German Constitutional Court is much more dangerous than people think.

“It would be realistic to expect the UPC to be operational in early 2021,” said the head of the Unitary Patent Court (UPC) Preparatory Committee, Alexander Ramsay, in November. That confident prediction came just one week after the lead judge in a case against the UPC at German’s Constitutional Court said he expected the court to finally decide it in the first quarter of this year. (read more: TheRegister)

Apple and 34 other multinationals have urged Europe to stop patent trolls from effectively blackmailing companies into licensing their claimed technology. Patent assertion agencies threaten to ask courts for import bans on products found to infringe patents, making it risky for Apple and others to defend such cases even where the claim is weak… (read more: 9TO5Mac)

The recent endorsement by Chinese President Xi Jinping has accelerated an already fast-moving blockchain industry in the country. China seems to compete with the U.S. for blockchain dominance, and a recent report by the China Academy for Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) revealed that China is leaps ahead in blockchain patent filings.

Blockchain patents worldwide are concentrated in China, the United States, Canada, South Korea and the United Kingdom. From 2013 to December 20, 2018, China applied for 4,435 blockchain patents, accounting for 48% of the total blockchain patents, while the U.S. applied for 1,833 patents, accounting for 21%. (read more at Ledger Insights)

With literally billions of dollars of cash in the bank, it’s no great surprise that Apple has long been a favorite target for patent trolls looking to make a quick buck. And though Apple tends to be targeted more than most, tech companies across the board simply can’t seem to escape a barrage of what are typically frivolous lawsuits. (read more at BGR.com)

Over the course of the past few decades, Singapore has grown into one of Asia’s most vibrant economies, and much of the credit for the stupendous growth is down to the fact that the government does not indulge in bureaucratic delay when it comes to business deals. That has seen billion of dollars in investment flowing into the country over the course of the past decades, and it will continue in the same vein as long as the same principles are maintained. In a new development, it has emerged that the Chinese e-commerce and tech giant Alibaba has been granted an Artificial Intelligence (AI) by the concerned authorities in Singapore within a record time of 3 months. As it has now become well known, Alibaba is now no longer only an e-commerce company and has expanded into a range of business, including payments and tech in a big way. The patent was granted by the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) under the provisions of its Accelerated Initiative for Artificial Intelligence (AI2) initiative. IPOS went on to state that usually; it takes around two to four years for granting such a patent. The larger point about such an accelerated grant is that it is a signal to tech giants as well as innovators in the rest of the world. It shows that innovators, startups and other tech giants can now bring in their AI related innovations to Singapore without fear of waiting years for a patent.

The European Patent Office (EPO) has seen a growing number of patent applications from Singapore and other parts of Asia, and is looking to bolster cooperation with the region. Dr Christoph Ernst, Vice President of the EPO, Directorate General Legal and International Affairs, said: “Asia is a major centre of innovation worldwide and there is a rapidly growing number of patents from this region. It has become evident that the EOP has been receiving a rapidly growing number of patent applications from this (Asian) region.”

An artificial intelligence system should be recognised as the inventor of two ideas in patents filed on its behalf, a team of academics says.

The AI has designed interlocking food containers that are easy for robots to grasp and a warning light that flashes in a rhythm that is hard to ignore.

Patents offices insist innovations are attributed to humans - to avoid legal complications that would arise if corporate inventorship were recognised.

The academics say this is "outdated".

And it could see patent offices refusing to assign any intellectual property rights for AI-generated creations.

As a result, two professors from the University of Surrey have teamed up with the Missouri-based inventor of Dabus AI to file patents in the system's name with the relevant authorities in the UK, Europe and US.

(read more ...)