The Internet of Things (IoT) is the big next step as we continue evolving from the Flintstones' prehistoric lifestyle to the Jetsons' futuristic utopia.
IoT-enabled cars may soon drive you to and from work and find parking without your input or intervention. IoT-enabled homes will automatically regulate your house, from keeping your refrigerator stocked to running your washer/dryer, lighting, and home security. IoT medicine will remotely monitor your aging relatives' health and automatically treat them in case of emergency.
With all these advances, you might think that companies are patenting IoT inventions left and right. That's true for many of the technologies converging to form the IoT ecosystem, like sensor devices at edge nodes, network hardware, and protocols in the connectivity layer, data servers, and security.
But much of the innovation in the IoT space comes from creative use cases—the high-level IoT applications as seen by the user. In this article, Finnegan attorneys Kenie Ho and Christopher C. Johns discuss how recent developments in U.S. patent law will impact the ability to patent these types of inventions.
Previously published by TechBeacon
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