Executive Summary: An earlier patent application within a corporate portfolio can threaten a later application, but the available protection depends on which jurisdiction’s rules apply. This article uses 35 U.S.C. § 102(b)(2)(C) to explain Japan’s Article 29bis and South Korea’s Article 29(3), then reverses the comparison to help Japanese and Korean attorneys navigate U.S. practice. The U.S. exception focuses on common ownership or enforceable obligations to assign the releva

Executive Summary: Reviving patent rights before the USPTO requires counsel to identify the precise procedural defect, establish that the entire relevant delay was unintentional, and submit a complete, grantable petition. This article explains how to reconstruct the chronology, identify who held the right or authority to direct prosecution during each interval, and develop a factual record supporting the required certification. It distinguishes the MPEP’s three-month guidanc

Executive Summary: This article provides a practical guide to using the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Digital Access Service (“WIPO DAS”) to exchange patent priority documents in U.S., PCT, and Chinese practice. Although DAS can eliminate repeated submission of paper certified copies, an access code does not create or correct a priority claim, extend a filing deadline, or establish that retrieval succeeded. The article explains the distinct requirements for makin

Executive Summary: Ex parte Chowdhury confirms that whether alternatives form a proper Markush group depends on their technical unity in the context of the claimed invention, rather than on whether they are identical in every structural or functional respect. Context determines the relevant level of analysis, but a shared result stated at a high level of generality cannot alone transform an arbitrary list into a proper group. This article situates Chowdhury within the predece

Executive Summary: This article compares the U.S. printed matter doctrine with the European Patent Office’s presentation-of-information and COMVIK frameworks, explaining that the systems overlap when semantic information is attached to otherwise known technology but are not coextensive. U.S. law asks whether a limitation is claimed for its communicative content and, if so, whether that content has the required functional relationship to the other claim elements; “technical” i