Current developments in intellectual property law.
Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s safe harbor provisions highlight an environment of uneasy compromise. Originally published by Investor’s Digest. Reprinted with permission. During the past two decades, YouTube has operated at the uneasy intersection of copyright law and mass participation. The platform’s scale, with hundreds of hours of video uploaded every minute, has made it both a showcase …
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Rhetoric may be shifting toward an emphasis on patent quality and enforcement behavior. Originally published by Investor’s Digest. Reprinted with permission. For more than two decades, few terms in intellectual property law have carried as much rhetorical force as “patent troll.” Used to describe entities that enforce patents without manufacturing products, the label has influenced court decisions, …
Why intellectual property education belongs in every school— and how to make it happen. Originally published by Investor’s Digest. Reprinted with permission. Even though intellectual property has become a central element of innovation, entrepreneurship, engineering and creative industries, and even though students encounter intellectual property issues long before they enter the workforce, most receive little or no …
Heads: Lawful and necessary tool Tails: Unregulated IP rights infringer. Originally published by Investor’s Digest. Reprinted with permission. Artificial intelligence has moved from novelty to necessity at a pace few technologies have ever matched. Generative AI systems now draft text, design products, compose music and write software code—often in seconds. For inventors and creators, this …
Originally published in Inventor’s Digest The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has entered a new chapter that could reshape how American inventors protect their ideas. In October, USPTO Director John Squires reclaimed direct authority over decisions to institute patent review proceedings, including inter partes reviews. (Editor’s note: IPRs allow a third party to challenge the …
As of October 2025, United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Director John A. Squires has reclaimed authority to decide all patent review institution proceedings. This responsibility was previously delegated to judges at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). The USPTO also recently issued a notice of proposed rulemaking that could significantly reshape how …
As trademark infringement and counterfeit sales continue to disrupt legitimate business on Amazon, Amazon has developed and expanded its intellectual property enforcement tools. In 2025, Amazon introduced enhancements to its Brand Registry platform to provide trademark owners with more control over their product listings, greater visibility into unauthorized sellers, and more efficient mechanisms for addressing …
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Introduction In January 2025, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) implemented a broad set of fee increases and structural adjustments intended to address rising operational costs and encourage more efficient patent prosecution. These changes affect nearly every stage of the patent lifecycle, from initial patent application filings to subsequent patent application filings and …
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In an increasingly interconnected world, authors and rights holders must understand how their copyrights are treated beyond U.S. borders. Despite the global nature of creative content distribution, international copyright law remains fundamentally territorial, leading to uncertainty over how far U.S. copyright protections extend. While not mandatory, registering a work with the U.S. Copyright Office (USCO) …
The Amazon Patent Evaluation Express (APEX) program offers patent owners a cost-effective way to address claims that third-party product listings are infringing on their utility patents. Under the APEX program, a third-party arbitrator assesses whether a product available on Amazon.com infringes a utility patent, leading to the removal of the listing if the article determines …
Continue reading “Amazon’s Patent Enforcement Program Establishes Personal Jurisdiction”