The Patent Office just announced a SOAR program called “Learn the three-step approach to filing a patent without an attorney and what the USPTO Midwest Regional Office can do for you.” In this program, the PTO teaches inventors how to…
Trademark applications are essential for protecting the unique branding and identity of businesses and individuals. However, the process is not always straightforward, especially when it involves the use of a person’s name or likeness in the application. In such cases,…
Trademark owners must make periodic filings to keep their trademark registrations alive. These are post-registration maintenance filings, and failure to make them correctly will result in the issuance of a post-registration office action and then potentially the cancellation of a…
Most people, trademark attorneys included, use the word “trademark” to refer to any and all types of trademarks. However, there are actually four distinct categories of trademarks. The two main types are trademark and service marks. There are two other…
In March 2023, the Patent Office launched a new First-Time Filer Expedited Examination Pilot Program. This program speeds up the examination process for patent applications filed by certain applicants. Patent applications take a long time for review. According to USPTO…
A letter of protest is one of the several ways that an outside party can affect a trademark application filed by someone else. Trademark applications undergo an examination or prosecution process that is primarily “ex parte,” which means one-sided or…
You have almost certainly seen the phrase “patent pending” on various products or inventions. Inventors love to say patent pending, and companies love to brand their products as patent pending. But what does it actually mean? Patent Pending Basics “Patent…
A few weeks ago, I wrote an article “What is a Trademark?” This week, I discuss service marks. Service marks are incredibly simple to understand. A service mark is exactly the same as a trademark, but it is for services,…
The picture at right showed up in my LinkedIn feed a few days ago. How great is it? This guy radiates optimism and determination, and he has from the moment I met him. Vance Zahorski is the founder of Line…
I have written a lot of blog posts over the last 15 years or so. A lot of these posts are on very specific issues that come up infrequently. Quite a few of them are on obscure topics. But I…