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 […]
Blog – Adam Garson Law
New technologies give rise to new intellectual property headaches. Non-fungible tokens or NFT’s are no exception. What is an NFT? For the uninitiated (and hermits), an NFT is a unique digital token that one can own, sell, or redeem. Bitcoin and Ethereum are examples of digital tokens. Cryptocurrency, however, is fungible. The Bitcoin I own is not unique […]
Dear Doc: I have heard that in times of war, intellectual property may be seized to support the war effort. Is that going to happen to Russia? Signed,Vodka (and Ukraine) Lover Dear Lover: Yes, war can be a messy affair, and that extends all the way to intellectual property rights. During World War I (the […]
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 […]
Ask Dr. Copyright © about Trademarks (huh?)
March 17, 2022
Ask Dr. Copyright
Numbers are routinely used to name products but that there are so many of them that it takes a lot of marketing to make a number distinctive.
The Parable of the Three Bears and their Camera
March 10, 2022
Patent
Whether an invention is abstract or new. They are different issues.
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 […]
Ask Dr. Copyright © About the Copyright Claims Board
December 16, 2021
Ask Dr. Copyright, Copyright
Dear Doc: Last month, you promised to follow up with some of the rules under which the new Copyright Claims Board (CCB) plans to hear “small claims” copyright cases. So? Signed,Still Sick of Being Ripped Off Dear SSoBRO: As the Doc said last month, the Copyright Claims Board (CCB) will be a three-judge panel within […]
When is a Chair just a Chair?
December 9, 2021
Trademark
When is a chair just a chair (and not a trademark)? The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (the “Board” or “TTAB”) recently considered this question in an opinion on whether Herman Miller, Inc. (“Herman Miller”) could claim trademark rights in a famous chair design dating back from the 1940s when Charles and Ray Eames developed a technique for molding […]