Patent

28Mar 2016

Patenting Replacement Parts and Consumables

March 28, 2016 Patent
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 […]

20Oct 2015

What’s So “Efficient” About Patent Infringement?

October 20, 2015 Patent
scales of justice

In a recent editorial in the New York Times, Joe Nocera discussed “patent trolls” and the concept of efficient infringement of patent rights.  Briefly, this idea is that large companies just ignore patents completely, taking a “so sue me” attitude, knowing that they have legions of lawyers who can wear down patent owners, and that […]

30Sep 2015

When will a Federal court order a patent infringer to stop infringing?

September 30, 2015 Patent
Designs for patents

Apple and Samsung have been fighting for years over copying by Samsung of patented features of Apple’s iPhone and iPad.  The features at issue in a recent Apple v Samsung case before the Federal Circuit Court were swipe-to-unlock, telephone number recognition, and spelling correction.  A jury found that Samsung actively copied these features and infringed the patents […]

31Jul 2015

Hostility to Computer Inventions Moves Past Computers

July 31, 2015 Patent
Designs for patents

In Alice v CLS Bank, the Supreme Court determined that an abstract business method implemented by software entirely within a computer was not ‘patentable subject matter,’ meaning that the invention could not be protected by patent even though it met all of the requirements for a patent; namely, the process was novel, unobvious and had […]

30Jun 2015

Collecting Royalties After Your Patent Has Expired

June 30, 2015 Licensing, Patent
Designs for patents

‘Generalissimo Francisco Franco is Still Dead!’* At least insofar as patent licensing goes.  On June 22 the Supreme Court decided yet another patent case – this one relating to patent royalties after the patent expires.  In 1964, the Supreme Court in the Brulotte case determined that even with a contract, a patent owner cannot collect royalties for […]

29May 2015

New Patent Legislation Pending 2015

May 29, 2015 Patent
Designs for patents

“They’re baaack…”* *Heather Michele O’Rourke, ‘Poltergeist II,’ 1986 Congress, that is.  Several patent bills are pending, most of which will make it more risky and expensive to enforce a patent or defend against a patent infringement action in court.  These bills represent the second half of the America Invents Act, which changed the patent landscape […]

30Apr 2015

Want to sell your patent?

April 30, 2015 Patent
Designs for patents

Google is running what it calls a ‘patent purchase promotion.’  From May 8 through May 22, 2015, you can offer to sell your issued U.S. patent to Google.  You must provide the patent number, contact information and a take-it-or-leave-it price along with the submission contract.  Google will let you know if it is interested by […]

30Mar 2015

PTO Axes the SAWS Program

March 30, 2015 Patent
Designs for patents

The PTO intended that its secret Sensitive Application Warning System (‘SAWS’) program would avoid embarrassment to the agency by requiring additional layers of review for potentially controversial patent applications.  The program had exactly the opposite effect and the patent community harshly criticized the PTO for the secret and arbitrary nature of the program.  The PTO […]

30Mar 2015

The Bride of Patent Reform II Returns, Again

March 30, 2015 Patent
Congress

It’s Spring, so the thoughts of the lobbyists representing high-tech heavy weights turn to crippling the U.S. patent system.  Competing bills are already pending in Congress.  Why do the giant high-tech companies do it? The sound-bite reason given is to stop the depredations of patent ‘trolls;’ that is, entities that own patents but that do […]

27Feb 2015

Changes in U.S. Design Patent Law

February 27, 2015 Patent

  The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issues both ‘utility’ and ‘design’ patents.  A ‘utility’ patent protects how something works (e.g., the better mousetrap).  A ‘design’ patent protects the appearance of the thing (e.g., a mousetrap bait that resembles cheese).  Design patent law in the U.S. is about to change.  The U.S. has taken the […]

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