Should you apply for a patent for that new AI tech idea you've been working on? Some experts say it's better to have a patent portfolio than not, while others recommend focusing on quality rather than quantity. Here are things to consider as you make your decision.

Four years later, the patent landscape demonstrates that Alice has become a train wreck for innovation. To be successful, patent practitioners must show the PTO, courts, and Congress the importance of our clients’ innovations and explain why the type of technology should not dictate whether there is enforceability.

The world of invention is famous for its patent disputes. But what happens when your dispute wasn’t with another inventor but whether the Patent Office saw you as a person at all? In 1864, a black man named Benjamin T. Montgomery tried to patent his new propeller for steamboats. The Patent Office said that he wasn’t allowed to patent his invention. All because he was enslaved.

Drones could tell when people are tired and lower a coffee on an "unspooling string", IBM suggests.

The long-running patent infringement dispute between Apple and Qualcomm is at the stage of pre-trial motions – where both sides try to get rulings on what will and won’t be allowed in evidence during the trial. The judge in the case has granted some of Apple’s motions, and effectively told Qualcomm that it will have to accept the consequences of its poor legal strategy...

Creator of a breakthrough compression algorithm fights to keep it patent-free.

As Facebook tries to get ahead of public pressure about what the service does and doesn't track about its users, a patent application has emerged which would enable something that the service's detractors have long theorized and feared: silently triggered microphones that keep tabs on Facebook users.

Last month Patently Apple posted a report titled "Apple Announcing AirPower too ahead of time was a Mistake." The report covered a Bloomberg report attempting to explain the delay in delivering Apple's new inductive charging pad called 'AirPower.' Hopefully Apple will officially launch AirPower next month when they introduce their next generation of iPhones or at least have it ready for the holiday season. Our report today covers Apple being granted a design patent for AirPower in Hong Kong, China in addition to covering their ClassKit trademark filing in both the U.S. and Hong Kong.

Welcome to hell, everyone.

As we have talked about repeatedly in this blog, we at Cloudflare are not fans of the behavior of patent trolls. They prey upon innovative companies using overly-broad patents in an attempt to bleed settlements out of their targets.

Blockchain technology is flourishing in an open-source environment, which raises the question of whether current intellectual property laws are the best tools to foster innovation.

After months of criticism that even spilled into a judge's opinion in a separate case, Allergan's Restasis patent deal with the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe just didn't work. Thanks to a Friday ruling, the blockbuster eye drug has to face the very patent challenge Allergan sought to prevent.

It’s hard to fear the robot revolution when they come bearing pizza. Little Caesars is the latest fast food chain to get in on the robot action.

Lockheed Martin has quietly obtained a patent associated with its design for a potentially revolutionary compact fusion reactor, or CFR. If this project has been progressing on schedule, the company could debut a prototype system that size of shipping container, but capable of powering a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier or 80,000 homes, sometime in the next year or so.

​If Amazon's delivery drones do actually enter our lives, what will they look like and how might they move around? If the latest patient issued to the company is anything to go by, perhaps they will be waved down by customers awaiting deliveries.

The video game studio behind Clicker Heroes says that after it recently refused "patent troll" demands and went public with them, it is now being threatened with fresh accusations of libel and new claims of patent infringement. Last month Ars reported that GTX Corporation had threatened game developer Playsaurus with a lawsuit if that studio didn't pay $35,000 for a patent licensing fee to cover a patent for "electronic tokens."

Is all fair in love and apps? Many highly paid lawyers suggest that nothing is ever fair. We’ll explain the drama.

Apple has been ordered by a federal court in Texas today to pay $502.6 million to a patent troll called VirnetX, the latest turn in an eight-year-old legal battle over FaceTime and iMessage patents, according to Bloomberg. Apple and VirnetX have been fighting in court since 2010, when the patent-holding company said the iPhone maker infringed on four of its patents related to internet-based communications. The legal battle has been protracted, and it involves...

Amazon has filed a patent that could allow its Echo devices to one day listen in on conversations to help with user recommendations. A handy feature or more fodder for conspiracy theories?

Contributor Dave Davies pulls key points from a newly awarded Google patent on related entities and points out the ranking benefits of strengthening entity associations in your SEO and link-building efforts.

Nintendo has always championed local multiplayer experiences, whether it be with link cables for its handheld Game Boy systems or the easy wireless connectivity of the 3DS, and if a new patent application is any indication, the company could be working on a new type of screen that could revolutionize local multiplayer gaming all over again.

The trail may start with YlnMn, the first blue created in two centuries.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld an administrative review system that has helped Google Inc., Apple Inc. and other companies invalidate hundreds of issued patents.

In an another legal blow to Monsanto, India's Supreme Court on Monday refused to stay the Delhi High Court's ruling that the seed giant cannot claim patents for Bollgard and Bollgard II, its genetically modified cotton seeds, in the country. Monsanto's chief technology officer Robert Fraley, who just announced that he and other top executives are stepping down from the company after Bayer AG's multi-billion dollar takeover closes, lamented the news.

Nearly six years after a federal jury awarded Apple over $1 billion for Samsung infringements of iPhone intellectual properties, a jury retrying the damages portion of the case has reached a unanimous verdict, modifying the figure to $538,641,656 across five design and utility patents.

Is your next phone just going to be one giant screen? It will be if Samsung has its way. The latest concept design to make its way out of Samsung shows the company is working on a button-free, bezel-free, headphone jack-free phone that is all screen, all the time. And if you think that means a notch at the top, it's done away with that too.

Walmart has patented surveillance technology that would allow it to spy on employees’ conversations with customers and use the audio to measure workplace performance. The patent for “sound sensors” that could be installed at checkout is the latest example of controversial workplace surveillance technology and automated systems that purport to quantify and increase employees’ productivity. The filing comes at a time in which the US retail giant is facing growing competition from Amazon, which completed a $14bn acquisition of Whole Foods last year.

Inter partes review of Allergan's patents on dry eye treatment will now proceed.

A new Sony patent hints at the possibility of tablet style, motion controlled gaming. It's called the "EyePad". Because that's totally not confusing. Sony has a long proud history of "Eye" devices, such as the EyeToy and the PlayStation Eye.

Despite all the progress and publicity that 3-D printing saw in 2012, there are a batch of active patents that threaten the progress of the industry, especially advancement in consumer-grade products from upstart manufacturers.

The good folks at Reason TV have put together a new video called How Patent Trolls Kill Innovation.

A bipartisan duo of House lawmakers introduced legislation on Wednesday that aims to combat patent trolls—firms that accumulate patents for the purpose of suing other companies rather than creating new products.

Rep. Peter DeFazio took on the issue after a local software company got held up.

Apple likes to build devices using metal. Unfortunately, the material isn\'t usually conducive to touch, in the literal sense of the word -- capacitive.

Back in December, Judge Lucy Koh refused to give Apple the sales bans it wanted on 26 Samsung products found to infringe on its patents, ruling that Apple needed to establish that the patented features were "important drivers" of demand for the offending devices. Now Apple is appealing the ruling, arguing that it sets the bar too high, and it’s getting help from an unlikely friend — Nokia.