Monday, October 19, 2015

The Rate of Invention is Staggering

I just received my 150th issued US patent.

That kind of landmark tends to trigger a look back.

My first patent was number 6,756,879 and my 150th was patent number 9,166,974 -- meaning 2.41 million patents issued between my first and my 150th. To get a sense of the accelerated rate of innovation in recent years, it is worth pointing out that more than 25% of all US patents ever issued have issued in the mere 11 years that passed since my first one issued in 2004.

Friday, October 9, 2015

TPP Intellectual Property Chapter Leaked

Wikileaks has released the intellectual property chapter of the current draft of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement.

This agreement addresses how member nations deal with trademarks, copyrights, utility patents, plant patents, drug and medical patents and drug approval, and trade secrets.  I'm sure in the coming days we'll see a lot of analysis as to how these changes will impact IP law.