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, […]
Tag Archives: USPTO
Earlier this year we wrote about recent trends in trademark filings by China. Between 2013 in 2017 Chinese companies filed more as PTO said than 50,000 trademark applications With the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The increase in filings could be explained by growth in the Chinese economy and Chinese government subsidies, paying […]
China Deluges U.S. with Trademark Filings
March 14, 2019
Trademark
It is widely known that China has been the source of cyber attacks against public and private entities in the United States. The nature and effectiveness of these attacks are of considerable concern. According to one estimate, cyber theft by the Chinese has cost the U.S. economy more than $300 billion annually taking into account […]
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 […]
Patent Fun Facts:
July 19, 2018
Patent
Try rolling these out at the bar tonight. You’ll be the life of the party! Here goes: The USPTO issued its 10,000,000th patent on Tuesday June 19, 2018. That’s 10 million patents. The 10 millionth patent is owned by Raytheon and addresses LADAR range-finding technology, as used in self-driving cars. In 1997, the USPTO issued about 100,000 patents. In 2007 […]
Shocker at the USPTO
January 18, 2018
Patent, Trade Secrets
Many administrations regard the USPTO as a political backwater and the directorship as a holding pen for less-than-ideal candidates. Here’s the shocker: The Administration has appointed a qualified person to head the USPTO. His name is Andrei Iancu and he is currently the managing partner of a Los Angeles law firm. He’s a degreed engineer and registered […]
Ask Dr. Copyright – Emerging New PTO Standards
January 11, 2018
Ask Dr. Copyright, Trademark
Dear Doc: Last I heard, “Slants”, a term some Asians apparently find offensive was deemed to be a registrable trademark by the United States Supreme Court because they think that free speech under the First Amendment protects all sorts of offensive speech (but not the giant Ten Commandments that was put up at at the […]
How to Pick a Trademark that Won’t be Rejected by the USPTO At Lipton, Weinberger & Husick, we spend a lot of time reviewing office actions issued to clients who filed trademarks on their own or with a trademark service like LegalZoom or Trademarkia. Registration services provide only the bare essentials when it comes to […]
What Happens If the Lights Go Out at the PTO?
February 23, 2016
Intellectual Property
Now we know. On December 22 the PTO experienced what it called a ‘catastrophic failure’ of the electronic patent and trademark filing and data systems due to a power outage. The PTO technology staff worked through the Christmas holiday, and this writer can testify that the system was back up and receiving patent filings by […]
PTO’s Secret SAWS Program
February 27, 2015
Patent
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has a secret Sensitive Application Warning System (‘SAWS’) program for extra review of patent applications where action might embarrass the agency. The problem is how the program functions and which applicants and applications are subject to SAWS are all secret. We know only the broadest guidelines for the program […]
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