The Tax & Trade Bureau of the U.S. Department of the Treasury has approved four new American Viticultural Areas (AVAs) this year: Contra Costa, Comptche, Yucaipa Valley, and Upper Cumberland. The first three are in California, and the Upper Cumberland AVA is in Tennessee. An AVA is the US designation of appellation of origin (AO), …
Category: patent
The Enablement Requirement Requires More Than Just “Two Research Assignments,” says SCOTUS
On May 18, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court released its long-awaited decision in Amgen Inc. v. Sanofi,[1] which touches on a formal requirement for patentability, the enablement requirement. In a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court held that where a patent claims an entire genus, the specification must enable one skilled in the art to make …
U.S. Patent No. PP35,001 P3 Blueberry Plant Named ‘C15-270’
U.S. Patent No. PP35,001 P3 (‘001) issued on February 28, 2023 for “Blueberry Plant Named ‘C15-270’.” It was issued to inventors Jessica Scalzo & James W. Olmestead and applicants/assignees Costa Berry International Pty Ltd. of Ravenhall, Australia, and Florida Foundation Seed Producers, Inc., of Marianna, Florida. The ‘001 patent is a plant patent under 35 …
Fed Circuit Holds Claims Directed to Milk Not Patent-Eligible Under §101
On February 13, 2023, in ChromaDex, Inc. v. Elysium Health, Inc.,[1] the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued its first opinion of the year dealing with patent eligibility under 35 U.S.C. §101. Unsurprisingly, the Fed Circuit held that the claims lacked patent-eligible subject matter, and concluded the claims were merely isolated formulations of …
Tax Update for Wine, Spirits & Beer Industry
The Craft Beverage Modernization Act (CBMA) was originally enacted in 2017 as part of the Tax Reform Act, and was meant to provide some tax relief for domestic wineries, breweries, distillers, and importers of alcoholic beverages. The tax benefits as enacted in 2017 were set to expire after two years, meaning any tax credits were …
UPC Set to Commence June 1, 2023
At long last, the Unitary Patent (UP) and the Unitary Patent Court (UPC) are set to begin on June 1, 2023. This has been a long-awaited process, which has seen the roll-out delayed not once, not twice, but three times. The UP is expected to a major effect on foreign patent prosecution strategies since, by …
DOCX Filing Requirement to Begin for Patent Applications
Today is the date in which new patent applications under 35 U.S.C. §111(a) (i.e., any U.S. nonprovisional application) must be filed using the .DOCX format, which is the file extension format used for Microsoft Word documents, as announced by the USPTO in a blog posting on December 19, 2022. This has been in planning for …
Fed Circuit is Irritated by Renegade Judge Albright
In In re Apple Inc.,[1] the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit granted Apple’s petition for writ of mandamus ordering the judge presiding over its district court patent infringement case, Alan D. Albright, in the Western District of Texas, rule on its motion to transfer venue before disposition of any discovery on the merits. This …
Registered Trade Dress Protectible Even if Many Features of Product Design Are Functional
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled on November 9, 2022, in SoClean, Inc. v. Sunset Healthcare Solutions, Inc.,[1] in a decision involving trade dress, a sub-category of trademark law. SoClean owned a registration for the trade dress of the sanitization devices under U.S. Trademark Reg. No. 6,080,195 (“’195 registration”). SoClean sued Sunset …
Comments Due on §101 Patent Eligibility Guidance
Back in July 2022, the new Director of the USPTO, Kathi Vidal, announced that the USPTO would be seeking comments on its anticipated guidance on §101 patent-eligibility. The deadline for those comments is rapidly approaching on September 15, 2022. The announcement was made against the backdrop of the USPTO’s release of a report to Congress …