Patently-O

Tag Archives: patent grants

The USPTO issued 315,825 utility patents in FY2026, down 3.8% from FY2025. About half of this drop is due to a calendar ...
Patently-O

One Determination, Two Clocks: Crocs Asks the Supreme Court to Fix ITC Appeal Deadlines

Crocs asks the Supreme Court whether one ITC determination can start two appeal clocks after the Federal Circuit dismissed ...
Patently-O

FY2026 Patent Data Update: Grants, Publications, and Cross-Border Inventors

Final FY2026 numbers: 315,825 utility grants, continuing applications at 26% of grants, US-origin share at 39%, published applications down 6%, and cross-border inventor teams on a record 10.7% of ...
Patently-O

Who Owns Mind Reading?

Back in May 2023 I wrote a short post about the University of Texas study that used a GPT-style language model to reconstruct the gist of stories from fMRI scans (An API for the Human Mind, May 6, ...
Patently-O

The Federal Circuit Expands Its Jurisdiction Yet Again

Since Congress created the Federal Circuit in 1982, the court has repeatedly expanded the class of cases that, in its view, “arise under” patent law and so fall within its exclusive jurisdiction. The ...
Patently-O

Patent Enforcement with DOJ Backing: Rare Breed’s Forced-Reset Trigger Campaign

On September 10, the Federal Circuit heard argument in ABC IP, LLC v. Peak Tactical, LLC, No. 26-1527, Rare Breed Triggers' appeal from the denial of a preliminary injunction against the "Disruptor," ...
Patently-O

Patent Docket Heading into the Supreme Court’s Long Conference

The Justices return for their long conference on Monday, September 28, and the patent side of the docket is as full as it has been in some time. By my count, thirteen docketed cert petitions arise ...
Patently-O

The Federal Circuit Extends Sanho to the Section 102(b)(1)(B) Grace Period

The America Invents Act of 2011 (AIA) substantially narrowed the 1-year grace period that US patent applicants had relied upon for more than a century. Under the new law, the grace period only applies ...
Patently-O

When R&D Counts as a Domestic Industry

Apple has asked the Supreme Court to review the Federal Circuit’s decision upholding the ITC’s import ban on Apple Watches with blood-oxygen sensing. Apple Inc. v. ITC, No. 26-316 (petition filed Sept ...
Patently-O

When the PTAB’s Broadest Reasonable Interpretation Goes Too Far

The Federal Circuit has vacated a PTAB obviousness rejection of a catheter claim, holding that the Board’s reading of the claim term “flow barrier” was unreasonably broad. In re Incept LLC, No.
Patently-O

FY2026 Utility Grants by Origin and Continuity

The USPTO will close out FY2026 (which ends September 30) with about 320k utility patent grants, down about 3% from FY2025. Although the total is a bit down this year, an interesting shift here is ...