Here is a report on recent news and commentary related to the Federal Circuit and its cases. Today we highlight:
- an article discussing how the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has “formally ended fast-tracking examination of design patents applications, citing efforts to reduce pendency and combat fraud”;
- a blog post describing how U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick “sent a letter to Harvard University President Alan Garber informing him that the U.S. government is planning to ‘march in’ on its patents” under the Bayh-Dole Act; and
- a piece indicating “[i]nvestigators have uncovered evidence that Russia is at least partly responsible for a recent hack of the computer system that manages federal court documents.”
Aruni Soni authored an article for Bloomberg Law discussing how the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has “formally ended fast-tracking examination of design patents applications, citing efforts to reduce pendency and combat fraud.” According to Soni, the USPTO “highlighted an increase in the number of erroneous micro entity certifications . . . [t]hat resulted in longer wait times for all applicants and revenue loss for the agency.”
Eileen McDermott wrote a blog post for IP Watchdog describing how U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick “sent a letter to Harvard University President Alan Garber informing him that the U.S. government is planning to ‘march in’ on its patents” under the Bayh-Dole Act. McDermott criticized this move, suggesting it was “arguably political” and that “Trump has been targeting Harvard over various allegations, including that it violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by refusing to address antisemitism on campus.”
Adam Goldman, Glenn Thrush, and Mattathias Schwartz penned a piece with the New York Times indicating “[i]nvestigators have uncovered evidence that Russia is at least partly responsible for a recent hack of the computer system that manages federal court documents.” The authors stated that administrators in the U.S. court system have “publicly announced they were taking additional steps to protect the network, which includes the Case Management/Electronic Case Files system used to upload documents and PACER.”