Another day, another change at the USPTO.
If you have ever filed a patent application, you know there is a section that asks for your entity status: Large, Small, or Micro. If you have ever asked yourself whether size matters, the answer is now officially yes.
On October 24, 2025, the Office of the Assistant
Growing up, my mom had a rule: you have to make your own Halloween costume from whatever we had at home. This worked fine until the year I wanted to be He-Man. Unfortunately, we couldn’t use household items to harness the power of Grayskull. Eventually, my mom gave in and bought the costume. I’m still
Another day and another change at the USPTO. On October 8, the USPTO announced an Artificial Intelligence Pilot Program for pre-examination searches. Last week, on October 24, the USPTO followed with the Streamlined Claim Set Pilot Program aimed at accelerating examination through simplified claim structures. Together, these initiatives reflect Director John Squires’ drive to modernize
In a new Law360 article, Seyfarth partners Puya Partow-Navid and Brian Michaelis examine the early actions of newly appointed USPTO Director John A. Squires and their potential impact on patent eligibility, PTAB proceedings, and patent prosecution.
The piece explores Director Squires’ initial policy moves, including his decision to personally oversee AIA trial institution decisions and
The USPTO just changed how interviews between a USPTO patent examiner and a patent applicant are treated. On October 2, USPTO management revised the examiner Performance Appraisal Plan (PAP) for FY 2026, capping compensation for interviews at one hour per round of prosecution.
Previously, examiners earned an hour of credit for each interview, with no
Starting January 1, 2026, California’s AI Transparency Act (SB 942) goes into effect, marking the first law in the U.S. to require built-in disclosures and detection tools for generative AI content. Do not panic (yet). This law does not apply to every system out there. In fact, many companies may be surprised to find they’re
Superman has soared back onto the big screen, and unless you’ve been locked in the Fortress of Solitude, you already know his origin story: Rocketed from the doomed planet Krypton. Raised in Kansas. Secretly, a mild-mannered reporter. Publicly, the world’s greatest hero.
But behind the scenes, in the real world, Superman has another origin story.
A long time ago in a galaxy not so far away, voice acting was the exclusive domain of talented humans. But today, in the age of generative AI, even the iconic voice of a legendary villain can be conjured without a single vocal cord, raising major legal questions about name, image, and likeness (NIL) rights
Beginning May 13, 2025, the window between paying the issue fee and your patent officially issuing will become much shorter.
Until now, after paying the issue fee, applicants typically had a comfortable three weeks (sometimes longer) to file a continuation or divisional application. It was not an enormous amount of time, but it was usually
After weeks of hypothetical buzzer-beaters, patent face-offs, and a few well-placed Braveheart reference, Innovation Madness has crowned a champion.
And just like in the real NCAA tournament, the championship run was full of upsets, old-school dominance, and the thrill of seeing true innovation take center court. While Florida took home its third national title after