Intellectual Property

This is one of several blogs about patenting an invention. Tell me more about “patent prosecution.” Patent prosecution is the process of getting the PTO to issue a new patent. At some point after your patent application has been filed, a patent examiner will review it. During that review, the…

This is one of several blogs about patenting an invention. Do I really need a patent attorney? Yes, you do. It is possible to obtain a patent by yourself, and the PTO will even help you do it, but it is not likely to be of much value. Let me…

This is one of several blogs about patenting an invention. How much does a patent cost? This is probably the most frequently asked question. The answer is it depends on several factors. The biggest factor is the complexity of your invention. Here is a rough estimate you can use for…

Rimini Street, Inc. v. Oracle USA, Inc., ___ U.S. ___, No. 17-1625 (4 March 2019) Oracle USA, Inc. (Oracle) develops and licenses software programs that manage data and business operations, and Oracle offers software maintenance services.  Rimini Street, Inc. (Rimini) sells software maintenance services to Oracle’s customers and competes with…

Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com, LLC, ___ U.S. ___, No. 17571 (4 March 2019). Fourth Estate is a news organization producing online journalism.  Wall Street is a news website.  Fourth Estate licensed its journalism to Wall Street.  The license agreement required Wall Street to remove from its…

FAR Part 12 – Acquisition of Commercial Items contains unique contracting policies not found in other parts of FAR. For example, changes to a commercial items contract must be bilateral and may not be made unilaterally by the government like under the traditional Changes clause. FAR Part 12’s unique rules…

In the April 24th decision of SAS Institute, Inc. v. Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the U.S. Supreme Court reviewed a patent law case concerning a procedure known as inter partes review. At first blush, patent law may seem to be of little interest to the average…

All eight of the Supreme Court Justices who heard the case of Matal v. Tam have ruled that the “disparagement clause” of the federal Lanham Act, which states that derogatory phrases cannot be trademarked, is unconstitutional. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) cited this…

Since Iron Man was released to rave reviews in 2008, Marvel has created the most successful film franchise in history and has amassed a global empire while simultaneously re-energizing the comic book genre. As you might expect, many overly ambitious citizens have attempted to take a cut of Marvel’s profit…