Intellectual Property Law and Copyright Laws

Can a single trademark application protect your brand across 130+ countries? Learn how the Madrid System works, where it falls short, and why territorial trademark rights require strategic planning for each market—especially China.

The Federal Circuit affirmed a district court's invalidation of patent claims covering a communications apparatus, but shifted the legal basis from indefiniteness to enablement. The court clarified that while impossibility doesn't automatically render claims indefinite under Section 112(b), claims expressly covering inoperable embodiments fail enablement requirements under Section 112(a), as they cannot satisfy the full-scope standard established in Amgen v. Sanofi.

The USPTO's Appeal Review Panel has issued a controversial decision in ex Parte Baurin, reversing a PTAB ruling and establishing that the theoretical possibility of harassment through split patent ownership alone can justify obvious-type double patenting rejections—even without any actual extension of patent monopoly periods.