Recent research by Jessika Trancik, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Luis Bettencourt, of the Santa Fe Institute, focused on the rate of global patenting activity surrounding renewable energy technologies. The two researchers compiled a database of 73,000 patents from more than 100 countries registered between 1970 and 2009.

The American Association of University Professors issued a report on faculty intellectual property rights after Stanford v. Roche, a landmark case from 2011. In the decision, the U.S. Supreme Court found the inventor owns the title of a patent first, regardless of contractual obligations to assign these rights to a third party.

Companies that neglect to manage their intellectual property thoroughly can expect to face many consequences. According to InfoWorld, each factor can be devastating to a business, both on their own and in combination.

U.S. patent law dictates that fees be awarded to the defendant in patent suits "in exceptional cases." The U.S. Supreme Court will hear cases that may help define such exceptions more precisely, leading to a standardized procedure for handling fee awards in patent suits.

The Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse (CADNA) and the Council of Better Business Bureaus (BBB) launched a public education campaign last month to raise awareness regarding new generic top-level domains (gTLDs). This Internet initiative comes at an important time as gTLD​ registration rates are expected to increase 2,500 percent over the next year.

The escalation of patent lawsuit filings has been discussed many times in recent years, but the latest statistics surrounding the geographic concentration of that activity may still be surprising to some. According to an analysis conducted by Perkins Coie partner James Pistorino, more than 45 percent of U.S. patent cases were filed in either Delaware of the Eastern District of Texas so far in 2013.

When a company is first getting operations up off the ground, the majority of its assets are likely to be intellectual in nature. Startups that fail to protect those resources accordingly could consequently risk spoiling any early success with legal troubles down the line.

As digital piracy poses problems for a widening array of industries, authorities have shown interest in employing graduated response systems to counteract illicit online activity. However, emerging research suggests that this measured approach is currently an insufficient solution to the challenges presented.

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has become an increasingly popular natural gas extraction method in recent years. However, emerging research suggests that patents surrounding the proprietary materials and processes employed by energy corporations may be inadvertently inhibiting industry-wide progress.

Microsoft made a major play for its mobile future this week, announcing the wholesale purchase of Finnish hardware partner Nokia's devices and services business unit for nearly $5 billion. The American firm will also pay $2.2 billion to license Nokia's patents and mapping services.