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Table of Contents
This Week's Patent News:
🧬 IBM v. Zillow – IPR challenge scope clarified. The Federal Circuit held that Zillow’s IPR challenge was not closely related to the PTAB’s institution decision under §314(d). The ruling narrows when institution decisions are insulated from appeal.
🛞 Goodyear wins trade‑secret dispute (Coda Dev. v. Goodyear). A district court correctly found that Goodyear did not misappropriate Coda Development’s trade secrets.
🎧 Dolby files new SEP infringement action at the UPC. Dolby launched a new standard‑essential patent lawsuit against a major laptop manufacturer, following its earlier win against Roku.
🏛️ Copyright governance bill fast‑tracked after Perlmutter‑related concerns. A bill restructuring authority over the US Copyright Office gained momentum, while advocacy groups urged Congress to slow down the process.
🤖 Solve Intelligence raises $40M and launches AI patent‑charting tool. Solve Intelligence announced a major funding round and introduced a new AI‑powered system for generating patent claim charts.
New weekly USPTO Patents data have been added.
Top Attorneys:
Fish & Richardson - 98
Sughrue Mion - 94
Foley & Lardner - 73
Harness, Dickey & Pierce - 73
Womble Bond Dickinson - 71
JCIPRNET - 70
Oliff PLC - 69
CANTOR COLBURN - 68
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius - 67
Birch, Stewart, Kolasch &.. - 67
Schwegman Lundberg &.. - 64
Oblon, McClelland, Maier.. - 60
Knobbe, Martens, Olson &.. - 59
Kilpatrick Townsend & S.. - 53
MUNCY, GEISSLER, OLDS.. - 53
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Gore-Tex: The Accidental Fabric That Let Us Breathe in the Rain
How a Botched Experiment in a Garage Gave Us the World’s Most Legendary Waterproof Fabric
Some inventions are born in high-tech labs with whiteboards full of equations. Others happen when a stubborn son refuses to follow instructions. Gore-Tex, the miracle fabric behind waterproof jackets, hiking boots, and even medical implants, belongs in the second category.
The story starts in 1969, in the garage of Wilbert "Bill" Gore, a former DuPont engineer who had founded W.L. Gore & Associates in 1958. The company had already been experimenting with polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), best known as Teflon. Bill’s son, Bob Gore, was trying to stretch rods of PTFE to make pipe-thread tape.
But the material kept snapping.
Frustrated, Bob yanked the rod with a sharp jerk instead of a slow pull. To his surprise, it didn’t break. It expanded by nearly 1,000 percent into a microporous structure that is robust, breathable, and impermeable to water.
That "eureka" moment gave birth to expanded PTFE (ePTFE), the heart of Gore-Tex.
Gore-Tex's structure is special: the pores are 20,000 times smaller than a drop of water but 700 times larger than a water vapor molecule. That means rain can’t get in, but sweat can get out. This one-way ticket for moisture changed outerwear forever.
Since then, Gore-Tex has gone far beyond ski jackets. Its used in space suits, heart patches, guitar strings, and fuel cells.
And it all started with a tug-of-war between a polymer and a young engineer who refused to take snap for an answer.
Source: W. L. Gore & Associates corporate history and Bob Gore’s expanded PTFE invention, including U.S. Patent 3,953,566 (issued 1976), supplemented by materials science literature on ePTFE development.
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Trivia
What was the first patented video game?
A) Pong
B) Spacewar!
C) Tennis for Two
D) The Magnavox Odyssey
Please scroll to the bottom of this newsletter to find out.
Featured Inventor
The Visionary Behind the HPV Vaccine
Professor Ian Frazer is the Australian immunologist whose pioneering work led to the creation of the world’s first vaccine proven to prevent a human cancer.
Born in Scotland and later moving to Australia, Frazer devoted his career to understanding how viruses interact with the immune system.
His collaboration with the late virologist Jian Zhou produced a breakthrough.
They engineered virus like particles that train the immune system to block human papillomavirus infection, the primary cause of cervical cancer.
This discovery became the foundation of the HPV vaccine, now used in national programs across the globe and credited with sharply reducing HPV related disease.
Frazer has been widely honored, including being named Australian of the Year and receiving international awards for medical innovation. At the University of Queensland he continues advancing immunology research and shaping the next generation of scientists. His work remains one of the most significant public health achievements of the modern era.
Today in Patent History
The First Sip of Automation: How America’s Original Drink Vending Machine Was Born
On December 16, 1884, , of Minneapolis received U.S. Patent 309,219 for an innovation that quietly reshaped everyday convenience: the first automatic liquid vending machine in the United States. Fruen’s device allowed a simple coin drop to trigger the clean, measured dispensing of a drink, a groundbreaking leap at a time when “self-service” barely existed. His mechanism used levers, locks, and gravity to ensure customers received exactly what they paid for, paving the way for modern soda fountains, beverage kiosks, and today’s high-tech vending systems. Fruen’s invention marked the moment automation took its first refreshing sip.
U.S. Patent No. 309,219
Introducing New Data Products and Enhancements
New “Areas of Expertise” feature on the Inventor’s Profile page
💡From INVENT to INVEST — Just One Letter (and One Vault) Away |
INVENT and INVEST are nearly identical. Swap the N for an S, and you turn ideas into impact. |
And bridging the gap is the UpFront Research Reports Vault, your toolkit to transform invention into opportunity.
China has begun mass production of coin sized nuclear batteries that deliver continuous power for up to 50 years with no charging, maintenance, sunlight, or wires, using sealed nuclear decay technology developed by Betavolt. While today’s version powers sensors and medical implants, upcoming higher output models could redefine autonomy across devices and raise a deeper question: when machines no longer need rest, will we?
This UpFront Research report provides a comprehensive analysis of the patent landscape surrounding betavoltaic batteries. This report reveals a dynamic and rapidly evolving field with substantial potential for innovation and commercialization in nuclear energy technologies. The data indicates a consistent upward trend in patent filings, particularly in the last decade, reflecting a growing interest in alternative energy solutions that leverage radioactive isotopes such as tritium, nickel-63, and promethium-147 for energy generation. |
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Centurion Patentors
Congratulations to last week's Centurion Patentors! |
The Centurion Patentors are 0.185% of ALL Inventors worldwide who hold more than one hundred U.S. patents. They are the Navy SEALs of innovation. They don’t just have good ideas once; they’ve built a discipline, a repeatable process for turning thought into impact. |
We are excited to welcome the following inventors into these prestigious patent clubs: |
Trivia
Answer: D) The Magnavox Odyssey ✅
🎮 Invented by Ralph Baer in 1968 (U.S. Patent 3,659,285), it was the first home console, earning him the nickname “Father of Video Games.”
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