Here is a report on recent news and commentary related to the Federal Circuit and its cases. Today’s report highlights:
- an article about a Supreme Court petition asking the Court “to weigh whether former Commissioner of Patents . . . had the power to reject a request for director review”;
- another article about another petition filed with the Supreme Court asking it “to review a Federal Circuit decision affirming the partial invalidation of a footwear stitching patent challenged by rival Adidas AG”; and
- a blog post commenting on “AI tools creating inventive output.”
Kelcee Griffis wrote an article for Bloomberg Law about a Supreme Court petition asking the Court “to weigh whether former Commissioner of Patents Drew Hirshfeld had the power to reject a request for director review” while “acting head of the US Patent and Trademark Office.” Griffis reported how Fall Line Patents LLC filed a petition arguing the “Federal Circuit wrongly upheld Hirshfeld’s delegated authority when he stepped in to run the agency, violating the Federal Vacancies Reform Act and its strict succession requirements.”
Jasmin Jackson authored an article for Law360 about “Nike Inc. . . . petition[ing] the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Federal Circuit decision affirming the partial invalidation of a footwear stitching patent challenged by rival Adidas AG.” Jackson explained how “Nike contended that the appellate panel’s affirmance erroneously expanded the board’s authority to cancel patent rights.”
Dennis Crouch wrote a blog post commenting on “AI tools creating inventive output.” Crouch began by discussing the petition in Thaler v. Vidal, which asks whether “the Patent Act categorically restrict[s] the statutory term ‘inventor’ to human beings alone.” Crouch explained how “[t]he power of AI tools has become viscerally apparent over the past few months,” including the emergence of chatGPT and “other generative AI tools that are now widely available.” Moreover, he argued that, “even if recognition of the invention is fundamental to the inventing process, the AI tools certainly provide sufficient contribution to be considered for joint inventorship.”