dentify and discuss every patent issue in this fact pattern, provide a rule of law, a comprehensive analysis, and state how that issue would be resolved. Be sure to think broadly and be thorough in your approach to identifying issues. This includes identifying all arguments for and against the patenting of an invention, and when it might make more sense for other intellectual property forms of protection to take place.

Dave, Taylor, Pat, and Chris all work for Foo Fighters Corp., an American corporation that manufactures trucks. All employees are required to sign a confidentiality agreement stating that they will not disclose any information relating to the companys work that is not currently at market. For the past two years, the group has been working feverishly to develop a revolutionary truck bed to a pick-up truck that can be raised and rotated. Essentially, the invention would turn a pick-up truck into a miniature dump truck. Foo Fighters is going to call the invention Rsquared. This is because of the double r sound in raise and rotate and because the shape of the truck bed itself will be square.

Marcus, Winston, Ben, and Ted all work for Mumford Corp, a British corporation that manufactures robotics. The group has been developing a robotic arm that can sense the types of objects on a surface and interact with a humans verbal cues to pick up and deliver the object. For example, a surface could include a camera, pencil, eyeglasses, and travel mug. A human could utilize an app and verbally direct the robot to pick up and deliver the pencil to the human. The robot would scan the surface, identify the pencil, grasp it, and deliver it to the human. The purpose of the invention is to assist people with compromised mobility. Mumford markets the robotic arm as The Helping Hand.

Part of the development of R-squared included a robotic swivel point that raised, lowered, and turned the truck bed so that the lowest point would not interfere with the chassis system of the truck. Foo Fighters cleared R-squared for experimental use on January 29, 2019. Currently, Chris has a prototype pick-up truck that includes the R-squared truck bed. He uses it in his daily life to test how well the truck bed performs in various conditions such as snow, rain, and heat. As well, he utilizes the truck for the tasks he performs in his own life such as laying mulch, towing a fishing boat, traveling with kayaks and paddleboards, pouring gravel, and helping various friends move. Foo Fighters thinks that it is essential that prior to market, Rsquared is used consistently for about a year with uses typical of that of an average customer.

After Foo Fighters was satisfied that R-squared was a successful invention, it filed its patent application with the USPTO on February 1, 2022. The patent application seeks protection for the truck bed itself along with its square shape, which is unique since no other pick-up trucks on the market are perfectly square. Dave, Taylor, Pat, and Chris were all listed as inventors, even though Pats contributions were limited to the design aspects of R-squared only and not the technology.

The Helping Hand was sold to medical supply companies on November 9, 2021, which was five years after Mumford began developing it. Mumford filed a patent application with WIPO on February 5, 2022, listing its corporate name as the inventor. The patent application seeks protection for the robotic arm itself, the act of identifying, grabbing, and delivering an object, and the app that allows the human user to interact with it.

After a falling out with the company, Winston left Mumford and on February 8, 2022, began working for Supreme Medical, Inc., an American corporation that specializes in creating equipment used during medical procedures. Diana and Florence of Supreme Medical were in the process of developing a robot that would sanitize the numerous handheld tools used during knee replacement surgeries between their multiple uses during the same surgery. No such technology exists and the standard in the medical industry is that the surgeon begins with sanitized tools and no additional sanitation or cleaning occurs during the surgery. The invention was called Clean Hands.

Winston shared the patent application for The Helping Hand with Diana and Florence. Within a week, they were able to fine tune Clean Hands to be voice activated as opposed to being operated by the surgeon using a foot pedal. Supreme Medical immediately began selling Clean Hands to orthopedic surgeons. It plans to file a patent application no later than June 15, 2022.

Dave left Foo Fighters in March 2020 to work for Guns N Roses Inventors Corp. The company specializes in developing eco-friendly bullet powder. The roses that the company develops can be processed into gun powder. In 2016, Guns N Roses developed the November Rain rose which bears champagne-colored roses and is characterized by its ability to thrive in extremely wet conditions. The rare color is produced by taking a pale pink rose and submerging it in water containing brown pigment, and watching the rose pull the brown pigment up into the plant, including the flower, as transpiration occurs and the plant takes up water.

Typically, gun powder is made by combining potassium nitrate, sulphur, and charcoal. Potassium nitrate supplies oxygen for the reaction. Charcoal provides carbon and other fuel for the reaction. Sulfur serves as fuel and lowers the temperature required to ignite the mixture.

Guns N Roses has successfully substituted a chemically reduced version of petals from November Rain roses for the postassium nitrate. Thus, it can manufacture gun powder in a more environmentally friendly way.

Guns N Roses will be filing a patent application with the USPTO for both the November Rain Rose itself, the process of reducing the rose to a substance able to be used for gun powder, and the gun powder itself.

Dave contacted Foo Fighters to state that he will sue the company if it does not give the patent rights of R-squared, if granted, to him. After he left his meeting with Foo Fighters, he stopped at Guns N Roses to bring a dozen November Rain roses home to his partner Jordyn.