Stated objectives include increasing transparency and predictability while reducing transaction costs. Measures include (1) the setting up of a mandatory register for SEPs with essentiality checks of selected and representative random samples of SEPs, (2) a process for determining a non-binding aggregate royalty rate, and (3) a mandatory pre-litigation conciliation procedur ..read more

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has released a comment in support of the NIST’s guidelines concerning the exercise of march-in rights under the Bayh-Dole Act.  The Press Release states: Today the Federal Trade Commission issued a comment in response to the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) request for information on its Draft Interagency Guidance Framework for Considering the Exercise of March-In Rights under the Bayh-Dole Act. Under the Bayh-Dole Act, the federal government has the right to “march in” on patents on inventions created using taxpayer funds ..read more

The U.S. International Trade Commission released a corrected version of its COVID-19 Diagnostics and Therapeutics: Supply, Demand and TRIPS Flexibilities Report in December of 2023.  Chapter 7 is a summary of views of interested parties.  I found that interesting, particularly the section on jobs related to the pharmaceutical and biotech industries.  The following is an excerpt from the Executive Summary: The TRIPS Agreement sets minimum standards for the protection and enforcement of IP rights. It also includes flexibilities. Persons providing input to the Commission disagreed ..read more

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is gathering information from major technology companies regarding their acquisition of technology from other companies concerning artificial intelligence.  The FTC press release states: The Federal Trade Commission announced today that it issued orders to five companies requiring them to provide information regarding recent investments and partnerships involving generative AI companies and major cloud service providers. The agency’s 6(b) inquiry will scrutinize corporate partnerships and investments with AI providers to build a better internal understand ..read more

The U.S. Government Accountability Office released a report on January 11, 2024, which studies federal funding provided to foreign entities for research and development.  The Report states: According to the National Science Foundation, federal agencies obligated about $1.4 billion for R&D with foreign entities in fiscal year 2020 (the most recent data available). However, some foreign entities may try to exploit U.S. openness in sharing R&D for nefarious purposes. The Research and Development, Competition, and Innovation Act includes a provision for GAO to review research funding ..read more