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If a statute substantially changes the way patents work in an industry where patents are central, but says almost nothing about patents, is it patent reform? We argue the answer is yes--and it's not a hypothetical question. The Inflation Reduction Act ('IRA') does not address patents, but its drug pricing provisions are likely to prompt major changes in how patents work in the pharmaceutical industry. For many years scholars have decried industry's ever-evolving strategies that use combinations of patents to block competition for as long as possible, widely known as 'evergreening,' but legislators have not been receptive to calls for reform. The IRA may just succeed in changing that pattern, at least to some extent, by imposing drug pricing reforms that alter the incentives for evergreening in the first place. In this Article, we lay out the case that the IRA contains implicit reforms to the pharmaceutical patent system. Its details are not straightforward, nor is its implementation, but its effects could nevertheless be major. Drug patent reform, a longtime priority for activists and scholars, may in fact have already happened., TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION 58 II. THE INFLATION REDUCTION ACT'S CHANGES 65 A. The IRA's Three Reforms 65 B. Impacts Outside Medicare 68 III. IMPACTS ON PATENT ASSERTION 72 [...]

ABSTRACT: Artificial intelligence and machine learning represent powerful tools in many fields, ranging from criminal justice to human biology to climate change. Part of the power of these tools arises [...]

ABSTRACT: The empirical data indicate that a relatively small increment of additional U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ('Patent Office' or 'USPTO') investment in prior art search at the initial examination [...]

As intellectual property ('IP') scholars, we write this letter with aspirations of reaching the highest ethical norms possible for our field. Changes in the field of IP make it incumbent [...]

ABSTRACT: As finding breakthrough small-molecule drugs becomes more difficult, drug companies are increasingly turning to 'large molecule' biologics. Although biologics represent many of the most promising new therapies for previously [...]

TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION II. QUALITY IN THE PATENT OFFICE A. Improper Application of Patent Law Standards B. Lax Patentability Standards C. Quality and Technology-Specificity III. MEASURING PATENT QUALITY [...]