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Patent filings in 3D printing grew eight times faster than average of all technologies in last decade
A report published by the European Patent Office (EPO) today shows that innovation in additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing, has surged in the past decade. The study, Innovation trends in additive manufacturing, finds that between 2013 and 2020, international patent families in 3D printing technologies grew at an average annual rate of 26.3% – nearly eight times faster than for all technology fields combined in the same period (3.3%)
Read more at Lexology.
Global patenting activity soared to new records in 2022, fueled by Indian and Chinese innovators, but an uncertain economic outlook is weighing on further growth.
Even as global filings for trademarks and designs dropped, innovators from around the world submitted 3.46 million patent applications in 2022, marking a third consecutive year of growth, according to WIPO’s annual World Intellectual Property Indicators (WIPI) report.
Meta wants to get in your personal space to make extended reality more, well, real. The company filed two patents for tools that read your body’s neural and muscular signals for use in controlling the metaverse.
First up is Meta’s patent for “in-ear electroencephalography [EEG] signal verification.” This system includes an in-ear device with an electrode that’s “configured to be in contact with an inner surface of the ear canal,” a speaker that emits a “calibration audio signal,” and a controller for generating “neural signal data” based on the signals from the electrode.
Meta also is seeking to patent a system for “neuromuscular-signal-based detection” of in-air hand gestures. These gestures allow users to produce and modify text in extended reality environments.
Owning Intellectual Property (IP) rights boosts startups’ ability to raise funds, especially for deep-tech industries with higher capital needs
The European Patent Office (EPO) and the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) have published a new joint study highlighting how much patents and trade marks can boost the success of European startups. The report shows that, on average, startups that possess these two types of intellectual property (IP) rights during their initial seed or early growth stages are up to 10.2 times more likely to successfully secure funding.The Unified Patent Court (UPC) opened its doors on June 1, 2023. Nineteen actions were initiated during the first six weeks, across a range of subject areas and case values.
Read more at JDSupra.The Unitary Patent and the Unified Patent Court are the building blocks which supplement and strengthen the existing centralised European patent granting system. They offer users a cost-effective option for patent protection and dispute settlement across Europe.
Unitary Patents make it possible to get patent protection in 17 EU Member States by submitting a single request to the EPO, making the procedure simpler and more cost effective for applicants.
The Unified Patent Court (UPC) is an international court set up by participating EU Member States to deal with the infringement and validity of both Unitary Patents and European patents, putting an end to costly parallel litigation and enhancing legal certainty.
The European Comminssion has tweaked draft patent rules to make it easier for patent holders to sue companies over royalty disputes following criticism that an earlier draft favoured users while restricting patent owners from seeking injunctions
The recent decision in T 0169/20 draws together two threads of Boards of Appeal case law on the relationship between the claims and description of a patent. The decision directly addresses the question of the role of the description in interpreting the language of the claims. The answer to this question has practical consequences, as it is critical to both the question of claim interpretation for patentability and added matter analysis and to the ongoing controversy of description amendments.
Read more at OpusIP...