Blog – Adam Garson Law

David Kappos was sworn in as the new Administrator of the PTO this month. As Administrator, he will be the chief executive officer of the agency and in charge of the PTO’s several thousand employees, including patent and trademark examiners.  Mr. Kappos has spent his career as in-house patent counsel to IBM, the single largest […]

For several years, the U.S. has considered methods of doing business and computer software as proper subjects for patents, while the rest of the world generally does not. In October 2008, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals considered the issue of what processes can be patented in the case of In Re Bilski.  The Federal […]

Creative people are, well, creative.  The late Michael Jackson was an inventor as well as an entertainer.  He held U.S. Patent 5,255,452 issued October 26, 1993 for a “Method and Means for Creating Anti-Gravity Illusion.”  His invention was a dance shoe featuring a heel that he could secure to the floor while performing a dance […]

Why not skip the cost and uncertainty of the patent process and simply mark your product as patented or as ‘patent pending’ when you have no patent or no patent pending? The patent statute at 35 U.S.C. 292 provides that falsely labeling something as ‘patented’ or ‘patent pending’ is subject to a fine of up […]

“Design patents” address how something looks; namely, the ornamental design of the object. Examples of patented designs include the appearance of a chest of drawers and the appearance. of silverware. “Design patents” are different from “utility patents,” which protect how something works, such as a better mousetrap. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is speeding […]