Late Breaking News: Ghostbusters Prevails Over Day of the Dead After Initial Defeat If you’re a vodka connoisseur, you probably know that Dan Aykroyd of Saturday Night Live, the Blues Brothers, and Ghostbusters fame partnered with another artist and Globefill, Inc. to manufacture and market vodka packaged in a skull shaped bottle and labeled as Crystal […]
Blog – Adam Garson Law
When is a Defense not a Defense?
April 7, 2017
Patent
Now For a Riddle: When is a Defense not a Defense?… (Pause for effect)… Answer – When the Supreme Court says it’s not. Not so many years ago, patents were very powerful. A patent owner was entitled to a court order stopping infringement almost as a matter of course whenever the patent owner proved infringement. […]
Ask Dr. Copyright about the “Administrative State”
March 16, 2017
Patent
Dear Doc: The US Constitution directs, in Article I, Section 8, Clause 8, that Congress set up a patent and copyright system, “To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.” Congress long ago did that by […]
Trademark owners have a duty to defend their trademarks against possible and actual infringement. Ignore infringers and your trademark rights may evaporate. Defending trademarks, however, is a full time job and not for the weak of heart (or wallet). The beverage industry is a breeding ground of intellectual property disputes and trademark owners aggressively defend […]
Death of a Poster Child
March 2, 2017
Patent
A poster child for patent trolls, that is. MPHJ Technology gained notoriety and the ire of states, the Federal Trade Commission and Congress by buying several weak patents for $1 in 2012 and then sending out over 16,000 demand letters to businesses across the U.S. demanding payment for alleged infringement. The patents relate to scan-to-email […]
Ask Dr. Copyright — Copyright Week
February 16, 2017
Ask Dr. Copyright, Copyright, Intellectual Property
Dear Doc: I heard that January 16-20, 2017 was “Copyright Week”. Wow! Most of us get one day a year to celebrate. How does it feel to get a whole week? Signed, Putative N. Fringer Dear Mr. Fringer: I must say, it feels pretty darn good! Just think…a whole week when millions […]
Amazon Gets More Serious About Infringers
February 9, 2017
Copyright, Intellectual Property, Trademark
If you sell branded products on Amazon.com, you may know that infringement is rampant. You put up a product, it gets popular, and all of a sudden, like a many-headed hydra, other sites spring up selling “your” product at reduced prices. Getting Amazon to remove infringing products can be a challenge even for IP lawyers […]
Why Are Federally-Financed Drugs So Expensive?
February 2, 2017
Patent
After WWII, the Federal government and science in general rode a wave of public approbation resulting from the stupendous success of the war-ending Bomb. Government money poured into basic scientific research, leading to many discoveries, many inventions, and many patents. Back in the day (President Truman’s day, that is), the Government collectively decided that the […]
Are Patents Still Important to the Pharmaceutical Industry?
January 26, 2017
Patent
You betcha. The business model of Big Pharma depends on patents. Without strong, enforceable patents, privately-funded pharmaceutical research would not exist. Case in point: Gilead sells the highly effective ‘Solvadi’ hepatitis C drug for $1000 per pill. That’s $84,000 for a twelve-week course. Idenix, a Merck subsidiary, argued that Gilead’s Solvadi infringed Idenix patents. A jury […]
Supreme Courts Decides Apple v Samsung (just kidding)
January 19, 2017
Patent
Speaking of Apple v Samsung, the Supreme Court issued its decision in this long-running litigation about design patents. To recap, Samsung copied the design of Apple’s iPhone and infringed Apple’s design patents in the process. There is no question whether the Apple patents are valid – they are. There is no question whether Samsung infringed […]