All posts by: Robert Yarbrough

About Robert Yarbrough

Can a State Protect an Invention?

September 15, 2022 Patent

We think of the protection of intellectual property (patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets) as matters of Federal law.  What about the states?  Can, say, Pennsylvania protect an invention by state law independent of the Federal government? The principal impediment to state protection of intellectual property is the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution: “…This Constitution, and […]

Swimwear Technology

August 4, 2022 Patent

As we sit on the beach, trying to avoid the sun, what better time to contemplate  swimwear inventions?  Consider the ‘Two Piece Full Body Weighted Swimsuit’ of U.S. Pat. Pub. 2004/0221,355 by Garcia, published November 11, 2004 and shown as fig. 1.  It’s a training aid for competitive swimmers.  The dark patches are weights, up […]

Design Patents – When is an Ornamental Design not Ornamental Enough?

July 7, 2022 Patent

Utility patents protect what things do.  Design patents protect how things look.  Design patents have existed for well over 100 years:  “[w]homever invents any new, original, and ornamental design for an article of manufacture may obtain a patent therefor … .”  So the design patent only applies to an ‘article of manufacture;’ that is, a physical product, and only […]

When Can You Sell Your Invention Without Losing Patent Rights?

June 9, 2022 Patent

You’ve developed a wonderful new product.  The world will soon be your oyster.  But when can you start selling your product?  Can you sell your new product before you file a patent application?   Before the Leahy-Smith America Invents  Act (‘AIA’) became law in 2011, the answer was clear.   OLD LAW: A person shall be […]

When is a Patent Claim ‘Indefinite’ and Why Should We Care?

May 12, 2022 Patent

Patent ‘claims’ appear at the end of a patent and determine what is protected by the patent.  One purpose of the claims is to inform competitors of what they can do without infringing.  Consider the following (entirely bogus) patent claim to an automobile:  An automobile, the automobile having four attractive wheels supporting an optimized frame […]

Patents, Trademarks and Copyrights Crucial to U.S. Jobs

April 7, 2022 Intellectual Property

63 million U.S. jobs, or 44% of all U.S. employees, work in intellectual property (‘IP’) intensive industries that rely on the value created by patents, trademarks or copyrights.  That’s from a report published by the USPTO.In other highlights from the report, employees of IP-intensive industries are likely to: The highest incomes are in copyright-intensive industries (that’s content […]

David Whips Goliath in the USITC (What’s that?)

February 3, 2022 Litigation, Patent

The United States International Trade Commission (USITC) is not a Federal court – in many ways, it’s better than a Federal court where U.S. patents are concerned.   The USITC is a U.S. administrative agency charged with, among other things, handling claims by a U.S. patent owner that imported products infringe a U.S. patent.  To trigger USITC […]

And the Award for Patent Troll of the Year Goes to… Caltech?

January 6, 2022 Patent

About a decade ago, there was a huge uproar over ‘patent trolls,’ also known as ‘non-practicing entities’ – companies that did not make products but that owned patents.  The business model of the patent troll was to sue or threaten infringers and to collect patent infringement damages.  The coordinated attack on the U.S. patent system […]

Covid and Patents

December 2, 2021 Patent

Should the Covid vaccines be set free in the world, so that everyone can gain immunity?  Few would argue that’s a bad idea, since more variants may arise in under-vaccinated populations, those variants will undoubtedly spread to us, and those variants may be resistant to our vaccines. But what about the rights of the creative […]

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