Understanding patent claims is crucial when you are trying to understand what a patent is and what it can do for you as an inventor. I recently read in Mechanics of Patent Claim Drafting by John Landis a great, easy-to-comprehend…
After listening to a fascinating interview of double-amputee Scott Rigsby on IM Talk, I began thinking about the world of prosthetics and how it relates to my career in patents. With nearly all medical devices, intellectual property protection can often…
Lara Pearson, operator of the brandGEEK website, has created an avenue for victims of trademark bullying. Those who feel they have been wrongly pushed around by someone exerting a little too much influence with a trademark can complain at Brand…
When a patent application is filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the applicant currently must sign a Declaration attesting to several things. First, that the applicant is the original and first inventor of the claimed subject matter….
Disclaimers are a frequently raised issue by the Trademark Office. I see such rejections most often when a mark owner files the application himself and includes too much material in the mark, but they do occasionally arise when a trademark…
I’ve already received many calls from clients about the American Invents Act. For those who want an online reference, the USPTO has created a site that contains some very basic information about the changes it will bring. Some of those…
You may have heard that a patent reform bill was recently passed by Congress reforming the way our patent system runs. If signed by the President, it will bring the largest changes to the patent system in over a hundred…
Trademark applications mature into trademark registrations and can be very important and valuable assets for a business. Anyone can file a trademark application, and most people can successfully “register” a trademark. However, the value of a DIY trademark is dubious,…
David Abrams and Dennis Crouch have published a comparative study on the switch from a first-to-invent system to a first-to-file system in Canada and applied the analysis to the potential change to the US patent system by the America Invents…
Patently-O did a brief post yesterday on a selected group of patent applications to see how the applications have proceeded through the PTO. Of the applications filed in February 2006, 57% have matured into a patent, 28% are abandoned, and…