Blog – Adam Garson Law

deposit boxes

Consider the following situation:  you learn that your competitor has a pending U.S. patent application for a product that you make.  Any resulting patent could be disastrous for your company.  What can you do to stop or limit your competitor’s application? The PTO has proposed a new rule that would allow you to notify your […]

Internet and Intellectual Property

You’ve probably heard about the bankruptcy of Eastman Kodak Company.  Yes, everyone sees the irony in a once successful company famous for its technical innovations failing to keep pace with the rapid speed of digital technology.  Should we write off Kodak and leave it to the dry and dusty bins of history — as one […]

Copyright concepts

History, though sometimes a dry and dusty exercise, may occasionally teach important lessons in trademark law, and in common sense (a quality often found lacking in trademark attorneys).  Case in point: the dispute between Warner Bros. movie studio and the Marx Brothers, over the film “A Night in Casablanca”. Our story opens in 1947.  Groucho […]

combo lock

Walmart currently is sponsoring a ‘get on the  shelf‘ competition to identify new products for sale through Walmart.com and its brick-and-mortar stores.  The contest rules require that applicants submit an entry form and a link to a YouTube video of the product.  After the entries are vetted by Walmart, links to the YouTube videos will be placed on the ‘get on […]

gavel of justice

Most inventors wait two to three years for a decision on a utility patent application by the PTO, and some wait much longer.  Applicants with ample resources can pay an extra PTO fee ($2,400.00 for a small entity) for quick review.  If your invention will result in a cleaner environment or reduced use of fossil […]

Internet and Intellectual Property

The owner of the popular Chickie and Pete’s (CP) restaurant chain, Pete Ciarrocchi, is on a tear trying to maintain his monopoly over the use of “crab fries,” a seasoned french fry product, which Philadelphia Magazine claims Ciarrocchi invented.  Not so says a handful of restaurants in the Maryland eastern shore who have orchestrated a […]

Copyright

‘Best mode’ is the requirement that a patent applicant disclose the best way that the applicant knows to practice an invention.  The purpose of the ‘best mode’ requirement is to fulfill the public disclosure goals of the patent system by preventing a patent applicant from obtaining a patent while at the same time keeping the […]