Dear Doc:What’s “the public domain”? Why should I care? And why is 1923 an important year? Signed, Nothing Better to do Today Than Worry About Obscure Copyright Law Issues   Dear Nothing, &c.:   When the drafters of the US Constitution peered into their famous crystal ball (you know, the one that let them foresee […]

You can make big money selling T-shirts. Visit teespring.com and you’ll get the point. It’s no wonder that we get many inquiries about how to trademark images appearing on T-shirts. Typically, the T-shirt entrepreneur has a great idea for a t-shirt slogan or design and, of course, they want to protect it.  So, the entrepreneur […]

Stryker Corporation sued Zimmer, Inc. for patent infringement.  There was no question whether Zimmer infringed Stryker’s patent – it did.  Zimmer believed Stryker’s patent was invalid and believed that it would prevail in the infringement lawsuit.  Zimmer had good reason to believe that the Stryker patent was invalid.  As a result, Zimmer continued to infringe […]

I’ve read that you can’t copyright a recipe. The US Copyright Office says, “Copyright law does not protect recipes that are mere listings of ingredients. Nor does it protect other mere listings of ingredients such as those found in formulas, compounds, or prescriptions.” On the other hand, I’ve read that some things like colors (pink […]

Tangible or Intangible?  This is actually an interesting question. If you erect a sign displaying a trademark over a store, isn’t that a tangible representation of a trademark? Of course it is.  On the other hand, if you were to license your trademark for use by another company, you don’t transfer a physical representation of […]

Anyone who deals with patents should be familiar with the concept of prior art. ‘Prior art’ is critical to patenting and can prevent your invention from qualifying for a patent, even if it’s a great invention. Prior art generally is a prior publication such as a patent, patent publication, treatise, advertisement, article on the web, […]