Apple’s Messages app will one day let us edit our conversations after we’ve sent the message, if a newly-released patent becomes reality. (Read more on Forbes)

The idea of using solar panels to give electric cars a little extra boost is nothing new. In fact, the 2020 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid has a solar roof that helps to run its electronics, and can give it a couple of extra miles of driving range each day. Solar panels aren’t efficient enough at this point to fully charge up an electric car, but the more surface area a solar panel takes up, the more energy it can capture. If you could have a car completely covered with solar panels, it might produce a few more miles a day worth of power, if not more. Recently, Ford Global Technologies filed a patent application for a unique kind of solar charging panel that basically blankets a car when parked. (Read more)

Can AI be an inventor? According to a recent decision by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the answer seems to be no. There is more to this story, though, and we’ll need to push past the surface to understand the full nuances involved. Perhaps a more apt way to depict the situation is whether AI can be formally granted a U.S. patent, and for that the answer appears to unequivocally and emphatically be a razor-sharp no. The difference being that presumably anyone or anything could be an “inventor” if you are using the word “inventor” in a casual and offhanded manner. (Read more on Forbes)

After VOIP-Pal filed near-simultaneous lawsuits against tech giants Facebook, Amazon, Apple, and Google, Twitter has turned the tables, filing a complaint for declaratory judgment against VOIP-Pal. They argued that the claims made in the new suits are similar to a previous case, which VOIP-Pal lost. Twitter has requested a declaratory judgment of noninfringement in relation to U.S. Patent No. 10,218,606. Twitter states that the patent is “a member of a family that includes six other patents that VOIP-Pal has asserted in prior lawsuits in this Court against Twitter, Apple, AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Amazon (‘first and second wave actions’). The patent shares a common specification with the six previously-asserted patents. All six of the previously-asserted patents were found to be invalid for claiming ineligible subject matter.”

in April was the launch of the opposition procedure before the French Patent Office (“Institut National de la Propriété Intellectuelle” or “INPI”). This procedure is a new way to challenge the validity of a French patent, alongside the claim for invalidity. Opposition may be filed against any French patent which mention of grant has been published in the Official Bulletin of Industrial Property as of 1st April 2020. On the face of it, this "French-style" opposition procedure seems relatively similar to that of the EPO.

While acknowledging an “apparent loophole” in the America Invents Act, a district court has permitted an accused-infringer-DJ-plaintiff to pursue counterclaims for patent invalidity—with no bar on later seeking an IPR at the PTAB

Trump has asked companies to start producing ventilators and respirators, but his administration has stopped short of taking steps that would give some level of protection from patent lawsuits.

Het aantal octrooi-aanvragen van Belgische bedrijven, universiteiten en onderzoeksinstellingen bij het Europees Octrooibureau (EOB) is in 2019 met 3,2% gestegen tot 2.423, het hoogste aantal ooit. Dat blijkt uit de “Patent Index s2013” die het EOB vandaag heeft gepubliceerd. Dit is het tweede opeenvolgende jaar van groei, na een daling in 2017. De stijging van het aantal octrooi-aanvragen in België ligt ruim boven de gemiddelde groei van 0,9% in de 28 EU-lidstaten.