What Do We Want? IP Stakeholders Weigh in on Wildest Dreams for 2026

Sterne Kessler Director Richard D. Coller, III shared his hopes for intellectual property law in the new year with IPWatchdog.

Coller said, “If I had three wishes from a patent law genie, they would be:

(1) That AI tools keep getting better at handling the boring parts of patent practice, freeing patent attorneys to do what we most enjoy and are best at: strategy, storytelling, and protecting real innovation.

(2) That the time from issue fee payment to patent issuance at the USPTO shrinks substantially and is less of a black box.

(3) That the USPTO liberalizes its duty of disclosure practice under 37 CFR § 1.56, joining most of the rest of the world in foregoing burdensome and inefficient IDS practices.”