Watson LLP - March 2020

The Staggering Stats of 2019 US Patents A PLETHORA OF PATENTS

HEFT

came up very recently in a copyright infringement case just a few months ago, costing the company in question an unfathomable amount of money.

The case was called Energy Intelligence Group, Inc. et al. v. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, LP et al., and in it, Energy Intelligence Group, Inc. (or EIG) claimed that Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors (or KA) violated their copyright by sharing the credentials of one of their paid subscriptions with nonsubscribers. The jury in the case found that KA infringed upon the copyright 1,646 times and ordered the company to pay $15,000 per infringement. However, the same jury ruled that EIG could have stopped 1,607 of the acts of infringement “through reasonable diligence.” The case eventually went to the Fifth Circuit Court, which took the lack of diligence into account in its final ruling. Instead of winning $24.69 million, EIG was only awarded $1 million for its troubles. If only they’d had a copyright lawyer teaching them diligence.

The USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) granted a record 333,530 patents in 2019, an unprecedented 15% increase from 2018. While IBM led the charge in the number of U.S. patents for the 27th straight year with 9,262 patents, the sheer number of overall patents issued was staggering. Trailing IBM was Samsung with 6,469 patents, and older tech leaders followed, including Canon (3,548 patents), Microsoft (3,081 patents), and Intel (3,020 patents). But the most exciting thing to note is the number of patents Facebook and Huawei claimed last year. Facebook recorded 989 patents, and Huawei registered an incredible 2,418. If you’re unfamiliar, Huawei is a Chinese multinational technology company specializing in telecommunications and consumer electronics. What makes the high number of patents so surprising is that due to the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act — which gives the patent right to the first person who filed for it, not the first person who invented it — the tech community assumed many patent seekers would give up. But these latest figures show that this certainly isn’t the case. The International Financial Institutions infers that this is due to the 2014 patent case, Alice v. CLS Bank. The case gave clarification to what exactly is needed in a patent and the process it goes through when being approved. The courts established that the patent claim first needs to address whether it covers an abstract idea and whether or not it yields any physical, practical, or innovative application. While filing a patent can be tricky with all these rules and guidelines, it’s definitely possible with the right help. With the rising number of patents being filed, the last thing you want is for your patent to overlap with an existing idea or for it to be denied altogether. If you have any questions or concerns regarding filing your patent, give us a call anytime. You can reach us at (407) 598-8407 or (407) 377-6688.

Navigating the ins and outs of copyright law can be challenging. If you feel any aspect of your copyright is being infringed upon, or if you want to double-check that you’re doing your due diligence, reach out to us at any time.

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in determining infringement, as there are likely other factors to help determine that. However, if there is compelling evidence (and other circumstances point to no infringement), the proof may work for your benefit. Some companies will host surveys for consumers to determine actual confusion, though if done improperly, these surveys can hinder your case. To ensure you don’t ever have to fall on this rule, be sure to consider these factors, as well as the other factors not listed here, when building your trademark.

Trademark cases are fascinating and often unique in nature due to the gray area surrounding them. If you are ever worried about someone infringing on your trademark, or you’re not sure if you are infringing on someone else’s trademark, don’t hesitate to reach out to us.

—Coleman Watson

(844) 714-8402

www.watsonllp.com

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