The Supreme Court has had a busy time of it in June stirring the patent pot, with decisions in three cases and arguments in a fourth. The general rule is that whenever the Supreme Court decides a patent case, the law is left in worse shape than it was before. The recent decisions are no […]
Do your employees create new inventions, products or designs? Have all of your employees assigned all company inventions to the company? If not, then the company does not own the invention, even if the invention was created on company time and with company resources and in the course of the employee’s work for the company. […]
A provisional patent application is a temporary application that provides patent-pending status for one year. The provisional application can be a relatively low-cost way to preserve your patent rights while you develop your invention. The protection offered by a provisional patent application is only as good as the information contained in the application and only […]
Google Street View is the popular feature of Google Maps that allows you to see panoramic photographs of, well, pretty much anywhere with different orientations and magnifications. The photographs are stitched together in software to allow the viewer to navigate through a virtual representation of the real world. You may have seen the Google photography […]
Dear Doc: Last month, you promised that you’d continue your explanation of patents and copyrights with a rant about patents and trolls. So…? What, exactly, do you have against trolls, other than the fact that they live under bridges and threaten goats? Signed, Been Waiting a Month Dear BWaM: OK. So as not to disappoint, […]
In his state of the union speech, President Obama said: “And let’s pass a patent reform bill that allows our businesses to stay focused on innovation, not costly, needless litigation.” Both houses of Congress are well on the way to enacting new patent legislation, in part as a reaction to the bullying of small businesses […]
The ‘claims’ of a patent dictate the rights of the patent owner and define the property created by the patent. Where the invention is something physical, such as a machine or a drug, it is relatively easy to show infringement – the patent owner must show that the infringer made, used, or sold the machine […]
By filing a patent application and paying the filing fee, you are entitled to two reviews by the patent examiner. The examiner has a very short and strict time limit to review your application. If the examiner does not meet that time limit, then he or she may not meet productivity goals and may be […]
In general, only the Federal government and Federal courts have jurisdiction over patent matters. However, the Federal government does not have effective tools for protecting individuals and small businesses from abusive and unjustified bullying by patent owners. A small business often cannot afford to defend against a threat of patent litigation and agrees to pay […]
If you are a regular reader of this newsletter, then you know that a sale or offer for sale of your invention will terminate your patent rights unless you first file a patent application. Did you know that the on-sale bar also applies to commercial sales of the invention to you, as from a contract […]
