Intellectual Property News: Patent, Trademark, and Copyright – Subject Matter Eligibility

Grell & Watson tracks the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office  and the Copyright Office for news.  Please find their most recent update below.

USPTO Invites Patent Applicants to Participate in Patent Center Beta Release – On Wednesday, October 16, the USPTO announced that patent applicants interested in the Patent Center patent filing and application management system, still under development by the agency, can participate in a beta version of the Patent Center to be released this month.

CAFC Vacates Dismissal of Data Streaming Patent Infringement Case Against Sirius XM – On Thursday, October 17, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a precedential decision in Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft v. Sirius XM Radio which vacated the District of Delaware’s dismissal of a patent infringement case for failure to state a claim on a Sirius XM motion based on the ground that Sirius XM had a valid license to the asserted patents.

Subject Matter EligibilityUSPTO Updates 2019 Subject Matter Eligibility Guidance – On Thursday, October 17, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office provided notice of an update to the 2019 Revised Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Guidance, including new information on how to determine if a claim recites an “abstract idea” and how examiners evaluate whether a judicial exception is integrated into a practical application. More to come soon.

Below are example sets (Examples 37-42 and 43-46) illustrating exemplary subject matter eligibility analyses of claims under the 2019 PEG. These examples are a teaching tool to assist examiners and the public in understanding how the Office applies the 2019 PEG in certain fact-specific situations. The analysis in the examples issued prior to the 2019 PEG (Examples 1-36) will provide useful illustrations of eligible subject matter across a range of technologies. All claims indicated as eligible in these examples are still eligible under the 2019 PEG.

Subject Matter Eligibility

4.A controller for an injection molding apparatus having a mold defining a cavity for receiving uncured
polyurethane that is heated to form a molded article during a cycle of operation of the apparatus,
the controller configured to:
(a) send a control signal to the injection molding apparatus to regulate injection of uncured
polyurethane into the mold, and to heat the mold to a target temperature to cure the polyurethane;
(b) repeatedly obtain temperature measurements of the mold;
(c) compare the obtained temperatures to a target temperature; and
(d) maintain temperature of the mold within two degrees of the target temperature by sending a
control signal to the apparatus to selectively heat or cool the mold when the obtained temperature
of the mold is more than two degrees different than the target temperature.

4. A system for monitoring health and activity in a herd of dairy livestock animals comprising:
a memory;
a processor coupled to the memory programmed with executable instructions, the instructions
including a livestock interface for obtaining animal-specific information for a plurality of animals in
the herd, wherein the animal-specific information comprises animal identification data and at least
one of body position data, body temperature data, feeding behavior data, and movement pattern
data; and
a herd monitor including (a) a radio frequency reader for collecting the animal-specific
information from a plurality of animal sensors attached to the animals in the herd when the animal
sensors are within proximity to the radio frequency reader, each animal sensor having a radio
frequency transponder, and (b) a transmitter for transmitting the collected animal-specific
information to the livestock interface.

New Process for TEAS System Access –  “Beginning October 26, the USPTO will be changing how customers access the Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS) and TEASi (international). To access and file forms, customers will need to log in to a USPTO.gov account with a two-step authentication. These measures will allow the USPTO to better track filing activity and reduce misuse of electronic forms. Customers can get ready for this change by setting up a USPTO.gov account. The USPTO recommends enabling a phone number or using an authenticator application as a secondary authentication method. Email is enabled by default. Check USPTO’s Apply online webpage for updates on the new requirements and future enhancements at www.uspto.gov/about-us/news-updates/teas-login-requirement.”

U.S. Customs Issues Proposed Rulemaking on Detaining Piratical Articles – On Wednesday, October 16, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) published a notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register which includes amendments to its intellectual property enforcement rights under 19 CFR part 133 to simplify the process of detaining imported goods containing technological measures to circumvent copyright protections in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Call for a Free Consultation with a Patent Attorney or Trademark Attorney.

IP Lawyers: Subject Matter Eligibility

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