Tag Archives: patent system

Can States Legislate in the AI Rights Space?

by Dennis Crouch

In Bonito Boats, Inc. v. Thunder Craft Boats, Inc., the Supreme Court addressed the issue of state laws that provide additional patent-like rights. The Court held that a Florida law prohibiting the use of a direct molding process to duplicate unpatented boat hulls was preempted by federal patent law. The Court reasoned that the Florida law conflicted with the “carefully crafted” goals of the federal patent system.

The USPTO and Courts have made clear that AI-created inventions are outside of the scope of US patent law. I think the answer is probably quite clear, but do folks think that the Bonito Boats approach would also preempt the states from from creating an exclusive-right award for AI-generated innovations?

Add your vote and remarks here.

Once Upon a Time: The Patent

I’m finally getting to Pascal Attali’s wonderful 2022 book titled Once Upon a Time: The Patent. The book’s 300 pages is divided into 50+ short chapters written as vignettes on the global patent system.  Every vignette typically begins with a fictionalized historical narrative and then a more detailed explanation of the historical context and its importance.  Attali is a European patent attorney and so the focus is more European and global stories.  That has been wonderful for me since I already know lots of U.S. stories. I’m only half way through the book, but my favorite so far is reading about the abolition and later reinstitution of Dutch patent law 1869-1912.  Big thumbs up. Don’t take my word for it, read the review from Anastasiia Kyrylenko.  IPKat found it to be the BEST PATENT BOOK OF 2022.