The past several years have seen a concerted attack on the patent system, waged by a curious coalition of interests from the information technology industry and foreign governments and corporations. This attack, waged in Law Journals, in the Congress, and in the courts, has whittled away at the value of patents, making it more difficult […]
Blog – Adam Garson Law
A popular method for protecting and managing intellectual property (“IP”) assets — high valued assets, in particular — is to transfer them to a special company created for the purpose of creating, protecting, licensing, and monitoring, IP. Typically, a corporation may create a subsidiary to hold its IP, which it may license back to the […]
PTO “Green Technology” Program Extended
January 27, 2011
Patent
In December, 2009, the PTO implemented a ‘green technology’ program to accelerate review of patent applications relating to several green technologies, including: · development of renewable energy resources, · energy conservation, · greenhouse gas emission reduction and · environmental quality. One of our clients with a green invention opted for accelerated review under the program […]
Patent Reform Redux
January 27, 2011
Patent
Every congress for the last six years has seen one or more bills introduced to address patent “reform.” The new 112th Congress is no exception. Senators Leahy (D), Hatch (R), and Grassly (R) have introduced yet another patent reform bill. The bill takes up where the 111th Congress left off. In the past, patent reform […]
Last month, we heard tell o’ the pirates and the lawyers that chase ’em to the gates of perdition (or at least to the local federal courthouse,) with bloggers getting caught in the crossfire on the open sea, holed and sunk by legal briefs and lawyer bills. This month, it’s time to run for safe […]
The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”) takes on another automobile-related trademark case, this time between General Motors and Jim M. Sweeney, who wanted to register CORVOLTTE to identify “electric vehicles, namely, automobiles.” Of course, general General Motors opposed the registration of CORVOLTTE on grounds of priority and likelihood of confusion with its CORVETTE mark. […]
Many inventors are not aware that it is supremely easy for a U.S. inventor to lose foreign patent rights even if the inventor’s U.S. patent rights are preserved. How does that happen? By publicly disclosing the invention prior to the filing a patent application in the U.S. or elsewhere. The laws of the U.S. are […]
Many individuals, companies and non-profits now have “blogs” where they invite comments and questions from readers. Most of those operating blogs and other websites seem unaware that they could be subject to suit for copyright infringement if materials posted by others are alleged to violate the exclusive rights of copyright holders. Many bloggers have fallen […]
Policing Trademarks is Important but Have We Gone Too Far?
November 30, 2010
Trademark
Policing your trademarks is as important as registering them. Policing requires that you monitor the world of commerce to insure that others are not using your marks — or confusingly similar marks — and, if so, that you take immediate action against the infringers. Big corporations zealously defend their trademark portfolios but have they taken […]
The PTO is taking another step to reduce its workload through deferring examination of patent applications. The PTO has announced that it will soon start a pilot program to allow inventors to defer the payment of certain filing fees by one year. The stated goal of the pilot program is to allow inventors a total […]