The Buzz 1: “I’ve got a patent on an idea. I don’t think I'm asking too much to make a little bit of money off it.” [Tod (Bryan Cranston), Love the Coopers, 2015 film] The Buzz 2: “Patents. That’s the whole problem. We have too many patents. They stifle progress.” [The Doctor (Christopher Eccleston), Doctor Who, 2005 TV show] The Buzz 3: “I own the patent on time travel. You mess with time, you mess with me.” [Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd), Back to the Future, 1985 film] The Buzz 4: “I can’t believe I got a patent on something I stole from somebody else.” [Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), Iron Man 2, 2010 film] In 1790, after the U.S. Constitution granted Congress the power to “promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries,” Congress passed the first patent act and the USPTO was signed into law by President George Washington. In 2020, men were named as inventors on ~70% of all U.S. patents, women on ~30%. The future of patents may be influenced by advances in AI, global trade and intellectual property (IP) issues. We’ll ask Louis Alex, Ryan Walsh, Chuck Byers and Alex Bäcker for their take on The Future of Patents: Protecting Your IP Genius or Not So Much?