WIPO Releases PCT Applicant's Guide Updates

The U.S. Copyright Office recently released a report on the human authorship requirement for materials to qualify for copyright protection.

Universal Music Group's lawsuit against DistroKid raises a critical question about AI disclosure in consumer markets: when does the use of artificial intelligence become material information that must be disclosed to consumers? The case centers on allegations that DistroKid distributed mass-generated AI music while creating the impression it was created by legitimate human artists, potentially violating existing consumer protection laws even without specific AI disclosure requirements.

There was a significant ruling in the Doe v. Github case involving training of AI code generator models on open source. The United States Court of Appeals for The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court ruling dismissing part of an action brought under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) by programmers against GitHub, Inc., and other defendants. The issues centered on whether defendants removed copyright management information (CMI) from content used to train the AI code generator models.

The USPTO has released its latest economic impact report on IP-intensive industries, announced a new community engagement office in North Carolina, and issued several administrative updates including relief for Japanese applicants affected by a severe earthquake. The Patent Trial and Appeal Board has also designated new precedential and informative decisions addressing obviousness-type double patenting and Markush groupings.

Is this AI-generated, or is it real? As generative AI tools have become increasingly capable of creating realistic images, videos, and audio, they have also made it easier to impersonate real people without their consent. In response, states are increasingly adopting laws that impose civil and criminal liability for certain AI-generated content that replicates an individual’s identity, likeness, voice, or other personal attributes.

Bristol-Myers Squibb and Ono Pharmaceutical have filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Amgen over its proposed nivolumab biosimilar ABP 206, asserting seven patents related to OPDIVO. The complaint follows earlier inter partes review challenges and patent dance negotiations that narrowed the dispute to specific claims covering the antibody sequence, cancer treatment methods, and dosing regimens.

In recent video game news, gaming giant Nintendo filed and settled a lawsuit against the developers of the popular Nintendo Switch emulator, Yuzu.

The U.S. government has filed a Statement of Interest of the United States of America under 28 U.S.C. § 517 in the Southern District of New York multidistrict litigation over OpenAI’s use of copyrighted works to train large language models. The filing appears to be the federal government’s first direct intervention in the wave of artificial intelligence (AI) training copyright cases, and it advises the court to treat model training (separate from use of AI to generate outputs) on copyrighted text standing alone as a highly transformative fair use under current law.

AI-powered call transcription tools like Otter.ai are facing class action lawsuits under Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) for allegedly collecting voiceprints without proper consent. A federal court recently allowed claims to proceed, signaling potential legal risks for companies that provide or utilize these increasingly common meeting recording services.

There have been reports of law firms receiving a wave of fraudulent emails impersonating the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). These emails target trademark applicants with urgent demands...

On December 5th, the USPTO issued new guidance on subject matter eligibility declarations and also updated subject matter eligibility guidance in the MPEP.

Christopher Ricciuti and Yuki Onoe co-authored the article ［米国］Thryv最高裁判決およびIPRと上訴に関する判例の展開 featured in the July edition of Intellectual Property Magazine (知財管理).

Speedy 5G, Emerging Tech to Spur More Patent Cases at ITC.

The European Patent Office has released its April 2026 Guidelines for Examination, introducing significant changes to procedural and substantive patent law. Key updates include modifications to the PACE acceleration program, new claim interpretation standards following the G1/24 decision, relaxed novelty requirements for products placed on the market under G1/23, and refined guidance on further medical use claims under Article 54(5) EPC.

On September 13, the International Trade Commission announced that Monica V. Bhattacharyya has been named a USITC Administrative Law Judge.

The meeting addressed the increasing risk of copyright violations, as AI technology allows the creation of text or images closely resembling original works.

On May 31, 2022, the ITC issued a Notice of Investigation in Certain Pneumatic Compression Devices and Components Thereof (Inv. No. 337-TA-1316).

A question that is often asked is why there are so many lawyers? The question is often paired with questions about why lawyers spend so much time on seemingly insignificant tasks...

While this blog normally writes about the issues facing the patentability of AI inventions, we want to write about a topic that is high on our radar: the USPTO’s plans for integrating AI into the examination process. While certain programs, such as the USPTO’s Artificial Intelligence Search Automated Pilot Program (ASAP!) program were previously tested, a greater question looms on the availability of examiners to use large language models (LLMs) as a tool for examination.

On Monday, September 16, 2020, the USPTO issued a press release announcing the launch of "a major initiative aimed at expanding invention, innovation, and entrepreneurship in the United States."