Blog – Adam Garson Law

Designs for patents

Entire industries are built around the business model of a cheap product and expensive consumables for that product – think ink jet printers, electric toothbrushes and shaving razors.   Controlling replacement parts also is a lucrative sideline for manufacturers of big-ticket items – prime examples are automobile fenders and other collision repair parts. So why don’t […]

Kit Kat Trademark wrapper

In late 2013 we wrote about a trademark dispute between the Hershey Company and Mars Inc. over whether Mars had trademark rights in the cross-section of its Snickers candy bar. Hershey opposed the mark on grounds that it was merely descriptive, de jure functional, generic, and failed to function as a trademark. The cross-section of […]

BMW

Have you ever had a great idea for an existing product? Were you dying to approach the manufacturer to suggest it? Do you think that the manufacturer would even listen to you? David Lazarus, an LA Times reporter, recently wrote about this subject.  Mr. Lazarus recounts the experience of a Dr. Ron Aryel, who approached […]

software

The Federal Trade Commission both announced charges of deception against Oracle and that those claims have been settled.  The claims relate to misleading statements made by Oracle relating to security vulnerabilities of the Java software.  Java is installed on 850 million personal computers, including yours.  Oracle represented to consumers that updates to the Java product corrected security […]

attorneys fees

Most parties to litigation have to pay their own attorneys’ fees.   The patent statute includes an exception – in “exceptional” circumstances, the successful party in patent infringement litigation can collect attorneys’ fees from the losing party. Not every losing litigant is liable for the other party’s fees.  The reasonableness of the party’s litigation position and the unreasonableness […]

stadium

Dear Doc: Everywhere I look today, I see advertisements about what to eat during “THE BIG GAME”. What’s up with that? Signed, Super Confused Dear Sportsfan: According to the National Football League, “Super Bowl®” is their registered trademark for television broadcasting services; television transmission services; distribution of television programming to cable and satellite television systems; […]

Book ends

Following up on a recent post, the copyright for the Diary of Anne Frank was set to expire in 2016 and, despite the controversy, so it did. The Verge reports that a spokesperson for French parliament member Isabelle Attard, posted a copy of the diary on her blog where she writes “welcome to the light, dear Anne.”  Attard […]