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This Week's Patent News:

1. 🧠 AI vs. IP: China’s Push in AI-Driven Communication. Magazine China is accelerating its patent filings in AI-integrated communication technologies, aiming to dominate global standards. The surge includes patents for network infrastructure and terminal devices, signaling strategic moves in the race for AI supremacy.

2. 🏛️ RALIA Returns: US Bill to Abolish PTAB Gains Momentum. Representative Thomas Massie announced plans to reintroduce the Restoring America’s Leadership in Innovation Act (RALIA), which seeks to dismantle the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) and revert to a “first-to-invent” system. The move is backed by inventor advocacy groups.

3. 📡 PTAB Reversal: Interactive Communications v. Blackhawk Network. In a rare move, the USPTO Director reversed a PTAB decision due to contradictory expert testimony. The case, involving Interactive Communications and Blackhawk Network, highlights evolving standards for expert credibility in patent reviews.

4. ⚖️ SCOTUS Declines Cert in Home Floorplan Copyright Case. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a case involving copyright protection for home floorplans, leaving intact lower court rulings that limit such protections. The decision impacts architectural and design IP holders nationwide.

5. 🧬 EPO Reports Surge in Research Institution Patents. The European Patent Office revealed that patents filed by research institutions have nearly doubled since 2001. The trend reflects growing academic involvement in IP generation, especially in biotech and clean energy sectors.

Maybe he was dreaming about lunch. Perhaps he was inventing TikTok in his head. Either way, he left the soap mixer running just a little too long. The result? A batch of soap filled with tiny air pockets.

The factory nearly tossed it, until people started writing in to say: “Hey... this stuff floats. That’s amazing."

Enter Harley Procter, son of one-half of the Procter & Gamble empire and a marketing whiz before the word branding even existed.

Where others saw a foamy factory blunder, Procter saw the opportunity to float above the competition literally. He branded it Ivory Soap, slapped on the tagline It Floats!, and gave 19th-century bathers something revolutionary:

A soap you didn’t have to chase around the bathtub like a greased pig.

Even better? Ivory claimed to be 99 and 44/100% pure, a completely made-up but somehow oddly scientific-sounding claim that helped it stand out on the shelf and in the minds of consumers.

And just like that, Ivory wasn’t just a bar of soap. It was an empire starter.

Thanks to this airy accident, Procter & Gamble became a household name, and Ivory became the gateway drug to decades of P&G domination, from Tide to Pampers to Pringles.

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Ashish Kurani: The Patent-Packing Payments Maestro Behind Your (Invisible) Banking Moves

Think of him as the stealth innovator ensuring your tap-to-pay is both fast and fraud-free.

Whether he’s rolling out Wells Fargo’s AI chatbot “Fargo” via Google Cloud or shepherding complex enterprise integrations, Ashish brings a strategic-consultant’s polish (Accenture, USC MBA) and a technologist’s appetite for problem-solving

At his core, Kurani is the kind of quiet powerhouse, someone who doesn’t hog headlines but lays the plumbing under digital payments. So next time your app just works, consider it less a miracle and more a patent-fueled tango choreographed by Ashish Kurani: brainy, buttoned-up, and utterly essential.

🧠 Banking may be boring, but with Ashish on the case, it’s brilliantly engineered.

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🥶 Patent-Powered Pants: How Eddie Bauer Reinvented Cold-Weather Trousers

Answer: ✅ First patented: Refrigerator

Early patents for refrigeration date back to the 1850s.

The Wright Brothers patented their flying machine in 1906.

🧊 Fun Fact: Before refrigeration, people harvested and stored blocks of ice in underground cellars. Cold, but not very convenient for popsicles.

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