What is a patent license?
Patents can be thought as a “bundle of rights.” An issued patent carries with it a number of exclusive rights, each of which can be divided up individually from the others – removed from the bundle like one of many…
Original, Continuation, and Divisional Application Strategy
The law prohibits an inventor from patenting two separate inventions within one patent application. However, sometimes an application is written with more than one invention. What happens after that original application is filed depends on the structure of the description…
FBI Anti-Piracy Warning for Your Films
When you watch a movie or TV series on DVD at home, one of the first things you are typically greeted with is a blue screen displaying an FBI logo and some language about a $250,000 fine for copying the…
Right to Use versus Right to Exclude
The law provides for different rights, depending on the subject matter concerned, the evolution of the law through courts and legislative bodies, and practical implications. Some people think that a patent or a trademark gives the owner a right to…
Patent Office Action Response Deadlines
When the Patent Office sends you an Office Action, you typically have a few deadlines for response. The OA will indicate the deadline on its front page: 3 months, but that time can be extended up to 6 months with…
Registering for Federal Copyright Protection
Copyright is protection for “original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression.” If you make something creative on your own, and it is something tangible or on something tangible, the work is eligible for copyright protection. The…
Trademark Opposition
A trademark opposition can be part of the registration application process. Typically, a successful application proceeds through the Trademark Office in a predictable manner: the application is filed, the applicant and examiner communicate and work on the application, and the…
Who owns my logo? The graphic design company that developed it or me?
You may have hired a graphic artist or agency to develop your company’s logo. Do you know who owns the rights in it? There are two main types of intellectual property rights that can reside in a logo: copyright and…
Lemons, Lemonade, and Legal Advice
Lawyers are famous infamous for saying “no.” Clients rarely want to hear that answer, but part of fulfilling a lawyer’s obligations sometimes requires it. When I was a kid, I played with G.I.Joes. I recently delved into the recesses of…
Copyright Protection and Fonts
A friend of mine is working on a children’s book and wanted to use some highly stylized fonts for the story. She asked me if she had to worry about copyright protection and fonts she might use, but I couldn’t…