Between the stock market crash of 1929 and the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932, the U.S. economy fell off a cliff. During that three-year period, five thousand banks failed and nine million bank accounts were suddenly worthless. In the calamity of the Great Depression, millions of people were thrown out of work, unemployment stood at […]
Patent
USPTO Warns of Scammers Targeting Patent Owners
July 6, 2023
Patent
This month the USPTO warned of scam telephone attacks on patent owners. The scammers spoof USPTO phone numbers so the call appears to come from the USPTO. The scammers pretend to be USPTO employees and ask the patent owner to pay fees over the phone or for personal information. The USPTO warns that it does […]
Patent Bullet Dodged, Thanks to The Supreme Court
June 1, 2023
Patent
A bullet dodged or the bomb-throwing Supreme Court declines to destroy the patent system… for once. The Supreme Court does not take a patent case unless it can screw up the patent system and make things worse for inventors. That’s why Your Faithful Correspondent was alarmed when the Court accepted the case of Amgen v Sanofi, which […]
Words are Important to Your Patent
May 4, 2023
Patent
“There is not a sexual relationship.” … “It depends on what the meaning of ‘is’ is.” President Bill Clinton Ah, the meaning of words, particularly simple words. Words you thought that you were intimately familiar with, words that you thought you understood. Words that can damage your presidency or even wreck your patent. Wait. A simple word can wreck your […]
Patents – How Much Information is Enough?
April 6, 2023
Patent
So, you’ve come up with an invention. Great! Now it’s time to apply for your patent. So how much information must you supply in your patent application? The general rule is that you must provide ‘enablement’; that is, you must provide enough information in the text and drawings so that a person knowledgeable in the […]
Patents and Free Speech
March 9, 2023
Patent
Let’s say the world believes in Unicorns. TikTok is filled with glowing Unicorn affirmation testimonials and whole YouTube channels are dedicated to fuzzy, pixelated videos of Unicorns in the distance. Learned scientists publish studies speculating about the natural history of Unicorns. You, on the other hand, are part of the small but sturdy band of […]
What is Collateral Estoppel, and Why Should a Patent Owner Care?
February 16, 2023
Patent
‘Collateral estoppel’ means that when a judge, jury or other tribunal finally decides an issue in litigation between two parties, then the decision controls the same issue between the same parties in subsequent litigation. The losing party can appeal a decision (usually), but once the appeals from the decision are exhausted the issue is decided […]
This Just In – Hell Frozen Over!
February 2, 2023
Patent
The USPTO has LOWERED the cost of filing and prosecuting patent applications for small and micro entities. The USPTO filing fees for small entities (generally, companies with fewer than 500 employees) is now 40% of the filing fee for large entities, down from 50%. The USPTO fees for micro entities (generally, academics and individual inventors who have […]
New Year, New Beginnings
January 5, 2023
Patent
It’s time to turn over a bright, shiny new leaf and to make hopeful resolutions with the best of intentions. Your Faithful Narrator’s thoughts turn to a shiny new beginning of the distant past – to the year 1790, only three years after the Founders hammered out the new U.S. Constitution and one year after […]
What is ‘Enablement’ and Why Should an Inventor Care?
December 1, 2022
Patent
Every patent claim must be enabled; that is, the application must have enough information to teach a knowledgeable person how to make and use the invention. But how much disclosure is enough? Consider an invention that includes a threaded bolt to hold two objects together. Infinite variations in the threads are possible, including variations in the shape […]