*Monthly Insights*

DECEMBER 2025

OBWB partners pictured at the 2025 Houston Holiday Party at our HQ office.

Left to right: Yuichi Watanabe, Seema Mehta, Kevin Kuelbs, Califf Cooper, Jeffrey Bergman, Jonathan Osha, and Carlyn Burton (Tom Scherer - absent).

2025 YEAR IN REVIEW

For your perusal, here is an overview of just some of the topics

OBWB's Monthly Insights covered in 2025

USPTO PRACTICE	U.S. LITIGATION	INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS	TRADEMARK & COPYRIGHT
Reminder that Written Description and Enablement also Require a Look Back in Time	Medtronic Pays the Cost of PTAB's Continued Misunderstanding of 35 U.S.C. § 101	The Geographic Coverage of European Patents Keeps Growing	Federal Circuit Applies Functionality Doctrine to Deny Registrability of a Color Trademark
Written Description Requirement of 35 USC 112 Applies to Preamble of Jepson-Format Claims	Section 337 Recently: A Big Win for Small Markets and U.S. Importers	CNIPA Issues Draft Amendments to Patent Examination Guidelines Focusing on Emerging Technologies and Practical Examination Issues	Trademark Genericness and Time of Assessment
Inventors' Intended Claim Scope is Irrelevant in Determination of Broadening in Reissue Applications	Limiting Head Starts, Broadening Disgorgement: Key Takeaways from AMS-OSRAM v. Renesas	Decision G1/24 Provides Guidance on Claim Interpretation Before The EPO	Copyrightability of Outputs Generated by AI Systems
Federal Circuit Limits Overlapping-Range Presumption in Multi-Dose Regimen Claims	Sigray – Implicit Claim Construction and Anticipation by Inherency	Tokyo District Court Grants Unprecedented Injunction in SEP Case	UAE Revises Trademark Service Fee Structure
How to Handle "Close Calls" on § 101: USPTO Provides Reminders for Patent Examiners on Evaluating Subject Matter Eligibility	Federal Circuit Elaborates on Claiming Priority of a Design Patent Application to an Earlier-Filed Utility Patent Application	CNIPA Releases Amendments to Patent Examination Guidelines Effective January 1, 2026	"Doing the Right Thing: Ethical Responsibilities in IP Practice"

IP UPDATE

EPO Statistics Show Increase in Unitary Patents

Since the launch of the Unitary Patent system on June 1, 2023, over 75 000 European patents with unitary effect have been registered by the EPO. Unitary Patents provide patent protection in 18 EU Member States with a single request, a single translation and a single renewal fee. Based on the average number of granted European patents per year, about one out of four European patents have been transformed in Unitary Patents. Almost one third of all requests have come from SMEs and 8% came from universities.

More than 62% of proprietors of Unitary Patents are based in EPO member states, while US proprietors are the first extra-European proprietors, amounting to about 16% of all proprietors. Based on cumulative data since the launch, the top three proprietors are Siemens AG, Johnson & Johnson, and Samsung Group. In 2025, however, Samsung Group became the new top applicant. Medical technology, Measurement, Digital Communication, Computer Technology, and Transport have been the first five technology fields in the last two and half years. More statistics may be found here.

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