All posts by: Robert Yarbrough

About Robert Yarbrough

The Patent World Steps Up

July 2, 2020 Patent

Responding to Covid-19 requires innovation, and nothing encourages innovation like a functioning patent system. The USPTO has launched a program to quickly review Covid-19 related patents and to waive the fees usually required for prioritized review of those patent applications.  The average time for review of a  patent application by the USPTO usually runs a bit over […]

Q: How narrow is the protection of a design patent? A: Really narrow, if the design looks like a common product.

June 11, 2020 Patent

Lanyard Toys created a popular ‘chalk pencil’ that looked like a stubby pencil but that holds chalk.  Lanyard protected the invention with a design patent.  Remember that a design patent protects the appearance of a product, but not what it does or how it does it.*  Lanyard began selling its chalk pencils through a distributor to Toys-R-Us.  […]

Forward to the Past

April 2, 2020 Patent

Governments and scientists are scouring our vast pharmacopeia for something, anything, that may be effective against the current pandemic. While this particular infection may be new, inventors have been solving the problem of contagion since there have been inventors. This author believes that the scientists should investigate other disease-fighting inventions of the past.   In […]

Why put patent numbers on your patented invention?

March 19, 2020 Patent

We’ve all seen patent markings on products.  Something like “pat. US 6,568,969” printed, stamped or molded into the product.  Where the product itself can’t be marked, the patent marking can be printed on packaging or a label.  Here’s what the statute says, at 35 USC §287(a): Patentees… may give notice to the public that the [product] is […]

The Abstract Design

February 13, 2020 Patent

No, I’m not referring to a Cubist masterpiece. Consider the following:  After long, hard work, you’ve created a great design, say, the design above.  Eureka!  Your design would go great with anything.  You can see it on chairs, on baskets, on car seats, on bridges, on tattooed biceps everywhere.  Just think of the possibilities.    But everyone else will want to use […]

Mechanical Inventions and Patent-Ineligible Subject Matter

January 2, 2020 Patent

Mechanical inventions have been free of the uncertainty and chaos created by the Supreme Court in results-driven decisions surrounding the patentability of business methods, medical diagnoses and discoveries, and computer software.  That is, until now. The recent American Axle v Neapco decision of a three-judge panel of the Federal Circuit Court addressed a patent to a method for tuning a drive shaft to […]

New Life for an Old Doctrine

December 19, 2019 Patent

Some patents are valuable and some are not. The claims of a patent determine whether the patent is valuable or not valuable.  If the claims are too ‘narrow;’ that is, if the claims protect too little, then the patent is not very valuable and your competitor can make minor changes to a copy of your product […]

Vivisepulture*

November 7, 2019 Patent

Imagine the following: You were very sick.  It was touch and go for a while, but you’ve just awakened and feel much better.  You open your eyes and see… nothing. It’s absolutely, completely black, like the deepest cave.  ‘Am I blind?’ you ask yourself out loud, but the sounds of your own voice are all wrong. […]

Challenges to a Patent before the USPTO

October 3, 2019 Patent

In the not too distant past, a person or company unhappy about a patent had two choices:  (a) wait to be sued for patent infringement by the patent owner in Federal court and then challenge the validity of the patent, or (b) preemptively sue the patent owner in Federal Court and ask the court to […]

Contact Adam Garson, Esq.

  • National Client Base
  • 610-565-7630

Sign-up for Monthly Emails

* indicates required

Top Rated

Lawyer Adam Garson | Top Attorney Trademark Application

Connect on Social Media

Recent News

Search this Website