A patent must identify the correct inventors. A patent which names the wrong inventors can be invalidated. Sometimes, friends and spouses want to identify each other to be nice, but a person is only an inventor if they have contributed…
Aaron Moncur of Pipeline Design & Engineering recently interviewed me for his podcast Being an Engineer. We talk a little about my early engineering time, but mostly about the transition from engineering to law and the basics of patent protection. Please…
The scope of protection of a design patent is defined by the drawings presented therein. In that way, design patents can often seem like a very simple or straightforward form of protection: show some drawings in an application, file it,…
As discussed earlier, the Patent and Trademark Office is extending certain deadlines where a delay in filing a paper or paying a fee was due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Initially, the guidance from the USPTO was to include a specific…
The design patent “Rocket Docket” program is the system the US Patent Office established to speed up the examination of design patent applications. Recognizing that design patents cover the external appearance of an item, and that this external appearance, contrasted…
The CARES Act gave the US Patent and Trademark Office the authority to toll, waive, adjust, or modify deadlines related to patent and trademark owners in light of the coronavirus pandemic. At the end of March, the USPTO announced it…
About two months ago, the Trademark Office announced entities would have to begin disclosing their personal email addresses in trademark applications and trademark registrations. I joined almost 200 trademark attorneys in protest of this rule. We argued that it would…
A design patent protects the ornamental and aesthetic aspects of a functional item. Whereas a utility patent protects the parts of the item, the way its parts cooperatively move or operate together, how they are structured and arranged, etc., design…
UPDATE: APRIL 28: The USPTO has updated its program which changes some of the information below regarding dates. Read more here. The US Patent and Trademark Office is allowing a 30-day extension to some trademark filing and fee deadlines missed…
UPDATE: APRIL 28: The USPTO has updated its program which changes some of the information below regarding dates. Read more here. The Patent Office is allowing certain filing and fee deadlines to be extended due to the coronavirus pandemic in…