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Smells Like Trademark Infringement: Nirvana Sues Over Smiley Face Logo
On December 28, 2018, the limited liability company representing famed Seattle-area grunge rock band Nirvana sued clothing designer Marc Jacobs and fashion retailers Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue …
Assignor Estoppel and IPRs: Possible Impact of Arista v. Cisco on Employment or Assignment Agreements
The doctrine of assignor estoppel has been around for over a century and most often applied in the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and U.S. …
Conclusory Legal Opinions of Patentee’s Expert Not Enough to Prevent 12(b)(6) Dismissal
Several weeks ago, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a nonprecedential decision in Glasswall Solutions Limited v. Clearswift Ltd., affirming a district court’s …
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INTA Brief to WTO Revives Plain Packaging Debate
Australia’s Tobacco Plain Packaging Act (TPPA) was enacted in 2011 and prohibits all use of trademarks (other than word marks) on tobacco product packaging. The law seemingly …
No Debate: Article III Standing is a Requisite to Appeal an IPR
On January 11, GKN Automotive LTD. filed a brief in opposition to a petition for writ of certiorari filed by JTEKT Corporation. The question JTEKT seeks to have …
Sherry Knowles Scrutinizes an Activist Supreme Court and its Unconstitutional Approach to Patent Eligibility
The Supreme Court has brazenly admitted it is not following Congress’ statutory instructions on patent eligibility in several cases. And it has carried out virtually none of …
Brokered Patents are Not Junk—and the Reasons will Surprise You
Occasionally, we hear people say, “brokered patents are all junk.” This begs the question, “are operating companies and non-practicing entities (NPEs) spending hundreds of millions of dollars …
Dear Examiner: I am an Imposter
That feeling that you are a fraud and that, one day, people will find out you have no idea what you are doing has a name—Impostor …
In Pursuit of the Hardest, Riskiest and Most Valuable Innovation
As IBM was preparing to announce yet another milestone achievement, this year receiving 9,100 U.S. patents in 2018, I had the opportunity to sit down for an on …
Supreme Court Mulls Circuit Split on When a Copyright is Registered in Fourth Estate v. Wall-Street.com
On January 8th, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corporation v. Wall-Street.com [Case No. 17-571 (Jan. 8, 2019)] to settle a longstanding circuit …
In Support of the Right of Dissatisfied Parties to Appeal Adverse IPR Decisions
On January 11th, Askeladden LLC (Askeladden) filed an amicus brief in support of the Supreme Court accepting certiorari from JTEKT Corp. v. GKN Automotive Ltd., No. 2017-1828 (…
Fine Tuning the Trump Administration’s ROI Initiative
The Trump Administration's Return on Investment (ROI) Initiative, which is geared toward increasing the American taxpayer's benefits from federally-supported R&D, is potentially a big step forward. …
Copyright Office Seeks Mechanical Licensing Collective Members
The U.S. Copyright Office recently published a Notice in the Federal Register regarding Title I of the Orrin G. Hatch - Bob Goodlatte Music Modernization Act (…
International Trademark Filing Strategies: How, When & Where to File a Trademark Outside the U.S.
International trademarks were once only necessary for large scale businesses and corporations. In today’s global marketplace, however, nearly any business, especially a business with online exposure, …
Limiting Section 325(d) Delegation Will Ensure a More Predictable Inter Partes Review Process
Congress created Inter Partes Review (IPR) to weed out clearly invalid patents that would not have been issued had the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) …
PTAB Grants Additional Briefing to Consider the Impact of USPTO’s Revised 101 Guidance
The PTAB not only assented to Mirror Imaging’s suggestion that a five-page brief be entered in advance of the hearing but added that parties may submit …
‘It’s a Marathon, Not a Sprint’: How to Get and Keep Good Corporate Clients
Yesterday’s IPWatchdog webinar, sponsored by Anaqua, hinged on the statistic that 70% of in-house counsel surveyed by the American Bar Association in 2012 would not recommend their primary …
A New Court and a New Fix for Alice and Patent Eligibility under Section 101
In Henry Schein, Inc. v. Archer & White Sales, Inc., Case No. 17-1272, Justice Brett Kavanaugh authored an opinion applying a statutory construction principle to the Federal Arbitration …
Laura Peter Appointed Deputy Director of the USPTO
Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross today announced the appointment of Laura Peter as deputy under secretary of commerce for intellectual property and deputy director of the United …
USPTO Director Iancu tells AIPLA annual meeting: ‘It is a new day at the PTAB’
"The amendment process should allow the patent owner a meaningful process to draft narrower claims," Iancu said after pointing out that the statute specifically allows for patent …
Blockbuster Restasis Patent Goes Down at Federal Circuit a Victim of Rule 36
Without any explanation, analysis or justification, Chief Judge Prost, and Judges Reyna and Hughes affirmed the decision of colleague Judge Bryson. A patent to a blockbuster drug …
EPO Publishes Revised Guidelines on Computer-implemented inventions
The European Patent Office Guidelines 2018 were recently published on the European Patent Office (EPO) website. All substantial changes in the new Guidelines relate mainly to sections discussing …
Does the Supreme Court even appreciate the patent eligibility chaos they created?
At the beginning of this decade the United States Supreme Court embarked on a path that would ultimately result in a significant re-writing of the law of …
Federal Circuit Issues Another Rule 36 Patent Eligibility Loss to a Patent Owner
This particular Rule 36 patent eligibility loss for the patent owner came in Digital Media Technologies, Inc. v. Netflix, Inc., et al., affirmed the district court’s finding …
Koh rules Qualcomm is Obligated to License SEPs to Competitors
Qualcomm was not refusing to abide by its agreed to promises to license SEPs as required by the SSOs, as alleged by the FTC. Instead, Qualcomm wasn't …
The Most Iconic (and Patented) Toys and Games of All Time
Since America’s earliest days, a lot of creative and innovative toys have come through the consumer marketplace. Many becoming so iconic they have become household names …
The Year in Patents: The Top 10 Patent Stories from 2018
Before proceeding it is worth noting two things. First, that my list focuses on specific and identifiable events. Second, there are a number of stories worth mentioning, …
Cardiac Monitoring Patent Invalidated Under § 101 as Patent Ineligibility
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani of the District of Massachusetts signed an order dismissing a patent infringement suit brought by Malvern, PA-based wireless medical technology company …
Boston Patent Law Association Announces Support for IPO-AIPLA Section 101 Legislative Fix
The Boston Patent Law Association (BPLA) has announced its support for a proposal for a legislative fix to 35 U.S.C. § 101, the statute governing basic patentability in …
Supreme Court Refuses Another 101 Patent Eligibility Appeal
REAL argued in its petition that step two of the Alice test used to determine invalidity under Section 101 requires questions of fact that were never asked by …
What Mattered in 2018: Industry Insiders Reflect on the Biggest Moments in IP
There is near unanimity that the Supreme Court's decisions in Oil States Energy v. Greene's Energy Group, 138 S.Ct. 1365 (2018) was among the most significant events of the …
USPTO to Propose Rule Requiring Foreign Trademark Applicants to Use U.S. Licensed Attorneys to File Documents
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is working on developing a rule that would require foreign trademark applicants and registrants to be represented by a U.…
Revised Patent Eligibility Guidance Effectively Defines What is an Abstract Idea
In essence, by narrowly identifying certain subject matter groups as being those that properly qualify for characterization as abstract ideas the USPTO is effectively defining what is …
Registering your website with the Chinese government?
Doing business in China is exciting and potentially lucrative; however, there are “hidden” traps. Most of these hidden traps have been extensively discussed in the Western world – …
What happens when lifestyle drugs like Viagra and Cialis lose patent protections?
Each year, millions of men rely on pharmaceuticals like Viagra and Cialis for their erectile dysfunction (ED), but they may not be the only ones facing dysfunctionalities. …
Federal Circuit Affirms TTAB Refusal to Register ‘CHURRASCOS’
In a May 13, 2016 decision, the Federal Circuit affirmed a Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) decision upholding an Examiner’s denial of registration based on a finding …
Alternate Approaches to the Valuation of Intellectual Property
Techniques for valuing intellectual property continue to develop, especially as access to information becomes easier and more efficient. The practice of valuing intellectual property has only been …
Reflections on Taking the Patent Bar Exam
If you are reading this article beyond the title, you are either preparing to take the USPTO’s patent bar exam or you are considering whether you …
Design Patent Infringement: How to decide if you should sue
First, look at the merits of the infringement claim. They may be stronger than you think, and you can thank a 2008 ruling for that. That year, the …
The Myth of the 18-Month Delay in Publishing Patent Applications
Starting in November 2000, the USPTO started publishing patent applications 18 months after their earliest filing date. So the simple assumption is that you file a patent and 18 months …
Beat the Odds: How to Get Your Invention Licensed
Many inventors believe the way to get a company interested in their inventions is to write a letter – and then hope they receive an invitation to begin …
Top Patent Firms for 2016
A list of the top patent firms that are ranked based on the total number of U.S. utility patents that issued in 2016 where the patent firms …
Does University Patent Licensing Pay Off?
Patent licensing or creating new companies is not a get rich quick path for schools despite the occasional blockbuster invention or Google spin-out. Indeed, enriching universities is …
These Are the 20 Hardest and Easiest Art Units
Art Unit 3689 has the lowest allowance rate at 7.7%. Art Unit 3659 has the highest at 98.3%. Oddly enough, these two art units are from the same technology center. It’…
Do Patents Truly Promote Innovation?
Invention, it has been shown, is driven primarily not by genius or happenstance but rather by markets and the expectation of the profit that can be gained …
Comic-Con Considerations: Cosplay, the Right of Publicity, and Copyright Concerns
For as much as Comic-Con is about comics, TV, and upcoming movies, it’s not hard to see that a large portion of its allure for fans …
10 Years Later – A Look at the Efficacy of the Pre-Appeal Brief Conference Program
For 61% of the non-defective requests, the panel decided that there was an actual issue for appeal, such that the applicant would either need to file an Appeal …
Top Patent Firms for 2015
We compiled a list of the top patent firms, which are ranked based on the total number of U.S. utility patents that issued in 2015 where the …
The Cost of Obtaining a Patent in the US
Estimating US patent costs is a difficult matter because so much depends on the technology involved, but answering "it depends" is not particularly insightful or helpful. What …
Protecting Ideas: Can Ideas Be Protected or Patented?
Unfortunately, despite what you may have heard from late night television, satellite radio commercials or snake oil salesmen, there is no effective way to protect an idea… …
Moving from Idea to Patent – When Do You Have an Invention?
In order to protect an idea it must mature into an invention first. This means that you need to be able to explain to others how to …
Patent Searching 101: A Patent Search Tutorial
Inventors and entrepreneurs who are looking to cut costs frequently want to do their own patent search. This is a wise first move, but inventors need to …
Patent Claim Drafting 101: The Basics
When writing a claim it is important to describe how the various components are structured and how the various components interact and connect. First, include a claim …
The Top 5 Mistakes Inventors make with their Invention
Generally speaking the first step toward commercializing an invention and making money is typically to pursue the patent path. For those new to the industry it is …
Getting Your Invention to Market: Licensing vs. Manufacturing
Of course, whether you are going to pursue licensing or manufacturing, for the first lesson is to realize that there are no tricks to invention marketing. It …
Good, Bad & Ugly: Truth About Provisional Patent Applications
Whether that provisional patent application can ever be useful moving forward is unknown and unknowable at the time it is filed, which allows for those who knowingly …
Tricks & Tips to Describe an Invention in a Patent Application
One excellent way to make sure you are including an appropriately detailed description that treats a variety of variations and alternatives is to have many professional patent …
Patent Drawings and Invention Illustrations, What do you Need?
If you are going to file a patent application you must have drawings to include in the application, but patent drawings are not the only type of "…
The Law of Recipes: Are Recipes Patentable?
In most cases the typical recipe for a "killer Margarita" or "the best barbeque sauce ever" will not be patentable, but the only way to know for …
The Benefits of a Provisional Patent Application
Like any other patent application, a provisional patent application is effective to stop the clock relative to so-called statutory bars and immediately upon filing a provisional patent …
When is an Invention Obvious?
That being said, the possibility that a utility patent could be obtained cannot be definitively ruled out even if an invention seems quite likely to be obvious, …
Patent Drawings 101: The Way to Better Patent Applications
To properly accomplish the goal of having the best disclosure possible you should also not think in terms of a single patent drawing or illustration, but rather …
Utility Patent Applications – Content and Substance
In order to obtain a utility patent one must file what is referred to as a non-provisional application or a non-provisional utility application. It is called “non-provisional” …
