Teen, 14, Invents AI-Powered Device to Help Detect, and Potentially Treat, Crossed Eyes; People, April 26, 2026

 Toria Sheffield, People; Teen, 14, Invents AI-Powered Device to Help Detect, and Potentially Treat, Crossed Eyes

 "An 8th grader in California has invented an AI-powered device to help detect — and potentially treat — strabismus, a condition commonly known as crossed eyes.

Aaryan Balani of Cerritos said he opted to develop the device since he personally suffers from strabismus. The 14-year-old developed the condition after bumping his head when he was five years old...  

The young science aficionado decided to develop EYEVA, a device that looks like a visor and alerts the wearer when their eye begins to wander.

"It will beep … and you're like, ‘Okay, now I need to be aware of my face," Balani explained, adding that, in theory, it could help the wearer permanently retrain their eyes.

Balani said he developed the device with a 3D printer, small cameras and AI. It went through five different prototypes and four months of tweaking."

Your Patent Will Expire. Here’s What You Need to Do Next to Keep Innovating Legally.; Entrepreneur, April 24, 2026

  

THOMAS FRANKLIN|EDITED BY CHELSEA BROWN, Entrepreneur; Your Patent Will Expire. Here’s What You Need to Do Next to Keep Innovating Legally.

"Lasting protection comes not from one filing, but from a pipeline of innovation supported by a structured patent portfolio — most often built through multiple patent families. A patent family links related applications around a common inventive core with interlocking priority claims. Early filings anchor protection, while later filings capture details in line with the market as it evolves."

Maryland passes legislation banning retailers from using personal data to set prices. Does it do enough?; WAMU, April 17, 2026

 Esther Ciammichilli, Jackson Sinnenberg, WAMU; Maryland passes legislation banning retailers from using personal data to set prices. Does it do enough?

"The Maryland General Assembly passed a bill this week will prohibit food retailers from changing the price of their products – in real time – depending on who is buying them. The practice is called dynamic pricing. 

The new legislation is expected to be signed into law by Governor Wes Moore, who introduced it with leaders in the General Assembly. It will specifically prohibit retailers from using personal protected data to set prices for individual customers. This kind of data includes biometric information like ethnicity, sex, and gender identity...

What made Governor Wes Moore and the assembly leadership want to tackle dynamic pricing during this session?

Well, I think we’ve seen over the last several years this sort of catch up that we’re doing. Technology is moving so fast and the tech companies are finding more and more ways to exploit, really, the data, the algorithms, what they know about us in ways that are really harmful to consumers.

Over the last few years we’ve had several bills that are about protecting biodynamics, protecting consumer privacy, protecting the use of data without people’s permission. I think over the last year we saw a new way that these tech companies and these large corporations are finding ways to combine data brokers, private personal data, in a way that’s really harmful to consumers, in a way that really exploits consumers. And so this year, this is what we tackled.

During the final debate over the bill last week, you said, “One of the largest corporations in the world is announcing to their shareholders technology which they will patent to be able to adjust prices based on personal data.” Can you elaborate on the details of that announcement?

Yeah, so, you know, Walmart is …  they’re not going to have paper tags on their grocery stores anymore on there for for their prices. They’re gonna have these little screens that can change immediately. Digital screens to price your milk and your eggs and flour and and whatever else.

But what this technology allows them to do ultimately is to figure out who’s standing in front of that screen and change the price based on who you are. And that’s really the thing that we’re trying to get ahead of with this legislation."

AI Makes Securing Copyright Protection for Software Code Tricky; Bloomberg Law, April 15, 2026

 Michael Justus, Carlton Fields, Bloomberg Law; AI Makes Securing Copyright Protection for Software Code Tricky

[Kip Currier: I recommend this brief articleLinks to an external site. in Bloomberg Law; the authors do a great job identifying AI, IP, and human and AI-related coding issues right now, such as "vibe coding". They also provide practical strategies for endeavoring to secure copyright protections for code.]

"Copyright protection for software code is being sacrificed, knowingly or not, for the speed and efficiency of AI coding.

This rapid shift in the role of humans from writing code to managing artificial intelligence tools upends traditional copyright protection strategies. Original human-written code is generally copyrightable. But AI-generated code that lacks human authorship is ineligible for copyright protection under US law.

“Vibe coding”—where humans describe a desired software program in natural language and GenAI tools write the code—is pervasive. This isn’t limited to the tech industry. Employees across industries are vibe coding software solutions, which can be valuable to employers.

Developers estimate 42% of code is AI-generated or assisted and the number was expected to increase significantly, according to an October 2025 survey.

The lack of copyright protections is a big deal...

The key is bespoke curation into a creative whole from many options."

How Merck uses patents to help maintain Keytruda’s exorbitant price; International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, April 13, 2026

 Denise Ajiri and Antonio Cucho Gamboa, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists ; How Merck uses patents to help maintain Keytruda’s exorbitant price

"Merck’s original patents for Keytruda are set to expire in 2028. But Merck, using a strategy known as “evergreening,” has filed hundreds of additional patents that could protect Keytruda’s dominance well beyond that year.

ICIJ analyzed 180 U.S. patent applications related to Keytruda, provided by the Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge (I-MAK), a nonprofit that examines inequities in the patent system. These were linked to 1,032 additional patent filings around the world tied to the drug. From this universe, ICIJ identified active U.S. patents that illustrate Merck’s strategy of maintaining market exclusivity.

Patents can have different status, including active, pending, abandoned, expired, or others. Explore Merck’s active U.S. Keytruda patents below."

Contentious House USPTO Oversight Hearing Centers on PTAB Reforms, Trump’s Political Influence; IP Watchdog, March 25, 2026

 STEVE BRACHMANN, IP Watchdog; Contentious House USPTO Oversight Hearing Centers on PTAB Reforms, Trump’s Political Influence

"Today, the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence, and the Internet conducted its first oversight hearing of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) during the second Trump Administration. The harshest lines of questioning for USPTO Director John Squires during the hearing were reserved for the agency’s notice of proposed rulemaking(NPRM) to reform rules of practice at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) as well as President Trump’s political influence at the agency. During the hearing, Squires also confirmed that the agency’s Patent Public Advisory Committee (PPAC) would soon be revived, following an offer to join PPAC extended last night to an undisclosed independent inventor...

The full House Judiciary Committee’s Ranking Member, Jamie Raskin (D-MD), also hammered Director Squires on President Trump’s influence, raising questions throughout the hearing about the USPTO’s role in filing two trademark applications for “Board of Peace” on behalf of President Trump...

Rep. Zoe Lofgren’s (D-CA) concerns over Squires’ PTAB reforms involved not just the centralization of decision-making authority over IPR proceedings but the lack of explanation for decisions to not institute or de-institute stemming from what Lofgren called “barebones summary denials.” Squires responded that PTAB judges work from a record of more than 600 written decisions, and that controversial reforms like settled expectations have cut both ways in favor of patent owners and challengers. However, Lofgren commented that the 64% of IPRs discretionarily denied under Director Squires was due to the adoption of discretionary considerations and a centralized Director review process acting as barriers that Congress never envisioned."

Celebrating 250 years of discovery, creativity, and enterprise; United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), March 2026

 United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), March 2026; Celebrating 250 years of discovery, creativity, and enterprise 

"In 1776, our nation’s founders declared independence based on three inalienable rights: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Over the past 250 years, innovators from coast to coast have helped turn those ideals into reality. Their ingenuity made our world safer, advanced our technological progress, and created prosperity for both the country and their families.  

As America’s Innovation Agency, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) protects the inventions and brands that drive our economy forward. Join us as we explore the foundations of the intellectual property system in America, the history of patents and trademarks, and how innovation transforms our daily lives."

Henrietta Lacks’s Family Settles Suit With Novartis Over Use of Her Cells; The New York Times, February 27, 2026

 Michael Levenson , The New York Times; Henrietta Lacks’s Family Settles Suit With Novartis Over Use of Her Cells

"The pharmaceutical giant Novartis has reached a settlement with the family of Henrietta Lacks, a Black woman whose cells were taken from her without her consent in 1951, when she was dying of cervical cancer in a segregated ward at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

Ms. Lacks’s cells were the first to reproduce in a laboratory, outside the human body, and have been used in groundbreaking research, including to develop vaccines for polio and Covid-19 and treatments for cancer, Parkinson’s and the flu. The National Institutes of Health found the use of her cells, which were known as HeLa cells, was cited more than 110,000 times in scientific publications between 1953 and 2018.

In August 2024, more than 70 years after Ms. Lacks died at age 31 and was buried in an unmarked grave, her family filed a federal lawsuit in Maryland that accused Novartis, which is based in Switzerland, of amassing substantial profits through the use of the HeLa cell line."

Pitt climbed in the National Academy of Inventors’ global patent ranking; PittWire, February 12, 2026

 PittWire ; Pitt climbed in the National Academy of Inventors’ global patent ranking

"The University of Pittsburgh climbed two spots on the list of the Top 100 Worldwide Universities Granted U.S. Utility Patents, according to the most recent list issued by the National Academy of Inventors (NAI).

Pitt innovators were issued 107 U.S. patents in 2025 for a No. 26 ranking, up from No. 28 in 2024, when they were issued 102 patents.

Released annually by the NAI since 2013, the Top 100 Worldwide Universities List spotlights the universities holding U.S. utility patents to showcase the important research and innovation taking place within academic institutions.

Nine institutions outside the U.S. and several multicampus statewide university systems were among those ranked ahead of Pitt.

“Pitt’s climb in the NAI patent ranking underscores the determination of our faculty and student innovators to turn research into real-world impact,” said Evan Facher, vice chancellor for innovation and entrepreneurship and associate dean for commercial translation at the School of Medicine. “Our innovators are submitting discoveries to the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at a record pace, and securing intellectual property is a crucial step in translating those breakthroughs into technologies that improve lives.”

In the last fiscal year, Pitt innovators had their intellectual property licensed or optioned 137 times, including the formation of 15 startup companies, with technologies ranging from AI platforms for diagnosing macular degeneration, aortic aneurysms and ear infections, to a gene therapy to treat hearing loss, and more."

I called my recipe book Sabzi – vegetables. But the name was trademarked. And my legal ordeal began; The Guardian, December 4, 2025

 Yasmin Khan, The Guardian ; I called my recipe book Sabzi – vegetables. But the name was trademarked. And my legal ordeal began

"Vegetables, in my experience, rarely cause controversy. Yet last month I found myself in the middle of a legal storm over who gets to own the word sabzi – the Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Persian, Dari and Pashto word for cooked veg or fresh greens. It was a story as absurd as it was stressful, a chain of delis threatened me with legal action over the title of a book I had spent years creating. But what began as a personal legal headache soon morphed into something bigger, a story about how power and privilege still dominate conversations about cultural ownership in the UK.

When the email first landed in my inbox, I assumed it must be a wind-up. My editor at Bloomsbury had forwarded a solicitor’s letter addressed to me personally, care of my publishers. As I read it, my stomach dropped. A deli owner from Cornwall accused me of infringing her intellectual property over my cookbook Sabzi: Fresh Vegetarian Recipes for Every Day. Why? Because in 2022, she had trademarked the word sabzi to use for her business and any future products, including a cookbook she hoped to write one day.

My jaw clenched as I pored over pages of legal documentation, written in the punitive and aggressive tone of a firm gearing up for a fight. I was accused of “misrepresentation” (copying the deli’s brand), damaging its business and affecting its future growth, and they demanded detailed commercial reports about my work, including sales revenue, stock numbers and distribution contracts – information so intrusive that it felt like an audit. Buried in the legal jargon was a line that shook me. They reserved the right to seek the “destruction” of all items relating to their infringement claim. Reading the threat of my book being pulped was nothing short of devastating. It was also utterly enraging.

Because sabzi isn’t some cute exotic brand name, it’s part of the daily lexicon of more than a billion people across cultures and borders. In south Asia, it simply means cooked vegetables."

Eli Lilly Reaches $1 Trillion in Value, Buoyed by Demand for Its Weight Loss Drugs; The New York Times, November 21, 2025

Rebecca Robbins , The New York Times; Eli Lilly Reaches $1 Trillion in Value, Buoyed by Demand for Its Weight Loss Drugs

"Pharmaceuticals is a notoriously cyclical business. Companies buoyed by once-in-a-generation product lines flounder after their blockbuster drugs lose patent protection."

Inventors back effort to tackle intellectual property thefts; The Center Square, November 19, 2025

 Chris Woodward, The Center Square ; Inventors back effort to tackle intellectual property thefts

"Today, Metz, who describes herself as a victim of intellectual property theft, supports new federal legislation that would protect inventors like her.

“It’s very overwhelming when you’re the inventor, the creator, and you’re trying to build a business, and then you find out all these people are stealing your property,” Metz said.

The patenting process took about four years and $40,000. Metz also poured $350,000 into molds, employees and a facility to make her product.

Metz said that from 2015 to 2018, when she saw over 150 companies stealing her invention, she got an attorney and began to fight. It was a success. Metz was able to stop every one of those infringers through licensing deals. However, Metz later found herself in an administrative court that was set up by Congress in 2012 through an intellectual property law, the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act. The administrative court or Patent Trial and Appeal Board invalidated both her patents.

“I lost everything,” said Metz. “I lost all my licensing deals. I had about 40 employees at the time. I lost them. All because of a bad law.”"

Former Penn Carey Law adjunct professor John Squires named director of U.S. Patent and Trademark Office; The Daily Pennsylvanian, September 29, 2025

 Matthew Quitoriano , The Daily Pennsylvanian; Former Penn Carey Law adjunct professor John Squires named director of U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

"John Squires, a former adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, was named the next director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Squires will serve as the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and advise 1968 Wharton graduate and President Donald Trump and the Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on intellectual property policy. In the Sept. 22 announcement, Squires wrote that the opportunity to lead a large and influential office was “both humbling and the honor of a lifetime.”...

Squires served as an adjunct professor for Penn Carey Law's L.L.M. program, where he helped lawyers trained outside the country learn about law in the United States.

The director of the USPTO is appointed by the president with the consent of the Senate...

Squires received a Bachelor of Science in chemistry from Bucknell University and received his J.D. from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. 

Squires previously served as the chief intellectual property counsel at Honeywell and The Goldman Sachs Group, and has held intellectual property roles at Perkins Coie and Chadbourne and Parker. Prior to his secretarial appointment, Squires was the chair of Emerging Companies and Intellectual Property at Dilworth Paxson."

Trump administration wants cut of universities’ patent revenue: Lutnick; The Hill, September 10, 2025

 LEXI LONAS COCHRAN , The Hill; Trump administration wants cut of universities’ patent revenue: Lutnick

"Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick indicated the Trump administration is looking to take a cut of the revenue generated by university patents developed through federally funded research.

Lutnick in an interview with Axios published Wednesday discussed taking a portion of revenue from the patents, arguing it is unfair for the government to give universities the money with no finanical return...

The original purpose of universities maintaining full ownership of patents was to incentivize the quick development of new technologies. And while most universities seek to commercialize patents, they generally would make more money by writing grants, according to a 2024 study cited by Axios."

Trump threatens Harvard patents worth hundreds of millions; Politico, August 8, 2025

  JUAN PEREZ JR., Politico; Trump threatens Harvard patents worth hundreds of millions

[Kip Currier: Trump's unsubstantiated and unwarranted threats to seize Harvard's patents look like another tactic out of Hungarian strongman Viktor Orban's road-to-authoritarianism break-the-universities playbook.

Stand tough, Harvard!]

[Excerpt] 

"The Trump administration is threatening the status of Harvard University’s lucrative patents as it continues to engage in hardball negotiations with the Ivy League school.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick declared Friday that the administration is launching an immediate review of the intellectual property Harvard has derived from federally funded research grants, in what amounts to yet another display of White House power over higher education institutions...

The university defended its research enterprise and denounced the Trump administration’s tactic on Friday.

“This unprecedented action is yet another retaliatory effort targeting Harvard for defending its rights and freedom,” a university spokesperson said in a statement to POLITICO. 

“We are fully committed to complying with the Bayh-Dole Act and ensuring that the public is able to access and benefit from the many innovations that arise out of federally funded research at Harvard.”

U.S. Copyright Office Releases New Copyright Registration Toolkit; U.S. Copyright Office, April 22, 2025

  U.S. Copyright Office, Issue No. 1070; U.S. Copyright Office Releases New Copyright Registration Toolkit

"Today, the U.S. Copyright Office released the Copyright Registration Toolkit, a comprehensive resource designed to help creators, small business owners, advisors, and others navigate the copyright system. As part of the Copyright Office’s Copyright for All initiative, the toolkit is a visual breakdown of copyright, including essential information about copyright law, how to prepare for copyright registration, what to expect during the process, and post-registration considerations.

“The Copyright Registration Toolkit makes copyright information more accessible and user-friendly for all creators,” said Associate Register of Copyrights and Director of Public Information and Education Miriam Lord. “Resources like this one empower authors, artists, musicians, and their advisors to protect and manage creative works with confidence.”

Developed in conjunction with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's intellectual property (IP) toolkits for trademarks, trade secrets, and patents, these resources collectively provide a broad overview of IP protection under U.S. law.

Copyright Office attorneys, writers, and designers collaborated on the toolkit to ensure it serves as a reliable and engaging reference for creators making business decisions about their creative works and for advisors who help guide them in understanding their rights as IP owners.

To explore the Copyright Registration Toolkit, visit the landing page. For further inquiries, the Public Information Office is available Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m.–5:00 p.m. eastern time, to assist with questions about the copyright registration process."

AI and inventorship guidance: Incentivizing human ingenuity and investment in AI-assisted inventions; United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), February 12, 2024

Kathi Vidal, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO, United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) ; Director's Blog: the latest from USPTO leadership

AI and inventorship guidance: Incentivizing human ingenuity and investment in AI-assisted inventions

"Today, based on the exceptional public feedback we’ve received, we announced our Inventorship Guidance for AI-Assisted Inventions in the Federal Register – the first of these directives. The guidance, which is effective on February 13, 2024, provides instructions to examiners and stakeholders on how to determine whether the human contribution to an innovation is significant enough to qualify for a patent when AI also contributed. The guidance embraces the use of AI in innovation and provides that AI-assisted inventions are not categorically unpatentable. The guidance instructs examiners on how to determine the correct inventor(s) to be named in a patent or patent application for inventions created by humans with the assistance of one or more AI systems. Additionally, we’ve posted specific examples of hypothetical situations and how the guidance would apply to those situations to further assist our examiners and applicants in their understanding."

Rory Cooper honored at White House by President Biden; University Times, University of Pittsburgh, November 2, 2023

 University Times, University of Pittsburgh; Rory Cooper honored at White House by President Biden

"Rory Cooper, who has been given a slew of awards over the years for his work in rehabilitation sciences, found himself at the White House last week, where President Joe Biden bestowed on him the nation’s highest honor for technological achievement.

Cooper is founding director of Pitt’s Human Engineering Research Laboratories and, since 2021, assistant vice chancellor for research for STEM-health sciences collaborations.

He was among several people Biden presented the National Medal of Technology and Innovation to on Oct. 24. On Oct. 26, Cooper, who holds nine U.S. patents and has nine more pending, also was inducted into the 50th class of the National Inventors Hall of Fame at a gala in Washington, D.C."

What 70% of Americans Don’t Understand About Intellectual Property; Stites & Harbison, October 26, 2023

 Mandy Wilson Decker, Stites & Harbison; What 70% of Americans Don’t Understand About Intellectual Property

"The United States Intellectual Property Alliance (USIPA) recently published the results of its US Intellectual Property Awareness & Attitudes Survey. Among its findings, the survey results revealed that 70% of Americans are unable to distinguish between mechanisms – patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets – for protecting Intellectual Property (IP).

Given these results, it's worth exploring the principal mechanisms for protecting IP, which each possess some distinctive features."

Sold: An 1891 Patent by Granville T. Woods, Innovative Black Engineer; Atlas Obscura, July 22, 2020

Matthew Taub, Atlas Obscura; Sold: An 1891 Patent by Granville T. Woods, Innovative Black Engineer

Woods was prolific, but was largely forgotten for many years after his death.

"Beginning during Woods’s lifetime, trade publications and other newspapers took to calling Woods the “Black Edison,” a nickname that reflected the virtual absence of Black Americans in engineering during Reconstruction and the late 19th century. That reality haunted Woods, who, according to a recent belated obituary in The New York Times, often said that he was born in Australia in order to distance himself from the strictures of America’s racial hierarchy. Though Woods found (relatively) more financial success later in life, after selling a series of inventions to the likes of General Electric and George Westinghouse—including an early version of the “dead man’s brake,” which can stop a train with an incapacitated conductor—he was still deprived of the recognition that others in his field enjoyed. In fact, despite working at the top of his field, alongside figures such as Westinghouse, Woods was buried in an unmarked grave in Queens, which only received a stone in 1975.

His life is a lesson not only in science and innovation, but also in the precariousness of legacy. Inventors, says Fouché—both those who enjoy credit and those who are denied it—rarely innovate in isolation. Many brilliant minds work simultaneously on the same problem, and for reasons of prejudice, luck, or law, just a few of them enter the historical record."