IP UPDATE
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Results for "International Trademark"
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It’s an Old Tune: Third-Party-Use Evidence From Long Ago Can Support Genericness

by | Jul 18, 2024 |

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit found that the district court abused its discretion in wholesale exclusion of evidence on the issue of genericness. The evidence was offered to show prior use of a trade dress from more than five years prior to an alleged infringer’s first use of a mark. Gibson Inc. v. Armadillo Distribution Enterprises, Inc., Case No. 22-40587 (5th Cir. July 8, 2024) (Stewart, Clement, Ho, JJ.)

Gibson filed trademark infringement and counterfeiting claims against Armadillo Distribution Enterprises in 2019, alleging that Armadillo infringed four of Gibson’s trademarked guitar body shapes, one guitar headstock shape and two word marks. Just before trial, the district court made several evidentiary rulings on the parties’ motions in limine, including one in which Gibson sought to exclude all arguments and evidence related to advertisements or sales of third-party guitars before 1992, arguing they had limited probative value and were unduly prejudicial. Gibson argued that any third-party-use evidence should be restricted to a five-year period from 1992 to 1997. In its first exclusion order, the district court found that evidence of third-party use was relevant to determining whether a mark was generic or unprotectable but concluded that the probative value of the evidence from before the 1990s was low and found that the five-year cutoff date was reasonable. Armadillo objected to that ruling, leading to oral argument and a second exclusion order upholding the first order. The district court relied on Federal Rule of Evidence (FRE) 403 and the 2018 Federal Circuit ruling in Converse v. International Trade Commission to support this wholesale exclusion of evidence prior to 1992.

The parties proceeded to trial in mid-2022. A jury found that Armadillo infringed all of the trademarks other than one word mark and found that Armadillo marketed counterfeits. Armadillo appealed based on the district court’s exclusion of decades of third-party-use evidence. Armadillo asserted that this evidence was central to Armadillo’s counterclaim seeking cancellation of the marks and its main defense of genericness.

The Fifth Circuit first considered the district court’s reliance on Converse and determined that the district court abused its discretion in excluding the third-party evidence predating 1992. Armadillo argued that reliance on Converse was error because that case concerned secondary meaning and not genericness. Gibson countered that genericness and secondary meaning are closely related issues and that the five-year period predating infringement is the most logical measuring line. Alternatively, Gibson argued that 15 U.S.C. § 1064 would bar evidence predating 1992 because it provides that a petition to cancel a mark’s registration must be filed within five years from the date of registration of the mark.

The Fifth Circuit found that Converse did not rule that third-party-use evidence from more than five years prior to the alleged infringer’s first use was irrelevant to the issue of genericness and did not compel a strict five-year limitation of third-party-use evidence. The Court further reasoned that under Converse, evidence of prior use is relevant if such use was likely to have [...]

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PTO Collaborates With UK Counterpart to Address Standard-Essential Patents

by | Jun 13, 2024 |

On June 3, 2024, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and US Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) Director Kathi Vidal and Chief Executive Officer of the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) Adam Williams signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) designed to tackle various issues related to standard-essential patents (SEPs).

SEPs are patents that have been declared essential to a particular technical standard. Common examples of technical standards with active SEP bases include cellular communication and other wireless standards, such as LTE, 5G and Wi-Fi. Standards are typically adopted by Standard Setting Organizations (SSOs). To have input on standard adoption, many SSOs require participants agree to license any patents that result from discussions with potential licensees on Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) terms (See e.g., ETSI Intellectual Property Rights Policy).

But what are FRAND terms, and who gets to decide whether they issue? While individual patents are territorial (e.g., a US-issued patent is only enforceable in the United States), patent owners often obtain patent coverage in multiple jurisdictions. This can lead to challenges wherein a court in one jurisdiction may determine FRAND terms for a patent in that jurisdiction, which may then set or significantly influence the FRAND rate for the patent owner’s corresponding patents in other jurisdictions.

While the MOU is not public at this time, the PTO indicated that the MOU sets forth a framework for the following action items:

  • Cooperate on activities to facilitate collaboration and exchange of information on policy matters concerning SEPs to better ensure a balanced standards ecosystem.
  • Explore means to educate small- and medium-sized enterprises seeking to implement or contribute to the development of technical interoperability standards on FRAND terms.
  • Examine ways of improving transparency in the FRAND licensing of technical interoperability standards.
  • Engage in outreach to stakeholders to raise awareness of issues related to SEPs.
  • Discuss means to incorporate additional jurisdictions into the PTO and IPO’s activities concerning SEPs, including exploring a venue for broader discussions.

The agreement remains in place through June 3, 2029. PTO Director Vidal emphasized that “[t]his important collaboration with UKIPO will help us work together toward a fair and balanced international standard essential patent ecosystem that benefits all businesses in our two countries, including small and medium-sized enterprises and new market entrants.”



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Foreign Sales to Foreign Customers Are Not Actionable Under the Lanham Act

by | May 9, 2024 |

Issuing a revised opinion following the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Abitron Austria GmbH v. Hetronic Int’l, Inc., the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit determined that none of the defendant’s purely foreign sales to foreign customers can premise liability for the plaintiff’s Lanham Act claims and that any permanent injunction issued against the defendant cannot extend beyond qualifying domestic conduct. Hetronic International, Inc. v. Hetronic Germany GmbH; Hydronic-Steuersysteme GmbH; ABI Holding GmbH; Abitron Germany GmbH; Abitron Austria GmbH; Albert Fuchs, Case Nos. 20-6057; -6100 (10th Cir. Apr. 23, 2024) (Murphy, McHugh, Phillips, JJ.)

Hetronic is a US company that manufactures radio remote controls for heavy-duty construction equipment. Hetronic sued its foreign distributors and licensees (collectively, Abitron) in the US District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma for trademark infringement when, following termination of the Hetronic distribution and license agreements, Abitron reverse-engineered Hetronic’s products and began manufacturing and selling their own copycat products bearing Hetronic’s trade dress (a “distinctive black-and-yellow color scheme”). Abitron’s sales of the copycat products took place primarily in Europe. In the first rounds of this dispute, the district court rejected Abitron’s argument that Hetronic sought an impermissible extraterritorial application of the Lanham Act, and a jury awarded Hetronic $96 million in damages related to Abitron’s global use of Hetronic’s marks. Abitron was also permanently enjoined from using the marks anywhere in the world. Abitron appealed to the Tenth Circuit.

As a matter of first impression, the Tenth Circuit fashioned its own test to determine the extraterritoriality of the Lanham Act, upholding the district court’s ruling but narrowing the injunction to only the countries where Hetronic marketed or sold its products. Abitron appealed to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court granted certiorari to resolve a circuit split over the Lanham Act’s extraterritorial reach. Specifically, the Supreme Court was asked to decide whether the Lanham Act applies to “purely foreign sales that never reached the United States or confused U.S. customers” and considered its long-standing presumption against extraterritoriality, with the first step of its analysis consisting of asking whether Congress has “affirmatively and unmistakably instructed” that a particular statute “should apply to foreign conduct.” As the second step, the Supreme Court determined whether a claim seeks a permissible domestic or impermissible foreign application of a statute.

The Supreme Court held that Sections 32(1)(a) and 43(a)(1)(A) of the Lanham Act are not extraterritorial and that the infringing conduct – being “use in commerce” of a trademark – determines the dividing line between foreign and domestic application of the Lanham Act. The Supreme Court vacated the Tenth Circuit’s findings and remanded for further proceedings, instructing the Tenth Circuit to reevaluate which of Abitron’s allegedly infringing activities count as use in commerce under the Supreme Court’s exterritoriality frameworks and to determine on which side of the dividing line Abitron’s conduct falls.

With the Supreme Court having already determined step one, on remand, the Tenth Circuit started with step two of the extraterritoriality analysis and found [...]

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Drawing Can Teach Claim Limitations If “Clear on Its Face”

by | Apr 18, 2024 |

Addressing when a drawing in a prior art reference includes a teaching that is “clear on its face,” the Director of the US Patent & Trademark Office vacated and remanded a Patent Trial & Appeal Board decision denying institution of an inter partes review (IPR) petition. MAHLE Behr Charleston Inc. v. Catalano, IPR2023-00861 (PTAB Decision Review, Apr. 5, 2024) (Vidal, PTO Dir.)

MAHLE Behr filed a petition requesting institution of an IPR, challenging claims of a patent owned by Catalano. The patent is directed to a device known as a sacrificial anode that prevents corrosion in motor vehicle radiators caused by electrolysis. One of the claim terms at issue requires the anode to be “within 10 inches” of another element. MAHLE argued that a figure in a prior art reference anticipated or rendered obvious several challenged claims.

The Board denied the institution after determining that MAHLE did not establish a reasonable likelihood that it would prevail with respect to at least one of the challenged claims. The Board cited the Federal Circuit’s 2000 decision in Hockerson-Halberstadt v. Avia Group International to explain that “[p]atent drawings do not define the precise proportions of the elements and may not be relied on to show particular sizes if the specification is completely silent on the issue.” The Board concluded that the figure relied on by MAHLE did not provide exact dimensions and thus could not be sufficient to render the claims invalid.

MAHLE filed a request for Director Review, which was granted. In its request, MAHLE argued that the Board erred in its application of Federal Circuit case law on the use of patent drawings as prior art teachings. The Director agreed, explaining that “the Board did not adequately address [MAHLE’s] arguments regarding what [the figure in the prior art] clearly shows or would have reasonably suggested to a person of ordinary skill in the art.” Federal Circuit case law established that a claim may be anticipated or rendered obvious by a figure in the prior art if the drawing clearly discloses the claim limitation. If “a person of skill in the art could derive the claimed dimensions from the patent’s disclosure, there is no additional requirement that the specification must explicitly disclose the precise proportions or particular sizes.”

The Director further explained that “the Board did not adequately address MAHLE’s arguments regarding what [the prior art figure] clearly shows or would have reasonably suggested to a person of ordinary skill in the art.” While the prior art figure did not disclose the precise proportions or measured quantity specified in the challenged claims, the figure showed the elements being located as claimed (necessarily within the 10 inches recited). The Director explained that the Board should have considered whether a person of ordinary skill in the art would have understood the figure to disclose the claimed elements being within 10 inches of each other.

The Director vacated the Board’s decision and remanded the petition with instructions to consider both what the prior art figure [...]

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Senate Holds Hearing on Legislative Initiative to Address Patent Eligibility

by and | Feb 1, 2024 |

Seeking to undo the current jurisprudence “mess” on the issue of patent eligibility, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Intellectual Property heard testimony on January 23, 2024, on the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act (PERA) (text here). PERA seeks to address the uncertainty and unpredictable outcomes created by the 2014 Supreme Court of the United States decision in Alice Corp. Pty. v. CLS Bank Int’l.

PERA is the latest iteration of 35 USC § 101 patent eligibility reform that Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Chris Coons (D-DE) have been introducing for years. Although the language has been tweaked over time, the bill’s purpose is to eliminate “[a]ll judicial exceptions to patent eligibility” and in their place codify several categories of inventions as unpatentable, such as mathematical formulas; processes that are substantially economic, financial, business, social, cultural or artistic; processes that are mental or purely natural; unmodified human genes; and unmodified natural materials.

The January 23 hearing featured eight witnesses, divided into two panels. The first panel included:

  • Andrei Iancu, former US Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) director
  • Richard Blaylock, testifying on behalf of Invitae Corporation
  • Courtenay Brinckerhoff, partner at Foley & Lardner
  • Phil Johnson, steering committee chair at the Coalition for 21st Century Patent Reform.

The second panel included:

  • The Honorable David Kappos, former PTO director
  • Adam Mossoff, professor at the Antonin Scalia Law School
  • Mark Deem, operating partner of Lightstone Ventures
  • David Jones, executive director of the High-Tech Inventors Alliance.

Harkening back to prior panels, the testimony was largely in favor of reform considering what many characterized as inaction by all other stakeholders. Senators and witnesses alike recognized that legislative reform is likely the only way to gain clarity on § 101 considering the Supreme Court’s failure to take up more than 100 certiorari petitions seeking review, many with the Solicitor General’s endorsement.

During the first panel, Blaylock testified that PERA would improperly provide patent eligibility to new uses of natural phenomena, such as genetic material, and therefore “would stifle innovation and harm patient care in the fields of diagnostic genetic testing and precision medicine.” Iancu testified in response that “all human invention is the manipulation of nature towards practical uses by humans on this planet . . . and it should be eligible for a patent.” Brinckerhoff’s testimony also opposed Blaylock’s view; she explained that considerable research and development is needed to develop new uses for isolated natural products and would be disincentivized without patent eligibility. Brinckerhoff highlighted an important theme at the hearing: “PERA would bring eligibility back in line with other countries” by permitting patents on methods of detecting new diagnostic markers, thus maintaining international competitiveness. Lastly, Johnson testified that “[j]ust because something is eligible doesn’t mean it’s patentable” and stressed the importance of using §§ 102, 203 and 112 as additional filters to determine patentability.

During the second panel, venture capitalist Deem testified that “the United States is failing many of our most innovative startups” because [...]

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Word From on High: Provide Reasoned Explanation When Departing From Established Practice

by | Dec 7, 2023 |

In a decision on motion in an appeal from the Trademark Trial & Appeal Board, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit admonished the Board on remand to “furnish a reasoned explanation” when departing from its “established practice” on the issue of waiver. Universal Life Church Monastery v. American Marriage Ministries, Case No. 22-1744 (Fed. Cir. Nov. 22, 2023) (Chen, Cunningham, Stark, JJ.) (unpublished).

Universal Life Church filed an application to register the mark GET ORDAINED in two classes of services: ecclesiastical services and retail store services. As to both classes, American Marriage opposed on the grounds that the mark was merely descriptive and failed to function as a trademark. The Board sustained the opposition against both classes of service notwithstanding that American Marriage did not present any argument regarding retail store services. Universal Life argued that American Marriage waived its opposition to registration of the mark for retail services—an argument ignored by the Board in its decision. Universal Life appealed.

After oral argument at the Federal Circuit, the parties jointly moved to vacate the Board’s decision as it related to retail store services or to remand the matter to the Board to consider a party stipulation to that effect.

The Federal Circuit denied the motion, finding no entitlement to the “extraordinary remedy of vacatur” or circumstances necessitating a remand.

Instead, the Federal Circuit vacated the Board’s decision based on its failure to explain why American Marriage’s silence on registrability for retail store services did not constitute waiver, or to “furnish a reasoned explanation for departing from [the Board’s] established practice of deeming unargued claims waived.”

The Federal Circuit noted that the Board’s established waiver practice for inter partes proceedings was that “[i]f a party fails to reference a pleaded claim or affirmative defense in its brief, the Board will deem the claim or affirmative defense to have been waived.”

The Federal Circuit cited several precedential Board decisions, including General Mills v. Fage Dairy Processing Industry (2011), where the Board “deemed opposition claims directed to one class in a multi-class application as waived when there was an ‘absence of arguments in opposers’ brief as to anything other than [goods in the non-waived class].’” The Board’s precedent requires that “in an opposition proceeding for a multi-class application, ‘[e]ach international class stands on its own, for all practical purposes like a separate application, and [the Board] must make determinations for each separate class.’”



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Status Quo Has Few Defenders at PREVAIL Act Senate Subcommittee Hearing

by and | Nov 16, 2023 | ,

On November 8, 2023, the US Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property heard testimony from four witnesses on the proposed Promoting and Respecting Economically Vital American Innovation Leadership (PREVAIL) Act. Although the PREVAIL Act includes several provisions regarding transparency and independence, its thrust is its dramatic alteration of Patent Trial & Appeal Board post-grant review (PGR) and inter partes review (IPR) proceedings, including their relationship to co-pending district court litigation, with the goal of incentivizing innovation by reducing costs and making such challenges less likely to be successful.

We previously reported on the provisions of the proposed PREVAIL Act when it was introduced. The biggest changes under consideration include the introduction of a standing requirement, a heightened burden of proof from preponderance-of-the-evidence to clear-and-convincing evidence, a stronger estoppel to thwart costly and unnecessary co-pending actions in court and at the Board, and the separation of the Board’s institution and decision-making functions.

Three witnesses spoke in favor of the PREVAIL Act before the subcommittee, emphasizing that the Board failed to live up to the purposes and intentions of the America Invents Act (AIA). These witnesses were Representative Lamar Smith, a co-sponsor of the AIA; Michelle Armond, co-founder of the law firm Armond Wilson LLP and a practitioner before the Board; and Joseph Kiani, founder of Masimo Industries.

Smith testified that Congress enacted the AIA because it recognized the potential for Board proceedings to be abused, and according to Smith, that is exactly what has happened. Each of the three witnesses testified that well-funded litigants have exploited Board procedures to overwhelm small businesses by forcing them into expensive duplicative proceedings in multiple forums. For example, Kiani posited that the Board posed an existential threat to startups, attributing findings of invalidity against his company’s patents to the AIA’s invalidation-friendly procedures.

Armond explained to the subcommittee how the PREVAIL Act would streamline Board proceedings and harmonize them with district court and International Trade Commission (ITC) litigation. According to Armond, in the wake of the AIA, both the Board and district courts have failed to offer uniform standards for deciding whether to stay a proceeding in their forum pending resolution of a parallel proceeding in the other. The PREVAIL Act would resolve this problem by requiring litigants to select only one forum in which they may raise their invalidity arguments. Armond argued that using the same clear-and-convincing-evidence standard in Board review proceedings and other litigation would harmonize the Board with district courts and the ITC by ensuring that different forums reach the same invalidity decision.

Joseph Matal, former US Patent & Trademark Office interim director and acting solicitor, and current principal of Clear IP, LLC, was the lone dissenting witness at the hearing. According to Matal, the PREVAIL Act’s proposal to require a clear-and-convincing-evidence standard in Board review proceedings is misguided because Board judges possess the requisite agency expertise to second-guess patent examination decisions. Additionally, Board judges often have more time to evaluate the patents and more information than the examiner. According to Matal, [...]

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Watermelon Sugar: Candy Shape and Color Deemed Functional

by | Sep 21, 2023 |

The US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit upheld a district court’s decision that a candymaker cannot trademark the shape and colors of watermelon candy, finding that the combined colors and shape of the candy are functional because they help signal to consumers that the candies have a watermelon flavor. PIM Brands Inc. v. Haribo of America, Inc., Case No. 22-2821 (3rd Cir. Sept. 7, 2023) (Chagares, Bibas and Matey, JJ)

PIM is a leading confectionary company that introduced its Sour Jacks Wedges, a chewy gummy candy, in the early 2000s.

PIM obtained a federal trademark registration in “the shape of a wedge for candy, with an upper green section with white speckles, followed by a narrow middle white section and followed by a lower red section with white speckles.”

Haribo, a well-known German confectionery company, introduced its own watermelon-flavored sweet treat in 2019. Like the Sour Jacks Wedges, Haribo’s candy is red, white and green, with an elongated watermelon wedge shape. PIM sued Haribo for trademark and trade dress infringement under the Lanham Act and for unfair competition under New Jersey common law, alleging that Haribo copied PIM’s Sour Jacks Wedges design.

Haribo countered that PIM’s trade dress was functional and requested that the district court cancel PIM’s trademark. Haribo claimed that it designed its chewy candy’s shape and colors to match its flavor (watermelon) and that PIM’s trademark should not have been granted since it closely resembled an actual slice of watermelon. The district court agreed, finding that PIM’s trademark design was functional and not protectable since PIM’s combination of colors and shape helps identify the candy’s watermelon flavor. PIM appealed.

PIM acknowledged that the coloring of its watermelon candy was functional since it identified the candy’s flavor. However, PIM argued that the candy’s wedge shape identified the brand and challenged the district court’s decision because it did not consider the wedge shape in isolation from the colors when assessing functionality.

The Third Circuit rejected PIM’s argument, concluding that each feature of the candy’s trade dress serves a single function, which is to identify its flavor, and therefore is ineligible for trademark protection. The Court explained that a design is functional if it is useful for anything beyond branding. The Court cited to its 2021 decision in Ezaki Glico v. Lotte International America, explaining that “[e]ven if the design chosen both promotes a brand and also ‘makes a product work better,’ it is functional and unprotectable.” The Court went on to explain that if design choices (e.g., shape and color) serve the same function (e.g., identifying the flavor), they should be considered together.

PIM further argued that its Sour Jacks Wedges do not match exactly with watermelon, noting that the bottom could be more curved and have a thinner band of darker green, the wedge could be wider, the point could be sharper and a deeper red, and there could be black seeds. The [...]

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RIP for POP: PTO Updates Interim Director Review Procedures

by | Aug 3, 2023 |

On July 24, 2023, the US Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) announced that a revised interim Director Review (DR) process and Appeals Review Panel (ARP) process will replace the Precedential Opinion Panel Process. Updates to the interim DR process include the following:

  • Expanding the process to permit parties to request DR of Patent Trial & Appeal Board decisions on institution in America Invents Act (AIA) proceedings
  • Providing updated guidance as to what types of issues the Director will consider in DR, as well as additional guidance on several topics, such as the initiation of DR at the sole discretion of the Director (sua sponte DR), remands to Board for further proceedings and the Director’s sanction authority
  • Providing the Director with the option to delegate review to a new independent panel called the Delegated Rehearing Panel (DRP)
  • Creating a new ARP, which may be convened by the Director sua sponte to review Board ex parte, reexamination or reissue appeal decisions.

Under the interim DR process, a party to a Board decision may now request DR of a Board decision, whether to institute trial, a final written decision or a decision granting a request for rehearing.

After a DR request is received and processed, the request will then be routed to an Advisory Committee that the Director has established to assist with the process. The Advisory Committee comprises 11 members and includes representatives from various PTO business units who serve at the discretion of the Director. A quorum of seven members is needed for the committee to meet. The Advisory Committee may include members from the following business units:

  • Office of the Under Secretary (not including the Director or Deputy Director)
  • The Board (not including members of the panel for each case under review)
  • Office of the Commissioner for Patents (not including the Commissioner for Patents or any persons involved in the examination of the challenged patent)
  • Office of the General Counsel
  • Office of Policy and International Affairs.

The Director will review each request for DR; the underlying decision, including the associated arguments and evidence; and the recommendation of the Advisory Committee. The Director will then determine whether to grant or deny review or delegate a decision to a Delegated Rehearing Panel (DRP). The DRP will be selected from among the Chief Judge, Deputy Chief Judge, Vice Chief Judges and Senior Lead Judges of the Board, excluding judges who served on the original panel for the case under review or otherwise have a conflict with the case. An appellant can request a rehearing of a DRP decision or appeal the decision to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

An ARP that consists of the Director, the Commissioner for Patents and the Chief Judge of the Board has now been created. The panel may be convened by the Director sua sponte to review ex parte, reexamination or reissue appeal decisions. Requests for ARP review will not be considered. ARP decisions are appealable to the Federal Circuit. An appellant may not [...]

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PTO Adds Green Energy Category to Patents for Humanity Program

by | Mar 16, 2023 |

On March 6, 2023, the US Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) introduced a new green energy category to its Patents for Humanity Program. This new award category provides business incentives for patent applicants, holders and licensees whose inventions address the challenges of climate change through green energy innovations, including wind, solar, hydrogen, hydropower, geothermal and biofuels technologies. The green energy category joins five other categories of inventions in the Patents for Humanity Program: medicine, nutrition, sanitation, household energy and living standards.

The Patents for Humanity green energy category joins other recent PTO initiatives designed to address climate change, including a joint work-sharing program with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, expedited examination procedures under the Climate Change Mitigation Pilot Program, and a partnership with the World Intellectual Property Organization’s WIPO GREEN program.

The Patents for Humanity Award is the top award for applicants best representing the Patents for Humanity principles. Award recipients receive public recognition at an awards ceremony sponsored by the PTO. They also receive a certificate to accelerate any of the following matters before the PTO: a patent application, an ex parte reexam or an ex parte appeal to the Patent Trial & Appeal Board. Winners may transfer their acceleration certificates to third parties.

The PTO is now accepting applications for the Patents for Humanity green energy category. For more information about how to apply, visit Patents for Humanity: Green Energy. The deadline for submitting applications is June 1, 2023.



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