Ingresar
USPTO report on views and recommendations from the public
By Ferraiuoli LLC
On October 17, 2016, the USPTO issued a Federal Register Notice seeking public input on patent eligible subject matter in the wake of recent decisions by the Supreme Court. In the Notice, the USPTO announced the convening of a roundtable on the current state of the law of patent eligibility: "Exploring the Legal Contours of Patent Eligible Subject Matter". Held on December 5, 2016, at Stanford University, it consisted of seven interactive panels with over 250 participants including industry, private practice, academia, associations, inventors, and small businesses.
The conclusions of the roundtable are the subject of the report, which among other things states that members of the public "generally agreed that the Supreme Court’s recent jurisprudence altered the landscape of patent eligibility law".
Some commentators "supported the Court’s decisions and subsequent lower court case law developments, viewing them as simply the common law process at work", arguing for example that the new Mayo/Alice eligibility test gives them a useful tool to defend against abusive lawsuits by patent assertion entities. On the other hand, others opposed to the Court’s recent decisions affirming the are "legally flawed and that the judicially-created exceptions to eligibility are too broad". Detractors also asserted that the two-step test is "difficult to apply" and that the Court’s jurisprudence "stifles innovation, hurts businesses, and harms American competitiveness".
Beyond their favorable or negative opinions, nearly all the public recommended a legislative change, with varying approaches. "Some suggested replacing the Mayo/Alice two-step test with a technological or useful arts test or expressly defining exceptions to eligibility. Others suggested clearly separating eligibility from other patentability requirements.
Ferraiuoli LLC
Ferraiuoli LLC (FLLC) was founded in 2003 by the late Blas Ferraiuoli-Martínez, Eugenio Torres-Oyola and María Marchand-Sánchez. This group was then joined in 2004 by Fernando J. Rovira-Rullán, thus forming the founding core of FLLC. FLLC has grown exponentially since its founding from a law firm with three attorneys and a support staff of three to its current size of 54 attorneys with a support staff of 38. Also, FLLC has grown from initially being known as an intellectual property and corporate law boutique law firm to a multiservice law firm that handles most matters relevant to a business while continuing to earn praise for its leading intellectual property and corporate practices.
FLLC has been ranked as a leading law firm in Puerto Rico by the professional publication Chambers Latin America in intellectual property, corporate, bankruptcy, labor & employment, real estate, and tax law. Moreover, 17 FLLC partners have been ranked as leaders in their field by the same publication. 4 FLLC partners are ranked as leaders in Intellectual Property, no other firm has more than 2. This recognition in such a short period of time is a tribute to FLLC’s business model.
FLLC prides itself in doing its work faster and more cost-efficiently yet with the same quality as that of its main competitors. The founding name partners are available at all times to attend to client matters. Their work ethic sets the tone for the rest of the firm. FLLC’s founders’ goal has been steady from the outset: become one of the premier multiservice law firms in Puerto Rico.
