Innovations (patent and trade secret) resources

 Patent law

• USPTO main patent page
• USPTO patent law main page
• Patent laws (35 U.S.C.)
• Patent rules (37 CFR)
• MPEP (Manual of Patent Examining Procedure)
• Examination guidance (including recent matters such as 101 subject matter and the AIA)
• America Invents Act:
  • See the pre-AIA and post-AIA versions of 35 U.S.C. 102 here.
  • Table IPO comparing pre- and post-AIA patent law

Patent procedure

• USPTO main patent page
• USPTO fee schedule
• Patent forms
• Patent Trial and Appeal Board

Patent search and information

• Search patents at the USPTO
• Application status check
• Public PAIR (application status check)
• Filing applications online
• What is a reissue patent; see also here
• Continuation versus divisional applications

Claim construction

• David V. Radack, Reading and Understanding Patent Claims.
• MPEP 601.01(n), Dependent Claims
• Reading the OXO measuring cup pagent

America Invents Act

• Before & After: 35 U.S.C. 102
• Before & After: 35 U.S.C. 103
• Table from Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) comparing pre- and post-AIA provisions of U.S. patent law

Patents in the casebook, assignments, or from class

Historical

• Patent X1 (first patent, signed by George Washington)

Interesting or fun

• Peanut butter (306,727)
• Musical instrument support (4,656,917 Eddie Van Halen) 
• Method of exercising a cat (5,443,036)
• Wrist web dispenser (5,678,730)
• Method of playing a bowling game (6,142,880)
• Method of swinging on a swing (6,368,227)
• Beerbrella (6,637,447)
• Method and instrument for proposing marriage to an individual (Application 10/378,423)
• Dog nose art (Application 12/350,916)
• Resources to find interesting patents:
  • Context Free Patent Art Tumblr
  • Patent of the Week website
  • Crazy patents from Freepatentsonline.com

Reading a patent

• Patent 7,849,784 for coffee or tea filtering press (the Aeropress)
  • Aeropress page from Aerobie.com (inventor site)
  • Aeropress for sale on Amazon.com
  • Aeropress.com (Canadian vendor)
• OXO measuring cup (6,263,732)

Subject matter

• Patent 4,259,444 issued to Chakrabarty for microorganisms having multiple compatible degradative energy-generating plasmids and preparation thereof. Info on Dr. Chakrabarty can be found here
• Patents cited in FN10 of Diamond v. Chakrabarty (not in book):
  • Telegraph (Morse, No. 1,647)
  • Telephone (Bell, No. 174,465)
  • Electric lamp (Edison, No. 223,898)
  • Airplane (the Wrights, No. 821,393)
  • Transistor (Bardeen & Brattain, No. 2,524,035)
  • Neutronic reactor (Fermi & Szilard, No. 2,708,656)
  • Laser (Schawlow & Townes, No. 2,929,922)
  • Patent 5,747,282 in Myriad
• Patent 6,355,623 in Mayo 
  • BoingBoing and Slate on Myriad.
  • YouTube video from lawprof David Schartz on Myriad.
  • YouTube video from lawprof Arti Rai on Myriad.
• Application No. 08/833,892 in Bilski (starting page 79 of the Joint Appendix)
• Patents  5,970,479, 6,912,510, 7,149,720, and 7,725,375 from Alice Corp.

Novelty/102

• Patent 3,117 in Gayler v. Wilder
• Patent 32,521; reissue Patent RE1,390 in Coffin v. Ogden
• Patents in Verdegaal v. Union Oil: Verdegaal Stoller
• The eat-your-veggie patents in In re Cruciferous Sprout Litigation: 5,725,895, 5,968,567, 5,968,505
• Nicholson patent 11,491 and second reissue 2,748

Nonobviousness/103 (TBA)

• Graham

Infringement/remedies

• Patent 4,239,129 in Larami

Trade secrecy law [TBA]

• Uniform Trade Secrets Act
• Florida UTSA
• DTSA

Updated Jan. 2, 2018