Read about a recent PTAB decision on the Hard Rock Cafe’s Golden Solo Experience.

In patent law, do you need written description of transition phrases, or can you switch between them at will?

Facing §101 rejections at the USPTO and finding the Office agreeing that there’s an improvement—but only to the abstract idea itself? Read the latest post.

What do AI and snoring have in common? A recent PTAB case involving Sleep Number shows how the USPTO is interpreting machine learning terms like “classifier” and “vote”.

When an applicant traverses Official Notice, the burden shifts to the examiner to provide evidence — not the other way around. A recent PTAB decision confirms that even a simple, specific denial is enough to trigger that obligation.

Examiners often invoke “common knowledge” to support obviousness rejections, but without evidence, this can actually weaken their case. Learn how to challenge these rejections and push back effectively in our latest blog post!

Even when a claim amendment is accepted by the examiner, lack of support in the specification can open the door to a broader interpretation than intended.

While design patents can serve as prior art in utility applications, their lack of technical disclosure can limit their effectiveness in supporting obviousness rejections. When facing a rejection based on a design patent, look closely at the examiner’s reasoning—especially whether the modification is allegedly motivated by unsupported functionality or just aesthetics.

Official notice can be a useful tool for examiners, but its scope is intentionally limited. Know the limits to ensure that officially noticed facts cannot undergird a rejection on their own.

Read about a recent PTAB decision where the board recognizes that an applicant is explaining the technical benefits of an invention, not trying to limit claims to a particular advantage not expressly recited.