Hunton Retail Law Resource

In February, we posted about the USPTO’s Inventorship Guidance for AI-assisted Inventions, 89 Fed. Reg. 10043 (Feb. 13, 2024), and how that guidance might affect a retailer in New USPTO AI-Assisted Invention Guidance Will Affect Retailers and Consumer Goods Companies.

In our client alert, A Brief Explanation of the USPTO’s Useful New AI-Assisted Invention Guidance, we discuss the Inventorship Guidance for AI-assisted Inventions, 89 Fed. Reg. 10043 (Feb. 13, 2024), recently released by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The guidance provides inventors and patent applicants with a framework regarding AI-assisted inventions and how inventorship of such will be judged at the USPTO. Why should a retailer care?

In a significant change to the European patent system that will impact patent prosecution and enforcement strategies in one of the world’s largest retail markets, the European Unified Patent Court (UPC) begins operations and the European Patent with Unitary Effect (Unitary Patent) will be available at the European Patent Office (EPO) on June 1, 2023. Early requests for Unitary Patent protection on applications that may grant prior to June 1 can be filed starting March 1.

Global design patent strategies are increasingly being relied upon by retail and consumer products companies as a cost-effective way to protect key product lines.  However, it is important to understand the various nuances of global design patent strategies since there are traps for the unwary, most notably in Australia and China.