Students and established scholars of intellectual property law often look for historical context when trying to understand the development and present-day contours of IP rules and systems. American Patent Law supplies this context, offering readers a comprehensive account of the evolution of the US patent system and patent doctrine beginning in 1790. From the technologies for harvesting wood and shoemaking in the earliest periods to computer software and biotechnology of the present, each chapter of the book covers the characteristic technologies of each historical era. The book also describes how businesspeople in each era acquired and enforced patents and used patents as the foundation of various business arrangements. This book is a landmark in the history of technologies, the US patent system, and the way private actors have deployed patents across American history.
Alexander Graham Bell’s invention of the telephone in 1876 stands as one of the great touchstones of American technological achievement. Bringing a new perspective to this history, Invented by Law examines the legal battles that raged over Bell’s telephone patent, likely the most consequential patent right ever granted. To a surprising extent, Christopher Beauchamp shows, the telephone was as much a creation of American law as of scientific innovation. Beauchamp reconstructs the world of nineteenth-century patent law, replete with inventors, capitalists, and charlatans, where rival claimants and political maneuvering loomed large in the contests that erupted over new technologies. He challenges the popular myth of Bell as the telephone’s sole inventor, exposing that story’s origins in the arguments advanced by Bell’s lawyers. More than anyone else, it was the courts that anointed Bell father of the telephone, granting him a patent monopoly that decisively shaped the American telecommunications industry for a century to come. Beauchamp investigates the sources of Bell’s legal primacy in the United States, and looks across the Atlantic, to Britain, to consider how another legal system handled the same technology in very different ways. Exploring complex questions of ownership and legal power raised by the invention of important new technologies, Invented by Law recovers a forgotten history with wide relevance for today’s patent crisis.
A new perspective on United States software development, seen through the patent battles that shaped our technological landscape This first comprehensive history of software patenting explores how patent law made software development the powerful industry that it is today. Historian Gerardo Con Díaz reveals how patent law has transformed the ways computing firms make, own, and profit from software. He shows that securing patent protection for computer programs has been a central concern among computer developers since the 1950s and traces how patents and copyrights became inseparable from software development in the Internet age. Software patents, he argues, facilitated the emergence of software as a product and a technology, enabled firms to challenge each other’s place in the computing industry, and expanded the range of creations for which American intellectual property law provides protection. Powerful market forces, aggressive litigation strategies, and new cultures of computing usage and development transformed software into one of the most controversial technologies ever to encounter the American patent system.
This two volume looseleaf treatise offers procedural guidance to the Patent Act, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Rules, and the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure. The work provides substantive analysis of the Semiconductor Chip Protection Act, new patent interference rules, and the differences between U.S. and foreign patent law.
Succinct and timely, the 7th Edition of the best-selling PATENT LAW continues to demystify its subject as it explores and explains important cases, statutes, and policy. Approachably written for law students, attorneys, inventors, and laypersons alike, this acclaimed text stands on its own or may be used alongside any patent or IP casebook to support more in-depth study of patent law. New to the 7th Edition: Supreme Court review of bedrock patentability requirements: o Amgen (the Court’s first examination of enablement in nearly 100 years) Supreme Court clarification of long-standing equitable doctrines in patent litigation: o Minerva (assignor estoppel is valid but limited to instances when assignor’s claim of invalidity contradicts representations made in assigning patent) Ongoing, intensive Supreme Court scrutiny of the America Invents Act (AIA), the most significant change to U.S. patent law in 70 years, including: Thryv (Federal Circuit lacks jurisdiction to review PTAB’s § 315(b) time-bar decisions) Arthrex (PTO Director review of PTAB final decisions remedies Constitutional violation in appointment of PTAB judges. The problematic landscape of patent-eligibility jurisprudence under § 101, including Federal Circuit decisions in: American Axle (methods of manufacturing) CareDx (diagnostic methods) Trinity Info Media, Adasa, Killian, Free Stream Media, Uniloc, Rudy (abstract ideas) The challenging application of the cornerstone non obviousness requirement to the burgeoning field of design patents, including the Federal Circuit’s first en banc consideration of a patent case in 5 years: LKQ Confronting new questions of novelty, priority, and prior art under the AIA, including Federal Circuit and PTAB decisions in: SNIPR Techs. (enumerating patentability and priority requirements for “pure pre-AIA,” “pure AIA,” and “mixed” patents and applications) Penumbra (when is a patent relied on as § 102(a)(2) prior art entitled to the earlier filing date of its related parent or provisional application) Fine-tuning the scope of AIA IPR estoppel to prevent petitioners from relitigating the same validity issues in federal court, including Federal Circuit decisions in: Cal. Inst. (interpreting “during the IPR”) Ironburg (“skilled searcher” standard) The limited role of extrinsic evidence in patent claim interpretation: Genuine Enabling (rejecting accused infringer’s expert testimony seeking to narrow claim scope via prosecution disclaimer) Allowing assertions of the equitable defense of prosecution history laches against unreasonable and inexcusable prosecution delays, despite compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements: Hyatt, Personalized Media How the European Union’s new Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court (2023) are revolutionizing international patenting Professors and students will benefit from: Thorough coverage and clear writing that clarifies principal legal doctrines, key judicial authorities, governing statutes, and policy considerations for obtaining, enforcing, and challenging a U.S. patent In-depth treatment and comparison of pre- and post-America Invents Act regimes for novelty and prior art with numerous hypotheticals Timely statistics on patent trends Succinct analysis of multi-national patent protection regimes Helpful visual aids, such as figures, tables, and timelines A sample patent and breakdown of a prosecution history Boldfaced key terms and a convenient Glossary
The U.S. patent system is in an accelerating race with human ingenuity and investments in innovation. In many respects the system has responded with admirable flexibility, but the strain of continual technological change and the greater importance ascribed to patents in a knowledge economy are exposing weaknesses including questionable patent quality, rising transaction costs, impediments to the dissemination of information through patents, and international inconsistencies. A panel including a mix of legal expertise, economists, technologists, and university and corporate officials recommends significant changes in the way the patent system operates. A Patent System for the 21st Century urges creation of a mechanism for post-grant challenges to newly issued patents, reinvigoration of the non-obviousness standard to quality for a patent, strengthening of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, simplified and less costly litigation, harmonization of the U.S., European, and Japanese examination process, and protection of some research from patent infringement liability.
This new edition captures all of the recent and rapidly emerging changes in case law and legislation, yet retains its student- and professor-friendly approach to the policies and rules of patent law. This version teaches the far-reaching legal tenets of patent law that are as venerable as the Constitution itself and yet as current as the latest developments from the laboratory bench. Like its successful predecessors, this casebook draws on insights from other areas of US law and from aspects of foreign systems as well. Because patent law plays a vital role in the international marketplace, students must understand US law in the context of international patent systems to properly represent their clients. This casebook and its robust teacher's manual make this important area of law accessible to every student.
'Daniel Cahoy and Lynda Oswald have brought together some of the country's most prominent patent scholars outside the legal discipline. From the LeahySmith America Invents Act to recent court cases from the Supreme Court and the Federal Circuit, this timely, informative and well-edited volume examines the latest changes in US patent law and their impact on business strategy. The book is a must-read for anybody who wants to learn more deeply about the ever-increasing role of patents in the business environment.' Peter K. Yu, Drake University Law School, US Within the complex global economy, patents function as indispensable tools for fostering and protecting innovation. This fascinating volume offers a comprehensive perspective on the US patent system, detailing its many uses and outlining several critical legislative, administrative and judicial reforms that impact business strategy. The expert contributors to this book provide an overview of how the US patent system functions today and describe how recent changes affect firms and individual inventors. Topics discussed include the drivers of intellectual property policy; recent revisions to the patent application process in terms of the new first-to-file regime, inequitable conduct, and allowable subject matter; and changes to patent enforcement and infringement related to the Federal Circuit's special role and post-grant review. Contributors address recent legislation such as the 2011 America Invents Act, which enacted some of the most significant patent reforms in decades. This examination of the US patent system highlights some of the most important issues for business. It will serve as an important tool for both policymakers and business leaders, and will also interest students and professors of business and management studies, innovation studies and business law.
