An interesting article has recently been published about a study investigating whether having a feminine-sounding or race-identifying name means your patent application is more or less likely to be granted by the USPTO. One change that could be made to enable a study going forward about whether there really is apparent gender bias, and to try to remove it if it is present, would be to remove the first names of the inventors and replace them with simply an initial. For example, instead of...
Possibly now more than ever, devices and methods that make antibody detection widely available and user-friendly are extremely sought after. Such tests could help to diagnose conditions and even assess disease immunity. An innovative and unusual antibody assay has been proffered as a user-friendly solution to laboratory-dependent and time-consuming analytical techniques. This assay comes in a rather unexpected form – a glowing thread. A cotton thread provides a platform for a series of...
It has been reported that COVID-19 has led to a surge in new patent applications being filed. Under normal patent prosecution timescales, these new applications will not publish until 18 months from their priority date, which will be their filing date if they are new inventions and this is their first filing (i.e. they will publish around Summer/Winter 2021). It is therefore difficult to know exactly what people are inventing in response to the virus. I was therefore very interested when I...
Back in 2015 the EPO introduced an alternative to approving or disapproving the text proposed for grant for a European patent application under the R71(3) procedure, this was the "waiver procedure". If an applicant wished to make minor changes to the text proposed for grant they could file a response at the EPO to the R71(3) EPC Communication with the amendments, along with the necessary claim translations, and pay the official fee(s) whilst expressly waiving their right to receive a...
Manchester United has launched legal proceedings against Sega Publishing and Sports Interactive (SI) over the use of the club's name in the video game Football Manager. The club has claimed infringement of its trade marked name through its inclusion in the game, as well as of its logo due to the fact that SI used a simplified red and white crest alongside the club's name rather than the team's official logo. They stated that “consumers expect to see the club crest next to the name Manchester...
In an effort to tackle the present coronavirus pandemic, the UK government has launched a new initiative, the Accelerating COVID-19 Research & Development (ACCORD) programme. A collaboration between the public and private sectors, this programme will seek to identify effective COVID-19 treatments and accelerate the prospective drugs through clinical trials. At present, six drugs have been selected as candidates. Five of these have been publicly announced so far. It is hoped that some of...
The European Patent Office (EPO) has been very proactive in offering extensions to deadlines for patent applicants (and opponents, see my earlier post on the effetive extension of the opposition period) due to the disruption of the COVID-19 situation. Any periods which would have expired on of after 15 March 2020 were extended to 2 June 2020. While this has not been extended further, the EPO have announced a new measure to help patent applicants that have fallen behind on renewal fees in this...
The headline for the article from which the quote below is taken made me think - what leads to a person being named as an inventor on so many patents? Plus, I'm sure Mr Stringer will be named on many more in the future. Once I started thinking, I started doing a little research to see if there are things that a company can do to nurture innovation: This article included some really interesting points. The main takeaway was that allowing (in fact encouraging) failure and learning from it is...
Since lockdown began, I've done more online shopping than ever before. I suspect I'm not alone in that. While I've been very satisfied with most of my purchases, there are a few that have left me disappointed. One of the problems is that often we have no idea of the provenance of the products we buy online and whether or not they'll be of decent quality. In recent months there's been a significant rise in the number of patent applications relating to solving this problem. One approach is the...
Hot on the heels of being ranked the best environment in the world for trade marks (see here) …a record number of UK trade marks were registered in 2019 according to the UK IPO’s latest report. Trade mark applications have increased by 162% from 2011 with a total number of 107,527 filings in 2019. There were also a total of 4,117 trade mark oppositions filed, including fast track oppositions, and 523 ex parte hearings taken to challenge examiners’ objections to trade marks.
The impact of COVID-19 on the world of professional sport has been unprecedented. The majority of the world's leagues and competitions have been suspended for some weeks now, in many cases for the first time since World War II. However, as certain countries are starting to emerge from lockdown, so too are their sports leagues. This has led to an interesting situation regarding broadcasting rights. For sports fans, regular weekend fixtures were sorely missed, and so with such an increase in...
It's Friday, the weather has been great, work has hopefully been rewarding and you're about to finish for the day. But yet, you won't have your normal routine of breaking away from the office and settling into the weekend. This week was Mental Health Awareness Week, which is why I wanted to draw attention to its end. Our previous habitual routine of commuting Monday to Friday into our place of work, mid morning coffee breaks, after work gym routines and gearing up for a break on the weekend,...
The fashion industry has been hit hard by Covid-19. It is an industry that still heavily relies on physical retail and, according to Imran Amed the founder and CEO of The Business of Fashion, ‘more than 80% of transactions in the fashion industry still happen in physical stores’. In addition, as a result of the current crisis, production has been paused and consumer demand has dropped as lifestyles have changed and consumers are spending more consciously. This presents significant challenges...
The answer to the question above is possibly - if you want to buy a Samsung. The article quoted below gives an indication that Samsung are innovating to enable them to move to in-house manufacture of their foldable phone screens. How do we know this? Because someone has been watching their patent activity and spotted that they have recently filed a number of patent applications directed to materials that could be used on foldable phone screens et al. At present, as the article states,...
Facebook has announced a new 'Shops' feature on its platforms that will allow brand owners to list their goods for sale. This is likely to prove popular for both small and large businesses, especially those who cannot currently sell in physical stores, as they look for new ways to engage with customers and sell their products. However, it also opens up a new front for online counterfeiting and brand infringement as third parties may take this as an opportunity to get the jump on brand...
