Henry Patent Law Firm Newsletter – May 2024

The Value of Cloud Tech Patents, Going Up?

The $525 million patent infringement verdict against Amazon last month provides a useful lesson on the value of cloud computing technology patents.

Companies developing these technologies often weigh the value of patent versus trade secret protection in light of various factors, including the difficulty of detecting infringement and the uncertainty around subject matter eligibility.

The scales certainly tip toward patent protection when you consider the Amazon case. All three patents survived subject matter eligibility challenges, and Amazon’s infringement was detected based on Amazon’s own public documentation and product announcements.

Of course, the case will be appealed, and who knows what will happen. But the jury verdict shows just how powerful these patents can be in 2024.

In other news, we’ve grown! Over the course of 2023 and ’24, we’ve added 5 new team members: Bryan Candelario (senior patent attorney), Ramie Childress (paralegal), Mary Morris (legal assistant), Chai Khera (business manager), and April Reasoner (paralegal).

I’m so proud of our talented team, and thankful to our clients and partners for supporting the growth of our firm!

Patent Assignment: How to Transfer Ownership of a Patent 

Assignments are recorded in the vast majority of US patents, and having a proper assignment is a critical prerequisite for most patent monetization and enforcement activities. Yet assignments are often overlooked as an administrative detail. If your company files patent applications, it’s important to get patent assignments done correctly, to avoid costly issues that can sneak up years later.

In this blog, we take a closer look at patent assignments and related best practices.

Patent Infringement: How It’s Proven, and How This Should Influence Your Patent Filings

The value of any patent filing is ultimately determined (even in a “friendly” acquisition scenario) by whether the patent can actually be enforced. Too many tech companies forget about this and take a short-sighted view, which ultimately produces worthless patents. Tech companies can dramatically increase the value of their patent portfolios by simply considering at the outset (when they’re drafting patent applications) how infringement will ultimately be proven.

In this post, we provide a brief primer on how patent infringement is proven, which I hope will be useful for tech leaders who care about value! 

Should We Request Non-Publication of Our Patent Applications? 

Most patent applications are published automatically, meaning that all the technical details of the invention become public, regardless of whether a patent is granted. However, in some cases, there’s a way to keep your patent application from being published unless and until a patent is formally granted. This can add significant value for tech companies who want to keep their inventions secret for as long as possible.

In this blog, we discuss the process for submitting a non-publication request and weigh the pros and cons of doing so.

Meet the Team: Ramie Childress

Ramie joined our firm in 2023, and quickly became a pivotal part of our day-to-day operations. As our lead paralegal, she manages the firm’s entire docket for both U.S. and foreign patents and trademarks. Simply put, Ramie is critical to everything we do here! 
Most of Ramie’s career has been focused on patent and trademark work, which she stumbled into unintentionally when she took on an administrative position in a law firm’s IP section while finishing her paralegal degree. She enjoys that her days are never the same and always challenging, even after 23 years. At our firm especially, she says that a team-oriented culture has always been the key to success. 

When she’s not working, Ramie likes to spend her time camping and fishing. But her absolute love is baseball, and now that her son is a coach, she loves to watch both him and the Texas Rangers!