63 million U.S. jobs, or 44% of all U.S. employees, work in intellectual property (‘IP’) intensive industries that rely on the value created by patents, trademarks or copyrights. That’s from a report published by the USPTO.In other highlights from the report, employees of IP-intensive industries are likely to: The highest incomes are in copyright-intensive industries (that’s content […]
Intellectual Property
Horror Retail Meets Copyright Law
June 18, 2020
Copyright, Intellectual Property, Trademark
Policing your trademarks is as important as registering them. Policing requires that the trademark and other rights owners monitor the world of commerce to ensure that others are not stealing their intellectual property and, if so, take immediate action against infringers. Many corporations zealously defend their trademark portfolios. Here’s but one example. In a recent article at Wired.com, The […]
Those of you who know patents know that to be patentable an invention must not be obvious to a person who is knowledgeable in the field; that is, the invention must represent more than a trivial improvement over prior inventions. Inventors, the USPTO and the courts struggle with whether inventions are or are not ‘obvious.’ In general, […]
Dear Doc: I hear that in the Tax Cut and Jobs Act (the “Trump Tax Law”) inventors, authors, and other creators of intellectual property got screwed, contrary to the intent of the Founders, as expressed in Art. I, Sec. 8, Cl. 8 of the United States Constitution. What’s up with that? Signed,Screwed-Over Inventor Dear Screwed: Yup! You’re […]
Dear Doc:I heard that it’s now legal to take someone else’s photograph, mess with it, and sell it as your own. That can’t be right, right? Please tell me that the copyright law is not that insane. Signed, Every person who ever took a photo. Dear Every: Yes, I am afraid that copyright […]
I’ve read that you can’t copyright a recipe. The US Copyright Office says, “Copyright law does not protect recipes that are mere listings of ingredients. Nor does it protect other mere listings of ingredients such as those found in formulas, compounds, or prescriptions.” On the other hand, I’ve read that some things like colors (pink […]
Tangible or Intangible? This is actually an interesting question. If you erect a sign displaying a trademark over a store, isn’t that a tangible representation of a trademark? Of course it is. On the other hand, if you were to license your trademark for use by another company, you don’t transfer a physical representation of […]
Anyone who deals with patents should be familiar with the concept of prior art. ‘Prior art’ is critical to patenting and can prevent your invention from qualifying for a patent, even if it’s a great invention. Prior art generally is a prior publication such as a patent, patent publication, treatise, advertisement, article on the web, […]
USPTO Fixes Some of the Problems with the PTAB
November 22, 2018
Intellectual Property, Patent
The ‘Patent Trial and Appeal Board’ (‘PTAB’) has 174 administrative judges, who hear appeals of actions by the USPTO, such as denials of patent applications. In the past, the USPTO has been accused of packing the PTAB panels with handpicked judges to reach a desired result in a particular case. Panels of the PTAB also […]
The NRA and the Bean
October 11, 2018
Copyright, Intellectual Property
The National Rifle Association (“NRA”) conjures up many things for many people: gun lobby, gun rights, 2nd Amendment, just to recite a few. It’s name, however, has rarely arisen in the intellectual property context until recently. Here is some background. One of Chicago’s famous public sculptures, “Cloud Gate”, affectionately known as the “Bean”, is an […]