The PTO announced a pilot program to speed review of patent applications for green technologies. A pending application can be advanced in the review queue if the application falls within any of several pre-approved technologies and if the applicant submits a petition to ‘make the application special.’ The PTO is waiving petition fees for the […]
Patent
For the past 5 years, our partner Lawrence Husick has been co-teaching the Managing Innovation course at the Whiting Graduate School of Engineering at The Johns Hopkins University. Beginning in the Summer Term 2010, he and Dr. Ed Addison will offer “Managing Innovation in the Life Sciences” as a distance learning course in the Hopkins […]
Planning to License or Sell Your Patent? Caution Advised!
December 22, 2009
Patent
The recently decided case of Hewlett-Packard v. Acceleron (C.A.F.C. 2009-1283) serves as a warning to any patent owner wishing to offer a license to a patent. If you’re in that position, be careful or you may end up in court. Here’s why. In the distant past (which, in this instance, means before 2007) a patent […]
And the Oscar® for Most Innovative Marketing Goes to …
December 22, 2009
Patent
Global Findability, which alleged in a lawsuit that Nicholas Cage’s character in the new film “Knowing” infringed Global Findability’s patent 7,107,286. The patent addresses storing global position and altitude information “into a single discrete all-natural number geospatial coordinate measurement representation for identification of a geospatial positional location. . .” In the movie, Cage’s character perceives […]
You Don’t Have to Wait Until your Patent Issues.
November 26, 2009
Patent
A question we hear often is, “Don’t I have to wait until my patent issues to_________?” The blank is usually filled in with such items as “raise capital”, “license my invention”, or “disclose my invention to others.” In each case, the answer is an emphatic “NO”. And it’s a good thing, too, since the time […]
Pilot Program for Small Entities
November 26, 2009
Patent
The PTO announced a pilot program to allow small entities with two or more patent applications to move to the front of the review line by dropping an existing patent application. As a rule of thumb, a small entity is a business with fewer than five hundred employees. The theory is that a small […]
Hope for the Patent System?
October 23, 2009
Patent
There are more changes to the patent system to report, and we are hopeful. In our September newsletter, we told you about the ‘count’ system used by the PTO to measure the productivity of patent examiners. In the bad old days (that is, during the last few years of the last administration), examiners had incentive […]
Free Patent Search Resources
October 23, 2009
Patent
If you are tired of special .TIFF readers and downloading one page at a time from the PTO patent search website, you have two other free choices: Google Patent Search and Freepatentsonline. Google Patent Search is a great resource to quickly screen an invention against issued U.S. patents and published applications using familiar Google searching. […]
Is Your Patent Vulnerable to Foreclosure?
September 24, 2009
Patent
Patents are personal property, just like your car. Can your creditors foreclose on your patent? If you use your patent as collateral for a loan or create any other security interest in the patent and then default on the underlying obligation, the person holding the security interest in the patent can foreclose on the patent […]
Confused over when to use the appropriate symbol when referring to trademarks and copyrights? Here’s the scoop. The “C” in the circle is notice to the world that the associated work is protected by copyright law. Although not required by the Copyright Act, it may be placed on any published work. Registration of the copyright […]