Intellectual Property – Lei Jiang Law Firm

Over the years, our firm has prosecuted many patent applications and successfully secured patents for many clients. 2020 was a busy year with many applications having been filed. We also saw allowances issued to our clients as a result of years of work. Here is one of the patents secured by our law firm that was granted in May 2020. The prosecuting attorney was Ms. Lei Jiang.

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This particular application is a PCT application, meaning that the application was submitted through Patent Cooperation Treaty. The applicant must be a national of a PCT contracting State (a member country). There are about 150 contracting states including most major countries. This type of applications is the most complex one. There are other type applications, such as:

Provisional application
Utility application
Design application
Plant application

Our firm handles prosecution of all patent applications. It is always a great honor to practice law in front of the United State Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). USPTO is one of the most efficient and courteous government offices in this nation.

On patent litigation side, COVID-19 may have slowed down many economic activities, but it didn’t slow down. The infringement litigation in the first half of 2020 was up by 16% according to the National Law Journal. Also, the battleground has shifted. In 2019, Delaware had the most patent cases, but in 2020, West Texas leaped ahead with the most filings. Thus, the Western District of Texas is now entrenched as the most popular filing destination for infringement cases. This trend started when U.S. District Judge Alan Albright joined the bench in 2018.

Whether you need a patent for your idea/invention or need to defend your patent rights, we can help. For questions, please contact us.

New Patent Law Approved

On September 16, 2011, President Obama signed the America Invents Act into law and it will become fully effective on March 16, 2013. The Act changes U.S. patent law from first-to-invent (FTI) to first-to-file (FTF) and will be a step towards a more globally uniformed patent system, as the FTF system dominates throughout the rest of the world. This change is expected to reduce the time it takes to get a patent approved and the number of frivolous patent applications. The Act’s post-grant review allows for a 9 month window in which challengers can establish their property rights. This is a change from the previous law, which specified that patents could be challenged for up to one year and placed the burden on the applicant to establish his rights.

To date, no changes have been made to the eligibility of business methods for patents. Changes are expected over the next year during which time the Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is granted the responsibility of stipulating which patent subject matters are eligible for protection. An 8 year post-grant review for the validity of business method patents will become effective on September 16, 2012 for patents issued before, on, or after this date.

Under the new law, inventors likely will need to file for patents as soon as possible and keep the inventions secret in order to protect their patent rights. The Lei Jiang Law Firm provides quality legal services in the area of patent law. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact our office.