IP / Regulatory Law Watch IP / Regulatory Law Watch The Department of Justice Charges Apple with Antitrust Violations On March 21, the U.S. Department of Justice filed an antitrust complaint against Apple. The complaint alleges the company illegally maintains a monopoly over smartphones undermining innovation for apps and other innovation. College of Law Professor Shubha Ghosh provides analysis on the suit here. See the DOJ press release here. The Innovation Law Center congratulates Professor Ghosh’s selection for the Japanese Patent Office’s Visiting Scholars Program. This will be Professor Ghosh’s second appointment, his first completed in 2017-2018. Copyright Office and ChatGPT Authorship The Copyright Office recently reversed a previous denial in registering a claim of copyright in a novel generated with the use of ChatGPT. While other works containing AI-generated text have previously been registered, those works consisted of separate human and AI-authored text components, rather than the nearly entirely AI-generated text at issue here. Will this claim affect the human authorship requirement? Read more about it here. “ELVIS” against AI In one of the first laws to provide protection from the ill effects of AI, Tennessee passed the Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security (ELVIS) Act. In Tennessee, music amounts to a billion-dollar industry and this Act will serve to update the preexisting Tennessee law that previously covered name, image, and likeness but did not account for the rapid technological advancements of AI. The bill goes into effect July 1, 2024 and provides for a civil cause of action against violators. Tennessee courts are authorized to grant injured parties injunctions. This proactive approach is meant to curtail any economic disruption or loss that AI may bring by illegally copying rights that include music, production, and likeness. International Patent Filings Dropping? The United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) reported an almost 2% decline of patent filings globally in 2023. The patent agency notes that this is the first major decrease in patent filing percentages for the first time in nearly 15 years. This comes after 2022 marked the highest number of patent filings globally – over 278,000. For perspective, the U.S. USPTO granted 340,000 patents in 2023 according the PPAC annual report. For more information on patent applications in the U.S., see TTConsultants report titled: The State of U.S. Innovation: USPTO Patent Statistics Report 2023, and the USPTO statistics databases. Can An Abandoned Patent Be Revived? When assessing freedom to operate as part of go to market strategizing, only active U.S. patents need be considered. However, in some instances, abandoned patents can be revived. When an abandoned patent appears to claim the inventive aspects of the product, machine, or process, how long does one have to wait to see if it will be revived? While there is no explicit deadline for revivals generally, the reason for abandonment may impact the time to revive. Ultimately, the USPTO notes that revival of a patent abandoned for more than 6 months is unlikely unless there is a showing of extraordinary circumstances that prevented the filing of a petition to revive. Since 1982, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) estimates that it has revived over 70,000 patents. | 
