CannabIP: U.S. Patent No. 10,132,564 B1

Cannabis IP patent

U.S. Patent No. 10,132,564 B1 (‘564) issued on November 20, 2018, for “Plant Dryer with Improved Convection Flow.”  It was issued to applicant/inventor Harvey Romanek of Seminole, Florida.  The assignee is THC Therapeutics, Inc..  THC Therapeutics is a publicly-traded cannabis tech company.  The ‘564 patent specifically encompasses their DHYDRONATOR® plant dryer product. Figure 1 illustrates …

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PlantIP: U.S. Patent No. PP30,173 P2

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U.S. Patent No. PP30,173 P2 (‘173) issued on February 5, 2019, for “Grandiflora Rose Plant Named ‘KORmonali’.”  It was issued to inventor Wilhelm-Alexander Kordes of Klein Offenseth-Sparrieshoop, Germany.  The applicant/assignee is W. Kordes’ Söhne Rosenschulen GmbH & Co KG, of Klein Offenseth-Sparrieshoop, Germany.  This patent is a plant patent under 35 U.S.C. §161, which protects …

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TechPat: U.S. Patent No. 10,154,254 B2

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U.S. Patent No. 10,154,254 B2 (‘254), issued on December 11, 2018, for “Time-of-Flight Depth Sensing for Eye Tracking.”  The inventor is Nicholas Daniel Trail of Bothell, Washington.  The applicant and assignee is Facebook, Inc., of Menlo Park, California, the omniprescient social media company.  The ‘254 specification discloses a headgear for a virtual reality (VR) or …

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TechPat: U.S. Patent No. 10,144,342 B2

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U.S. Patent No. 10,144,342 B2 (‘342), issued on December 4, 2018, for “Mobile Robot.”  The inventors are Ze Ji of Portsmouth, Great Britain, and Christopher Andrew Smith of Bristol, Great Britain.  The applicant and assignee is Dyson Technology Ltd., of Malmesbury, Great Britain, the tech-focused appliance company.  The ‘342 specification discloses a smart vacuum cleaner …

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Fed Circuit Watch: Dietary Supplement Claims Found Patent-Eligible

101 fed circuit watch patent patent eligible subject matter

In its second patent-eligibility ruling in a few weeks, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decided Natural Alts. Int’l, Inc. v. Creative Compounds, LLC,[1] on March 15, 2019, in which it found claims directed to dietary supplements in six patents to be patent-eligible under 35 U.S.C. §101.  Natural Alternatives International (NAI) was recently …

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TechPat: U.S. Patent No. D835,564

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U.S. Patent No. D835,564 S (‘564) issued on December 11, 2018, for “Wiper.”  It was issued to inventors Franz Von Holzhausen of Malibu, California, David Tadashi Imai of Los Angeles, California, Randy Rodriguez of Torrance, California, and Julien Bilodeau of Los Angeles, California.  The applicant/assignee is Tesla, Inc. of Palo Alto, California, the high-end electric …

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Fed Circuit Watch: No Standing to Appeal When Biosimilar Product Withdrawn

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Sometimes substantive patent issues are never dealt with in cases, but rather dispositive issues are handled by procedural mechanisms.  One case in point is Momenta Pharms., Inc. v. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.,[1] which the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decided on February 7, 2019. BMS owns U.S. Patent No. 8,476,239 (‘239), entitled “Stable protein …

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Fed Circuit Watch: Party Lacks Both Sovereign Immunity and Patent-Eligible Treatment Claims

101 fed circuit watch patent patent eligible subject matter sovereign immunity

In one of the more fascinating legal analyses presented in recent memory, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit handed down Univ. of Florida Res. Foundation, Inc. v. General Electric Co.,[1] on February 26, 2019.  The issues presented were state assertion of sovereign immunity in federal court, and method and system of treatment claims …

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