Thinking Makes It So
by Jon Burbage
Artificial intelligence patent law, from a registered patent attorney. Every Monday, the week's developments: Federal Circuit decisions, Patent Office guidance, and what the largest AI companies are filing. Every Friday, original data computed from Patent Office records. On Wednesdays, a longer episode on the Supreme Court, the inventions that changed things, and what Shakespeare can teach a lawyer. On Saturdays, one granted artificial intelligence patent, explained from what the technology does to what the patent lets its owner stop others from doing. And a short episode on each new Federal Circuit decision on artificial intelligence patents. From Jon Burbage of Burbage Law, PC, in Salt Lake City. Nothing in this podcast is legal advice.
Episodes
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October 28: Diamond v. Diehr and the rubber press
In 1981 the Supreme Court held, five to four, that a rubber-curing process run by a computer could be patented. Jon and Catie on Diamond v. Diehr, the two cases before it that said no, how Alice read it in 2014, and what it means for anyone patenting artificial intelligence today. Sources…
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October 26: File before you publish, older patents at the Board, and China's export catalogue
OpenAI's published applications on reasoning summaries (Pub. Nos. 2026/0330193 and 2026/0330194) and Google's on generalized residual attention blocks (Pub. No. 2026/0330219), and why a patent program files before anything is published; Google LLC v. VirtaMove, Corp., No. 25-1230 (U.S. Oct. 19,...
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October 24: The patent behind the T in GPT
Jon and Catie walk through US Patent 10,452,978, Google's patent on the transformer, the design behind the T in GPT. Starting from what a neural network is, they build up to what claim one covers, what the dependent claims add, and four drafting lessons for anyone patenting artificial…
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October 23: The agent applications of early 2025 publish
Patent applications with “agent” in the title from eight large AI companies went from 15 to 47 in the 13 weeks ending October 22, 2026, compared with the same weeks of 2025, and 42 of the 47 have priority dates in February to April 2025. Neural-network classes now appear on 45% of these…
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October 21: The lease clause that built the Globe
In December 1598 the Burbage brothers took apart the Theatre, London's early playhouse, and used its timber to build the Globe. Their landlord, Giles Allen, sued for years over a lease that let them remove the building only before its term ended. Jon and Catie on the clause, the deadline, and…
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October 19: The Board's appeal odds, invention records, and two AI filings
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board's fiscal year 2026 appeal numbers and what they mean for artificial intelligence applications; Google v. Valtrus Innovations (Fed. Cir. Oct. 19, 2026) and why invention records should stay in their native files; OpenAI's application on the prompt-box control that...
About this show
Artificial intelligence patent law, from a registered patent attorney. Every Monday, the week's developments: Federal Circuit decisions, Patent Office guidance, and what the largest AI companies are filing. Every Friday, original data computed from Patent Office records. On Wednesdays, a longer episode on the Supreme Court, the inventions that changed things, and what Shakespeare can teach a lawyer. On Saturdays, one granted artificial intelligence patent, explained from what the technology does to what the patent lets its owner stop others from doing. And a short episode on each new Federal Circuit decision on artificial intelligence patents. From Jon Burbage of Burbage Law, PC, in Salt Lake City. Nothing in this podcast is legal advice.
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Jon Burbage
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