Question: When is the Largest Patent Infringement Judgement in U.S. History Not a Judgement? Answer: When the judge’s wife owns $5,000 worth of stock in the infringer! The amount at stake was $2.75 Billion. That’s Billion, with a ‘B,’ the largest patent infringement judgement in U.S. history. The parties were Centripetal Networks, Inc., the patent owner, […]
Blog – Adam Garson Law
If you needed confirmation about the value and power of branding, here’s what the latest research into evolutionary biology has to say about it. The Economist recently reported that two researchers at Tilburg University — Rob Nelissen and Marijn Meijers — discovered that brand indicators may be more powerful than previously imagined. The results of […]
Did you know that there are two trademark registers maintained by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO)? They are referred to as the “Principal” and the “Supplemental” Registers. Typically, registration in the Principal Register is most desirable and is reserved for trademarks that the PTO determines are distinctive or have acquired distinctiveness. When […]
Ask Dr. Copyright © About Legal Reasoning
September 22, 2022
Intellectual Property
Dear Doc: I’ve heard about how the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, and declared a century-old state law saying that you need a valid reason to carry a loaded gun anywhere you please because the matters in those cases were not part of the way people thought in 1789 (or 1868, either.) How […]
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 […]
What’s In a Name…?
September 12, 2022
Trademark
By now you may have heard that Sarah Palin and Bristol Palin have each filed applications in the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”) to register their individual names as federal trademarks. Sarah identified her services as “information about political issues… Educational and entertainment services, namely providing motivational speaking services in the field of […]
Trade Secret Litigation Comes to Psychedelics
September 6, 2022
Trade Secrets
In contrast to medical science’s aggressive pursuit of new therapeutics for cancers, cardiovascular disorders, or infectious disease, the discovery of new therapeutics for mental health has lagged. But, the past few years have witnessed renewed interest in the development of psychedelic therapeutics for treatment of unmet medical needs in mental health. The astonishing growth of a […]
Anybody who has tried will agree that choosing a trademark for your product or service isn’t easy. Yes, you have to choose the right mark but then you have to make sure that nobody else has made the same (or similar) choice. More often than not, you discover truth in the adage that there’s no […]
Trademark law is deceptively simple, but there are traps for the unwary. One of those traps is the doctrine of “related products“. Here’s how this works. Let’s say you have chosen what you believe to be a distinctive trademark for fruit juice. Let’s call it AWESOME BEV. So, you properly performed a trademark clearance search. You find that no one […]
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 […]