Insights

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) recently issued the one millionth U.S. Design Patent on September 26, 2023. U.S. Design Patent 1,000,000 is directed toward the ornamental design of a dispensing comb and was issued to Agustina Huckaby, an inventor and licensed cosmetologist from Fort Worth, Texas. This significant milestone, 181 years after the first design patent was issued in 1841, comes during a time of increased interest in design patents. The USPTO reports that in 2022, more than 50,000 design patent applications were filed, and that the USPTO has seen an 20% increase in design applications over the past five years.

In March 2023, the USPTO and its Council for Inclusive Innovation announced the First-Time Filer Expedited Examination Pilot Program.  This new program benefits those individuals or small businesses that are first-time filers for patent rights and qualify as “micro entities.”  Through the program, these micro entities receive an expedited first Office action, which the USPTO hopes will lower time-based barriers for inventors that acted as barriers to commercialization or may have otherwise precluded inventors’ use of the patent system. 

New ways to utilize the internet for fun and leisure have skyrocketed recently. ChatGPT allows people to ask everyday questions and draft novels to their liking thorough AI, and the metaverse is constantly developing new ways to interact with each other in virtual worlds. With these new frontiers in the spotlight, it is important for companies to also consider the current remarkable technology being updated and used by millions of consumers that goes hand in hand with these new mediums. Cloud gaming is a technology that allows users to play video games on remote servers and stream the gameplay to their devices, also called gaming-as-a service. This technology, along with AI and the metaverse, has the potential to revolutionize the media industry by making interactive games and live brand collaborations more accessible and convenient for users.

It’s All Hearsay! The podcast where lawyers give current news, practical tips and real stories on legal issues relevant to in-house attorneys - hosted by the Chicago Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC). In this episode All Style, No Substance, you’ll hear Emily Kappers, who is joined by Emily Eitches, House of Blueberry’s Director of Business Development, discuss intellectual property considerations in the virtual world. Listen or access from one of these links: