Initially announced in a news brief, beginning next week on May 13, 2025, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will be accelerating the Issue Dates for patents. Previously, the time between Issue Notification and Issue Date averaged around three weeks. The USPTO is reducing that time to approximately two weeks, allowing patent holders to […] We are thrilled to announce that Stephen Kunin, one of the partners at Maier & Maier, has been recognized as one of the IAM Strategy 300 Global Leaders 2025. This prestigious award highlights Stephen’s exceptional expertise and leadership in the intellectual property (IP) field. A slot in the 300 is the mark of a professional […] On April 17, 2025, the USPTO formally announced the termination of the Climate Change Mitigation Pilot Program. The Climate Change Mitigation Pilot Program was launched in June 2022 as a replacement to the Green Technology program and allowed for applications involving technologies that reduce, remove, prevent, and/or monitor greenhouse gas emissions to be made special […] The Federal Circuit clarified that a published U.S. application (published application) is available for IPR as long as its filing date (its “effectively filed” date in AIA vernacular) is before the priority date of the challenged patent, even if the publication date of the published application is after the priority date of the challenged patent. […] On December 18, 2024, the Subcommittee on Intellectual Property of the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary held a hearing concerning the Realizing Engineering, Science, and Technology Opportunities by Restoring Exclusive (RESTORE) Patent Rights Act of 2024.[1] Senator Coons (one of the senators co-sponsoring the Act) led the hearing. Senator Coons emphasized during the hearing […] April 22, 2024 – Maier & Maier PLLC is pleased to report that our clients Hikam America, Inc., Hikam Electrónica de México, S.A. de C.V., Hikam Tecnologia de Sinaloa, Hewtech Philippines Corp., Hewtech Philippines Electronics Corp., and Hewtech (Shenzhen) Electronics Co., Ltd. have been terminated from ITC Investigation No. 337-TA-1365. The Firm represented six of […] April 5, 2024 – Maier & Maier PLLC is pleased to report that we secured a victory for our client Firstbeat Technologies OY in a case involving a heart rate measuring apparatus incorporated into wearable technology. The case was originally filed by Polar Electro OY in the District of Delaware on November 7, 2011, but […] Over the summer, Congressman Nathaniel Moran (R-TX-01), a member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet, and Congresswoman Madeleine Dean (D-PA-04) introduced the bicameral Realizing Engineering, Science, and Technology Opportunities by Restoring Exclusive (RESTORE) Patent Rights Act of 2024. This bipartisan bill aims to restore patentees’ abilities to protect their […] Trends in First Action Pendency at the USPTO As many may be familiar with, in recent years trademark pendency times at the USPTO have rapidly increased, with the average first action pendency time in Q1-Q4 of 2023 reaching over 8 months. The USPTO attributes this increase in pendency times primarily to the fact that it […] The USPTO will publish a notice in the Federal Register on October 1, 2024, stating that it will no longer accept AFCP 2.0 requests after December 14, 2024. The current AFCP program (AFCP 2.0) was adopted in May of 2013. The AFCP program is an attempt to reduce the number of requests for continued examination […]