All posts by: Robert Yarbrough

About Robert Yarbrough

A provisional patent application is a temporary application that provides patent-pending status for one year.  The provisional application can be a relatively low-cost way to preserve your patent rights while you develop your invention.  The protection offered by a provisional patent application is only as good as the information contained in the application and only […]

Last month, we reported that Google lost patent infringement litigation relating to the Google Street View technology and that Street View was off the air.  While Google did lose the infringement litigation, if Street View was ever down it was back on line by the time our newsletter published. — Robert Yarbrough, Esq.

Google Street View is the popular feature of Google Maps that allows you to see panoramic photographs of, well, pretty much anywhere with different orientations and magnifications.  The photographs are stitched together in software to allow the viewer to navigate through a virtual representation of the real world.  You may have seen the Google photography […]

When the Supreme Court decides a case, the result is binding on all of us.  The Court will be busy with patent, copyright and trademark cases over the next few months.  The following are a few highlights: 1.  Are computer-implemented inventions patentable?  Particularly, is a general purpose computer programmed to perform a specific function patentable?  […]

In his state of the union speech, President Obama said:  “And let’s pass a patent reform bill that allows our businesses to stay focused on innovation, not costly, needless litigation.” Both houses of Congress are well on the way to enacting new patent legislation, in part as a  reaction to the bullying of small businesses […]

By filing a patent application and paying the filing fee, you are entitled to two reviews by the patent examiner.  The examiner has a very short and strict time limit to review your application.  If the examiner does not meet that time limit, then he or she may not meet productivity goals and may be […]

In general, only the Federal government and Federal courts have jurisdiction over patent matters.   However, the Federal government does not have effective tools for protecting individuals and small businesses from abusive and unjustified bullying by patent owners.   A small business often cannot afford to defend against a threat of patent litigation and agrees to pay […]

If you are a regular reader of this newsletter, then you know that a sale or offer for sale of your invention will terminate your patent rights unless you first file a patent application.   Did you know that the on-sale bar also applies to commercial sales of the invention to you, as from a contract […]

It’s time for a story.  We’ll start with the moral – read your non-disclosure agreements and comply with ALL of the requirements of the agreement to keep your information secret.  Back to the story: In license negotiations for an invention,  Convolve and another party signed a non-disclosure agreement.   Like many non-disclosure agreements, the agreement required […]