All posts by: Robert Yarbrough

About Robert Yarbrough

Experimental Use in Patent Law

April 3, 2025 Patent

Query: I saw a cool new patented invention, and I want to make a copy to conduct experiments and perform research.  I won’t sell the copy.  Will I be liable for patent infringement? Answer: Almost certainly, but maybe not. What is ‘Experimental Use’ in Patent Law? In certain limited circumstances, making and using a patented invention for […]

Reason for Hope at the USPTO

March 6, 2025 Patent

Any Federal employee and anyone in the private sector who does business with the Federal government is facing a period of uncertainty and forced career change.  With mass Federal layoffs and confirmation of Cabinet secretaries of non-existent or frankly troubling credentials, the intent appears to be that large portions of government will disappear and others will grind […]

Who Will Review the Patent Applications?

February 6, 2025 Patent

Long before COVID 19 and remote work, there was the USPTO ‘hoteling’ system. It started in 1997 with 18 employees, and expanded to 500 employees in 2005 and 2006, as the USPTO moved to its shiny new offices in Alexandria.  Over the years, the program has expanded to include pretty much any examiner with more than a year of […]

One Continent, One Patent, Mostly

January 2, 2025 Patent

Long, long ago (as in last year), if an invention owner wanted to protect an invention in Europe, the owner had to either (a) apply for separate patents in one or more of the countries of Europe, or (b) submit a patent application to the European Patent Office (‘EPO’) and, after approval, register the patent […]

The Patent Application That Would Not Die

December 12, 2024 Patent

Around the turn of the century, several financial analyst types came up with a way to analyze the pricing of financial services to account for all the costs of selling the service.  The basic invention allows a provider (say, an insurance company) to determine the transactional costs at each step of the transaction, such as […]

The Brain That Wouldn’t Die

November 7, 2024 Patent

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. […]

Earliest (Patent) Memories

September 19, 2024 Patent

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 […]

Who is an ‘Inventor’?

August 15, 2024 Patent

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.   […]

Nibbled to Death by Ducks

July 18, 2024 Business Law

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. […]

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