Industrial IP

Food patents can be challenging in some situations.  For example, protection of a recipe may require its full disclosure, and at the same time may be difficult to enforce.  For this reason, Coke-Cola Corporation has kept their recipe trade secret, which prevents Coke-Cola from legally blocking anyone from mimicking their recipe, but also mitigates the likelihood that a competitor will be able to determine the exact details easily.  However, this does not mean Coke-Cola completely ignores patent protection.  U.S. Patent No. 8,940,351, which is titled Baked Goods Comprising High-Potency Sweetener discusses adjusting a composition of baked goods with artificial sweeteners, rebaudioside A and erythritol, while maintaining a flavor profile.  Coke-Cola has received similar patents with regard to cereal ( see U.S. Patent No. 8,940,350, which is titled Cereal Compositions Comprising High-Potency Sweeteners ).   This strategy illustrates that pursuing food ...

In the US, we have two types of patents relevant to most industrial clients (putting plant patents aside for now) - utility patents and design patents. Both have different uses and any virtually every industrial business should have a strategy on how to effectively use them. However, US-based companies often do not even realize, let alone make a part of their strategy, so-called utility model (or innovation) patents that are available in most of the important non-US countries. Some of the advantageous aspects of utility model patents is their lower cost and quick timing. While they often have reduced term (e.g., 10 years rather than the more typical 20 years), often they can exist in combination with regular invention and design patents (although not always, such as in China). Companies that have world-class patent portfolios invariably make strategic use of utility model filings and if your current US IP counsel gives you a blank stare when you ask them, consider reaching out to so...

Blackberry had moved forward with a lawsuit filed in California against Facebook for infringing numerous patents, including US patents 7,372,961; 8,209,634; 8,279,173; 8,301,713; 8,429,236; 8,677,250; and 9,349,120. Blackberry is asserting that Facebook and its subsidiaries are infringing these patents, specifically with regard to messaging applications including, Facebook and Facebook Messenger for Android and iOS devices, WhatsApp Messenger for Android and iOS devices, and Instagram for Android and iOS devices, as well as the Facebook website. Blackberry's patents cover a range of features and represent their portfolio-based approach, where a number of patent applications are filed on various aspects of a product. This creates the greatest uncertainty for Facebook - while they might be able to dodge one or two patents, dodging the whole portfolio becomes much more difficult. Balckberry's patents are not pure software patents, but rather some address the interface with har...

Oobleck is a common name for a non-Newtonian fluid comprising cornstarch and water. Named after a substance humorously described in Dr. Seuss’s classic children’s story, Bartholomew and the Ooblek, the cornstarch and water concoction is frequently used in children’s science classes as a fun way to learn about fluid mechanics. You may have fond memories, yourself, of playing with oobleck as a youth. Oobleck behaves as a fluid when touched gently, but becomes hard as a solid when hit with great velocity. For example, a person could run across a swimming pool of oobleck without getting their feet wet. However, if a person stood still on the oobleck, then they would slowly sink. Because oobleck is a children’s plaything and because of its simple recipe (cornstarch and water), one may be surprised to learn that inventors have attempted to patent serious industrial uses for the material. As an example, one current patent application, US 2015/0016885 (now abandoned), is for a system of fi...

Manufacturing processors for Apple’s iPhone is prized business. The development of the Integrated Fan-Out (InFO) package has helped Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) manufacture the Apple A10 and A11 processors. Competitors such as Samsung have manufactured processors for Apple as recently as the generation before the introduction of InFO. The InFO package is not a radically new design. InFO is a combination of processes that are known in the field. Fan-out wafer level processing (FOWLP), which InFO is based on, has been in use since embedded wafer-level ball-grid arrays in 2009. However, the InFO packaging combine FOWLP with redistribution layers, through layer vias, and package on package architecture to create a more efficient overall design. FOWLP provides several advantages over other types of packaging. A fundamental problem of semiconductor manufacturing is that performance of integrated circuits increase as dimensions decrease but performance of interconnects ...

Cryptocurrencies have found themselves in the spotlight as of late, with the most popular being Bitcoin.  The understanding of cryptocurrencies appears to be fairly limited, with consumers trying to predict if cryptocurrencies are a flash in the pan or here to stay.  Regardless of your assumptions regarding Bitcoin, which is often characterized as a way for drug dealers to operate without getting caught, there are over 1,000 cryptocurrencies, many of which provide a service, often regarded to as a blockchain technology.             Bitcoins blockchain technology tracks ownership of bitcoins between peer-to-peer transactions.  However, blockchain technologies offer so much more than that.  For example, Ethereum allows participants to create smart contracts, wherein the smart contract self-executes management, payment, and enforcement.  Additionally, due to the distribution of such contracts (e.g., they are...

Blockchain patent activity is increasing rapidly. A description of the technology was first published in 2008 anonymously, and no intellectual property protections were placed on it. As the technology has become widely known due to its use by digital currencies, various established companies, as well as numerous start-ups and entrepreneurs, have begun seeking patent protection on innovations to the technology.  To date, there are over 200 US patents related to blockchain technologies granted since the beginning of 2013, including one for a digital currency ATM ( US Patent No. 9,135,787 ), one for making a payment with a tip button ( US Patent No. 9,436,935 ), and one for a system and method of analyzing blockchain transactions ( US Patent No. 9,298,806 ). There are currently over 1000 US patent applications awaiting examination. The blockchain protocol was developed to solve the technological problem of how to create an open, distributed ledger that was verifiable and immutable....