Thinking Makes It So

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: Diamond v. Diehr, 450 U.S. 175 (1981): https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/450/175/ Parker v. Flook, 437 U.S. 584 (1978): https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/437/584/ Gottschalk v. Benson, 409 U.S. 63 (1972): https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/409/63/ Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International, 573 U.S. 208 (2014): https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/573/208/ US Patent 4,344,142: https://patents.google.com/patent/US4344142A/en Read the article: https://burbagelaw.com/podcast.html Narrated with the assistance of AI. Nothing in this podcast is legal advice.

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 intelligence. Sources: US 10,452,978 B2, Attention-based sequence transduction neural networks: https://patents.google.com/patent/US10452978B2/en Claims of US 10,452,978: https://patents.justia.com/patent/10452978 US 12,217,173 B2: https://patents.google.com/patent/US12217173B2/en Attention Is All You Need (arXiv, version 1): https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.03762v1 Generative pre-trained transformer (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generative_pre-trained_transformer Read the article: https://burbagelaw.com/podcast.html Narrated with the assistance of AI. Nothing in this podcast is legal advice.

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 companies’ AI-related publications, up from 35%. Read the article: https://burbagelaw.com/data/2026-10-23-what-big-ai-filers-are-claiming.html Narrated with the assistance of AI. Nothing in this podcast is legal advice.

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 what it means for every contract right that expires on a date. Sources: Shakespeare and the London Theatre (SHaLT), De Montfort University, The Theatre, 1576-98: https://shalt.dmu.ac.uk/locations/theatre-1576-98/indepth.html Folger Shakespeare Library, Shakespeare Documented, Allen v. Burbage: https://shakespearedocumented.folger.edu/resource/document/allen-v-burbage Folger Shakespeare Library, Shakespeare & Beyond, Razing the Theatre, raising the Globe: https://www.folger.edu/blogs/shakespeare-and-beyond/raising-globe-theatre/ Joseph Quincy Adams, Shakespearean Playhouses (1917): https://www.gutenberg.org/files/22397/22397-h/22397-h.htm Wikipedia, Peter Street (carpenter): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Street_(carpenter) Read the article: https://burbagelaw.com/podcast.html Narrated with the assistance of AI. Nothing in this podcast is legal advice.