Consider this: You’re a domestic pig, a Sus domesticus. You’ve spent your entire life in a spotless pen, cared for by nice people in white coats. They feed you, they clean your pen. It’s not a bad life. Sure, you’d be better off rooting around in the mud, but the pen is all you’ve ever known. […]
The U.S. Supreme Court has played hob with the U.S. patent system, ruling that many wonderful, new, non-obvious, useful inventions cannot be protected by patent. A few brave legislators* are proposing a bi-partisan fix for what the Supreme Court has broken. The Background The right to a patent is set out in Art. 1, section […]
Cast your mind back to your earliest memory. Mine is of little green bottles of Coca-Cola on the back seat of our Plymouth, out of gas, somewhere in southern Indiana. Now think about your grandfather’s earliest memory. I’m not sure what my grandfather’s first memory was, but Grover Cleveland was President and the Wright brothers […]
Your team created a new invention, say, for a vending machine that dispenses bullets.* The patent law requires that the name of each “inventor” be listed in the patent application and the inventors’ names are included on the issued patent. Being an inventor on a patent can be a huge feather in the cap of an employee. […]
If you are a small business person, then this article is for you. A new Federal law called the ‘Corporate Transparency Act’ (CTA) goes into effect at the end of this year. The CTA was first enacted in 2020 for the purpose of combatting money laundering. “But wait,” you say, “I’m a small business person. […]
Did You Feel It? The Earth Just Shifted Under Every Designer and Design Patent Owner. In March and April, we reminded you that there are two types of patents – utility and design. Utility patents address how the better mousetrap catches mice. Design patents address the ornamental appearance of the mousetrap. Our topic this month is again design patents. […]
Last month, we discussed issues in obtaining a design patent. This month, we look at issues in enforcing the design patent. Remember that utility patents and design patents are separate and distinct and protect different things. A design patent addresses the appearance of something; for example, the appearance of a mousetrap that looks like a piece […]
Designers Take Note – Designs can be too ‘Obvious’ for a Design Patent There are two types of patents* – utility patents and design patents. Utility patents address what something is and how it works. Design patents address how something looks. An example of a utility patent is a patent for a better mousetrap with a […]
Maybe We’ll Actually Receive an Explanation from the USPTO The USPTO had a lot of patent examiners (8,568 to be exact) reviewing a lot of patent applications (462,000 new applications received last year). Those examiners make thousands of determinations every day as to whether inventions are patentable or not. Aside from forms, wording, fees, and whether […]
Those of us who work professionally in the fields of science and technology sometimes miss things that are not related to science and technology. Here’s a remarkable essay from Dennis Crouch of the PatentlyO blog. — Robert Yarbrough