All posts by: Robert Yarbrough

About Robert Yarbrough

America Invents Act, Part 2: ‘Prior Art’

October 31, 2011 Patent

This is the second of our newsletters to discuss the ‘America Invents Act,’ which was signed into law on September 16, 2011.  The Act moves the US patent system away from ‘first to invent’ and to ‘first to file.’  So what does ‘first to file’ mean for an inventor or invention-owning business? The most important […]

Crucial Information for Inventors

September 30, 2011 Patent

The America Invents Act at section 102 changes the way that inventors and companies that own inventions do business. In one of the most important developments for inventors and invention owners, ALL U.S. PATENT RIGHTS IMMEDIATELY TERMINATE if any of the following events occurs on or after March 17, 2013, unless the inventor has filed […]

USPTO Re-Starts “Fast Track” for Patents

September 30, 2011 Patent

As of September 26, 2011, you can now pay for quick review of your patent application.  The PTO will commit to reviewing your patent application within one year.  Great, you say.  What’s the hitch?  The answer: it’s expensive, as in $4,800.00 for a large entity and $2,800 for a small entity, on top of all […]

When Is Computer Software An Unpatentable Mental Process?

August 26, 2011 Patent

On August 16, 2011, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in CyberSource v Retail Decisions concluded that a claim to a method for detecting Internet fraud was not patentable.  The court also concluded that a claim to computer memory storing software to implement the method also was not patentable.  The Federal Circuit treated the claim […]

Employees, Patent Rights and Government Contracts – Who owns that invention?

July 28, 2011 Licensing, Litigation, Patent

Every employer that engages in research and development work should obtain a present assignment of patent rights in future inventions from every employee.  The U.S. Supreme Court underscored this fact in the recent case of Standford v Roche. Stanford University’s research employee worked on a project to detect HIV infection.  In the employment agreement, the […]

House of Representatives Passes the ‘America Invents Act’

June 29, 2011 Patent

On Friday (June 24, 2011), the U.S. House of Representatives passed the ‘America Invents Act,’  a version of which already has passed the U.S. Senate.  The Senate and House bills now will move to a conference committee to iron out the differences between the two versions.  The ‘America Invents Act’ soon will become law and […]

Who Owns Your Invention?

May 26, 2011 Patent

James Joyce (no, not the author) learned the hard way that selecting your form of business and assigning ownership are crucial steps in promoting an invention.  Mr. Joyce invented a new computer firewall and granted an exclusive license in the patent to TechGuard Security LLC, which was owned by Mr. Joyce and his wife.  Mr. […]

New Opportunity For Patent Applicants.

May 26, 2011 Patent

Patent examiners necessarily have a limited time to spend on each patent application and may miss the point of an invention or of the prior art.  An interview between the applicant and the examiner, either by phone or in person, can be a useful way to educate the examiner.  Under the current system, the only […]

Trade Secret Theft is a Crime

April 30, 2011 Lipton Weinberger & Husick Blog

As Mike Yu learned, industrial espionage can earn you hard time.  Mr. Yu is a Chinese national with permanent residency status in the U.S.  He worked as an engineer for Ford Motor Company for ten years.  Before departing Ford in 2007, Mr. Yu purloined computer files containing several thousand of Ford’s sensitive documents, including design […]

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