January 3, 2013

With confetti still lingering in the air Congress passed H.R. 6621 which includes many technical amendments to the America Invents Act.  The passing of H.R. 6621 was not without a small amount of controversy as a section dealing with still…

December 10, 2012

Manufacturers of goods often seek to control how their goods are advertised or otherwise presented to the public.  One method of doing so is by creating a “Minimum Advertised Price” or “Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price.”  However, doing so may present…

November 26, 2012

You’ve probably heard this story before.  A little known patent holder begins a licensing campaign sending letters to hundreds of companies letting them know that they need a license to its patent.  The letters continue and offer discounts for early…

November 19, 2012

What should you do if the U.S. Government infringes your patent?  Under 28 U.S.C. §1498, whenever the government uses or manufactures a invention covered by a patent of the United Stated, without a license from the owner, the owner may…

October 23, 2012

While obtaining a patent can be a rather lengthy process, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) does in fact provide a number of tools and procedures for speeding up prosecution of a patent application. Potential procedures for speeding up prosecution…

September 19, 2012

Provisions of the America Invents Act Effective as of September 16, 2012 The America Invents Act (IAI) is now one year old and several important provisions are now in effect.  Some of these provisions are important to both patent holders…

July 20, 2012

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) opened the first ever satellite patent office in Detroit, Michigan amid fanfare on July 13, 2012. USPTO Director David Kappos swore-in the office’s first seven USPTO Board Judges who will preside over…

June 21, 2012

ICANN, the corporation responsible for technical coordination of the Internet such as IP-address-allocation and domain-name system (DNS), recently released the full list of applied-for new generic top level domain (gTLD) strings.  There were a total of 1930 applications submitted from…

June 14, 2012

The world’s first financial exchange facilitating non-exclusive licensing and trading of intellectual property rights is expected to begin trading this year.  Intellectual Property Exchange International, Inc. (“IPXI”) will offer Unit License Rights™ (“ULRs”), a non-exclusive license of a particular unit…

May 14, 2012

In a recent patent infringement case, Amazon.com asked to have the case transferred from the Eastern District to the Western District of Texas. That motion was denied by the Eastern District federal court judge. Amazon appealed to the Federal Circuit…

February 29, 2012

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), after receiving numerous inquiries and complaints, has posted a warning directly on its Trademark homepage to highlight the problem of non-USPTO solicitations that resemble official USPTO communications. According to the Office, private…

February 23, 2012

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has set forth new rules regarding the ex parte appeal process before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.  The new rules took effect on January 23, 2012, with a majority of the…