Thinking Makes It So

Thinking Makes It So

By Jon BurbageBusinessTechnology
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Thinking Makes It So episodes

  • November 14: The patent behind batch normalization
    Jon and Catie walk through US Patent 10,417,562, Google's patent on batch normalization, a layer added inside a neural network that rescales the numbers passing through it while the network trains. Starting from what a neural network is and what goes wrong during training, they build up to what claim one covers, what it leaves out, why the first, provisional application was filed fourteen days before the research paper, how the patent family grew to nine United States patents, and four drafting lessons for anyone patenting artificial intelligence.
    Sources:
    US 10,417,562 B2, Batch normalization layers: https://patents.google.com/patent/US10417562B2/en
    US 10,628,710 B2: https://patents.google.com/patent/US10628710
    US 10,902,319 B2: https://patents.google.com/patent/US10902319B2/en
    US 11,281,973 B2: https://patents.google.com/patent/US11281973B2/en
    US 11,308,394 B2: https://patents.google.com/patent/US11308394B2/en
    US 11,853,885 B2: https://patents.google.com/patent/US11853885
    US 11,893,485 B2: https://patents.google.com/patent/US11893485B2/en
    US 12,033,073 B2: https://patents.google.com/patent/US12033073B2/en
    US 12,705,484 B2: https://patents.google.com/patent/US12705484
    US 2025/0013864 A1: https://patents.google.com/patent/US20250013864A1/en
    EP 3,251,059 (European family): https://patents.google.com/patent/EP3251059A1/en
    Batch Normalization: Accelerating Deep Network Training by Reducing Internal Covariate Shift (arXiv): https://arxiv.org/abs/1502.03167
    35 U.S.C. 119: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/35/119
    35 U.S.C. 154: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/35/154
    Read the article: https://burbagelaw.com/podcast.html
    Narrated with the assistance of AI. Nothing in this podcast is legal advice.
    17 min
  • November 13: Seven in ten big-company AI applications have no examiner yet
    Of 1,040 AI-related applications that OpenAI, Anthropic, Alphabet, Microsoft, Nvidia, Meta, Amazon and Apple published from August 20 to November 12, 2026, 735 (71%) had no examiner on November 13, including 93% of the continuations, which published a median of about four months after filing.
    Read the article: https://burbagelaw.com/data/2026-11-13-ai-applications-waiting-for-an-examiner.html
    Narrated with the assistance of AI. Nothing in this podcast is legal advice.
    7 min
  • November 11: Portia and the pound of flesh
    A moneylender's bond allows a pound of a merchant's flesh, and a lawyer in disguise defeats it by holding the lender to the bond's exact words, and then by a second law. Jon and Catie walk through the scene, then through how the Federal Circuit tells courts to read the words of a patent claim in Phillips v. AWH, and what that means for defining a word before you file.
    Sources:
    Folger Shakespeare Library, The Merchant of Venice, Act 1, Scene 3: https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/the-merchant-of-venice/read/1/3/
    Folger Shakespeare Library, The Merchant of Venice, Act 4, Scene 1: https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/the-merchant-of-venice/read/4/1/
    Royal Shakespeare Company, The Merchant of Venice: dates and sources: https://www.rsc.org.uk/the-merchant-of-venice/about-the-play/dates-and-sources
    Wikipedia, Il Pecorone: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Il_Pecorone
    Phillips v. AWH Corp., Nos. 03-1269, -1286 (Fed. Cir. July 12, 2005) (en banc), 415 F.3d 1303: https://www.cafc.uscourts.gov/opinions-orders/03-1269.pdf
    Read the article: https://burbagelaw.com/podcast.html
    Narrated with the assistance of AI. Nothing in this podcast is legal advice.
    11 min
  • November 9: Google's training claim for ads in chatbot answers, and OpenAI's policy lookup
    Google's published application on training a model to fold third-party content, such as advertisements, into its answers (U.S. Pub. No. 2026/0350464, published Nov. 5, 2026), and OpenAI's on matching a user's query against a policy database and sending the guidance to the model at answer time (U.S. Pub. No. 2026/0350367, published Nov. 5, 2026).
    Read the article: https://burbagelaw.com/updates.html
    Narrated with the assistance of AI. Nothing in this podcast is legal advice.
    9 min
  • November 7: The patent behind dropout
    Jon and Catie walk through US Patent 9,406,017, Google's patent on dropout, a way of training a neural network by switching off part of it at random. Starting from what a neural network is and why one can memorize instead of learn, they build up to what claim one covers, what it leaves out, how the patent family grew in a chain of continuations, and four drafting lessons for anyone patenting artificial intelligence.
    Sources:
    US 9,406,017 B2, System and method for addressing overfitting in a neural network: https://patents.google.com/patent/US9406017B2/en
    Claims of US 9,406,017: https://patents.justia.com/patent/9406017
    US 10,366,329 B2: https://patents.google.com/patent/US10366329B2/en
    US 10,977,557 B2: https://patents.google.com/patent/US10977557B2/en
    US 11,829,882 B2: https://patents.google.com/patent/US11829882B2/en
    Improving neural networks by preventing co-adaptation of feature detectors (arXiv): https://arxiv.org/abs/1207.0580
    Read the article: https://burbagelaw.com/podcast.html
    Narrated with the assistance of AI. Nothing in this podcast is legal advice.
    17 min
  • November 6: Machine learning's share of U.S. patent publications is no higher than in May
    In the 13 weeks ending November 5, 2026, 5.2% of published U.S. utility applications were in G06N, the machine-learning class, up from 4.4% in the same weeks of 2025, but no higher than in the 13 weeks ending May 28, 2026. National stage publications ran at 2.5 times the level of a year earlier, for reasons the records do not show.
    Read the article: https://burbagelaw.com/data/2026-11-06-machine-learning-share-levels-off.html
    Narrated with the assistance of AI. Nothing in this podcast is legal advice.
    7 min
  • November 4: The Wright patent and the aileron
    The Wright brothers' patent described twisting wings, yet a federal court held it reached Glenn Curtiss's ailerons. Jon and Catie walk through the claim, the lawsuit, and what the pioneer-patent reading means for drafting claims on artificial intelligence systems today.
    Sources:
    O. and W. Wright, Flying-Machine, United States Patent No. 821,393: https://patents.google.com/patent/US821393A/en
    Library of Congress, The Wilbur and Orville Wright Papers, Timeline 1901-1910: https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090111000920/http:/memory.loc.gov/ammem/wrighthtml/wrighttime2.html
    Wright Co. v. Herring-Curtiss Co., 204 F. 597 (W.D.N.Y. 1913): https://hallapproved.com/ny/cases/federal/district/1913/8803653
    Wright Co. v. Herring-Curtiss Co., 211 F. 654 (2d Cir. 1914): https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wright-co-v-herring-curtiss-co-ca2-1914
    U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission, World War I aviation and the Manufacturers Aircraft Association: https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20080916072530/http://centennialofflight.gov/essay/Aerospace/WWi/Aero5.htm
    35 U.S.C. 112(f): https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/35/112
    Williamson v. Citrix Online, LLC, 792 F.3d 1339 (Fed. Cir. 2015): https://hallapproved.com/us/cases/cafc/2015/2808717
    Read the article: https://burbagelaw.com/podcast.html
    Narrated with the assistance of AI. Nothing in this podcast is legal advice.
    12 min
  • November 2: OpenAI's streaming safety check, and a UK refusal that turned on one word
    OpenAI's published applications on streaming a model's output while a safety check runs behind it (Pub. Nos. 2026/0340286 and 2026/0341299); and the UK Intellectual Property Office's refusal, on remittal, of Emotional Perception's neural network application for lack of inventive step (BL O/0894/26, Oct. 1, 2026).
    The entries:
    https://burbagelaw.com/entries/2026-10-29-openai-claims-streaming-chatbot-s-answer-while-safet.html
    https://burbagelaw.com/entries/2026-10-01-remittal-uk-office-refuses-emotional-perception-s-ne.html
    Read the article: https://burbagelaw.com/updates.html
    Narrated with the assistance of AI. Nothing in this podcast is legal advice.
    9 min
  • November 2: OpenAI's streaming safety check, and a UK refusal that turned on one word
    OpenAI's published applications on streaming a model's output while a safety check runs behind it (Pub. Nos. 2026/0340286 and 2026/0341299); and the UK Intellectual Property Office's refusal, on remittal, of Emotional Perception's neural network application for lack of inventive step (BL O/0894/26, Oct. 1, 2026).
    The entries:
    https://burbagelaw.com/entries/2026-10-29-openai-claims-streaming-chatbot-s-answer-while-safet.html
    https://burbagelaw.com/entries/2026-10-01-remittal-uk-office-refuses-emotional-perception-s-ne.html
    Read the article: https://burbagelaw.com/updates.html
    Narrated with the assistance of AI. Nothing in this podcast is legal advice.
    9 min
  • October 31: The patent behind word2vec
    Jon and Catie walk through US Patent 9,037,464, Google's patent on the method behind word2vec, which turns each word into a list of numbers. Starting from why a computer needs words as numbers, they build up to what claim one covers, how Google has kept the patent family open since 2013, and four drafting lessons for anyone patenting artificial intelligence.
    Sources:
    US 9,037,464 B1, Computing numeric representations of words in a high-dimensional space: https://patents.google.com/patent/US9037464B1/en
    Claims of US 9,037,464: https://patents.justia.com/patent/9037464
    US 9,740,680 B1: https://patents.google.com/patent/US9740680B1/en
    US 10,922,488 B1: https://patents.google.com/patent/US10922488B1/en
    US 2026/0170243 A1 (Application 19/360,947): https://patents.google.com/patent/US20260170243A1/en
    Efficient Estimation of Word Representations in Vector Space (arXiv, version 1): https://arxiv.org/abs/1301.3781v1
    Word2vec (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word2vec
    Read the article: https://burbagelaw.com/podcast.html
    Narrated with the assistance of AI. Nothing in this podcast is legal advice.
    15 min

About Thinking Makes It So

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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…