Nearly Over 30 Years Of Representing Businesses And Their Owners
Download the PDF here The United States Patent and Trademark Office regularly holds events targeted all the various stakeholders it serves — inventors, startups, big companies, attorneys, trademark owners, etc. The events are all listed on the USPTO website, at https://www.uspto.gov/about-us/events. One event that all inventors should absolutely consider attending is a regional roundtable related to patent subject matter eligibility. Among…
To download the article, “First Amendment v. Limits on Trademarks: On to the Supreme Court” click here In 2015, the Federal Circuit held that “the disparagement provision of [trademark law is] unconstitutional…. We recognize that invalidating this provision may lead to the wider registration of marks that offend vulnerable communities…. But much the same can be (and has been) said…
Download the PDF here Original US Government works are not subject to copyright. The law is about as clear as it can be: Copyright protection under this title is not available for any work of the United States Government, but the United States Government is not precluded from receiving and holding copyrights transferred to it by assignment, bequest, or otherwise.…
By: Gary S. Shuster To download the article, “THE AMERICA INVENTS ACT TURNS FIVE — WHAT INVENTORS NEED TO KNOW” click here The America Invents Act (“AIA”) turned five years old last week. At the time of its adoption, independent inventors were hyper-focused on the switch from “First to Invent” to “First to File”. For example, NPR did a piece…
To download the PDF click here Inventors are commonly the target of scams, so much so that the USPTO has issued specific guidance, invention promotion companies are subject to mandatory disclosure requirements, and Congress has passed a law prohibiting “Improper and deceptive invention promotion”. The World Intellectual Property Organization has issued warnings about fraudulent bills being sent for various fees…
Download the PDF here As an inventor with well over 150 issued U.S. Patents and a Harvard Law degree, I have a unique perspective on the inventor/lawyer relationship. I understand the frustration that patent lawyers feel when the inventor doesn’t understand that patent lawyers aren’t magicians, patent law is in flux, and that fees should be paid even for a…
By Gary S. Shuster To download the article “Cuozzo V. Lee: IP Protection Gets More Complicated” click here The Supreme Court handed down a decision this morning in Cuozzo v. Lee. Two questions were before the court: (1) Is the decision to institute “inter-parties review” (“IPR”) appealable? (2) Is the Patent Office allowed to continue to use…
Wikileaks has released the intellectual property chapter of the current draft of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. This agreement addresses how member nations deal with trademarks, copyrights, utility patents, plant patents, drug and medical patents and drug approval, and trade secrets. I’m sure in the coming days we’ll see a lot of analysis as to how these changes will impact IP…
To download the PDF of “POOR MAN’S PATENT” AND “POOR MAN’S COPYRIGHT”: THE TOOTH FAIRIES OF THE IP WORLD, Click here There is a common misconception that an inventor or author can protect their intellectual property by mailing a copy of it to themselves. These are sometimes called a “Poor Man’s Patent” or “Poor Man’s Copyright”. I will address each…
To download this article, click here In the recent case of Multi Time Machine, Inc. v. Amazon.com, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal reversed the District Court’s summary judgment in favor of online retailer Amazon.com (“Amazon”) in a trademark infringement action brought by Multi Time Machine, Inc. (“MTM”) under the Lanham Act. The Court held that a jury could…