March 15, 2017

Join the USPTO Office of Innovation Development (OID) on Thursday, March 16, 2017  from 11 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. ET for our Inventor Info Chat webinar, “How to Search and Why You Want To.” Performing a search can help prevent…

March 10, 2017

The Department of Commerce’s United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is seeking nominations for the 2017 National Medal of Technology and Innovation. The medal is presented each year by the President of the United States and is this country’s…

March 7, 2017

On March 23, 2017, there will be a free program at the Indianapolis Public Library (Central Library) on the Gender Gap in Patents followed by an educational training session to learn the basics about patents and the trademarks and what…

February 22, 2017

We are pleased to announce that Woodard, Emhardt partners Thomas Henry, Spiro Bereveskos and Daniel Lueders have been named Super Lawyers for 2017. Additionally, Woodard, Emhardt partner Bill McKenna has been named as a Rising Star for 2017. Congratulations to…

January 19, 2017

The January patent prosecution practice luncheon included a discussion of highlights from 2016 Federal Circuit opinions that addressed the patentability of software inventions. Although the Federal Circuit continued its trend of invalidating most of the software patents it reviewed, several…

January 18, 2017

Woodard, Emhardt partner Chuck Schmal was sworn in today, January 18th, as a member of the Indianapolis Bar Association Board of Directors. He will be serving throughout 2017 as a Vice President working together with other dedicated members of the…

August 15, 2016

The Supreme Court recently decided three different cases related to intellectual property issues. The Court reviewed the process of instituting an inter partes review (IPR) in In re Cuozzo Speed Techs., finding that a decision of whether to institute an…

August 8, 2016

There are many benefits of filing a patent application with a Request for First Action Interview Pilot Program. First, the program is open to all technology areas and filing dates as long as no substantive Office Actions have issued. Second,…

August 8, 2016

On May 11, 2016, the Defend Trade Secrets Act (“DTSA”) was signed into law. The DTSA creates a federal cause of action that provides civil remedies for the misappropriation of trade secrets. The presentation below provides the definitions of some…

July 12, 2016

The USPTO recently established Patents 4 Patients, also known as the Cancer Immunotherapy Pilot Program, to speed up prosecution of cancer related patents. The goal of Patents 4 Patients is to reduce the time the USPTO takes to review patent…

May 20, 2016

The last update to the USPTO’s guidance to examiners on patent subject matter eligibility was issued in July of 2015. The USPTO recently provided the next iteration, which includes a new set of life science examples, a memorandum to the…

May 19, 2016

Judge Stivers of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky recently ordered that a trademark infringement lawsuit filed against operators of historical horse racing games by numerous prominent race tracks should be dismissed. The suit alleged that…