How Not to Write a Patent


Patent searches allow an inventor to determine whether an invention is patentable and, if so, what aspects of the invention are patentable.
When an application has been fully examined and approved for issuance, the Patent Office issues a Notice of Allowance. The Notice of Allowance does not confer patent rights, however. You must still respond to the Notice of Allowance by both…
I had a friend get in touch with me a while back about the legalities of web scraping. He found, and I’m finding too, a tremendous lack of information about web scraping. I think this is a result of there being so many strange ramifications depending on the many variables in the facts of each situation. I got interested in the legal issues involved in web scraping, and so I put together a hypothetical to test some of them out.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is largely protected from the government shutdown but is not immune from other plans that have been brewing for a long time. In my circle, there has been a lot of talk about…
My invention has both functional and ornamental aspects – can I file for both utility and design patent protection? Absolutely. Both aspects of the invention can be protected. Some considerations (there will probably be others): Timing: Ensure that both applications…
In honor of the Rubik’s Cube craze that has recently hit the Galvani household, we decided to take a closer look at how this iconic toy was created and what type of intellectual property protection it has enjoyed over the…