The Patent Office is delaying the non-DOCX penalty fees it had said would go into effect at the beginning of 2023. As part of its “modernization” efforts, the Patent Office has been pushing patent attorneys, agents, and pro se filers…
When a trademark owner dies, there can be uncertainty in who owns the trademark or whether the trademark is even still valid and subsisting. There is always an owner of a trademark, usually a company but sometimes an individual. No…
Corporate attorney Kami Galvani writes today’s post about signing a contract that might be incorrect, might include provisions that are not applicable to your situation, or might have terms with which you cannot comply. The Dilemma I’ll pose a hypothetical…
In the past year, I have dealt with one issue more times than I have in the previous ten years of practice: correcting or changing the applicant name in a trademark application during prosecution. Apparently trademark applicants are mis-identifying themselves…
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…
Trademark owners will soon have a shorter office action response deadline. Beginning December 3, 2022, the Trademark Office will cut the normal six-month response period to just three months. When a trademark application undergoes examination, the Trademark Office sends an…
Clients often file a provisional application and then file a non-provisional patent application on the same or similar subject matter within a year. Clients and attorneys sometimes loosely refer to this as converting a provisional application into a non-provisional patent…
A trademark coexistence agreement is an agreement between two parties about their respective use of the same or similar trademarks. They generally allow two trademark owners to use identical or similar marks, usually in a manner designed to avoid consumer…
Many sophisticated business contracts contain limitation of liability clauses. By contractually limiting your liability, you can better plan for your level of exposure in the event something goes wrong. Limitation of liability provisions can be helpful risk management tools if…
An author is petitioning the Supreme Court for the second time, arguing that Texas A&M should be liable for copyright infringement after copying an important page from his book. The case raises questions that the Court has touched upon before:…