Navigating the patent application process can be a complex and time-consuming endeavor. One crucial yet underutilized tool that applicants have at their disposal is the applicant-initiated interview with a patent examiner. Understanding the importance and benefits of these interviews can…
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The Do’s and Don’ts of Reverse Engineering: Guidelines for Ethical Competition and Reducing Legal Risk
Reverse engineering is a viable method to discover and exploit trade secrets embedded in the public domain or created independently.[1] However, there are several guidelines one must follow to avoid or reduce legal risk. This article discusses those guidelines. Conducting…
Freedom to Operate Opinions
A freedom to operate opinion may be necessary to identify whether a planned activity will infringe existing Intellectual Property rights. For instance, the opinion may look at a patent and compare it to a product manufactured by or activity of…
Intellectual Property Audit
An intellectual property audit (“IP Audit”) is a systematic review of the intellectual property assets owned, used or acquired by a business. An IP Audit’s purpose is to uncover under-utilized IP assets, identify any threats to a company’s bottom line,…
Domain Disputes
A domain name is the address of a web site that is intended to be easily identifiable and easy to remember. Because they are easy to remember and use, domain names have become business identifiers and in some cases even…
Trade Dress
Trade dress refers to the look, shape, ornamental theme or color combination of a product or its packaging. When consumers distinguish a product from its competitor’s goods by the look of the product or by its packaging then the look…
Trademarks
A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol or design, or a combination of words, phrases, symbols or designs, that allows consumers to identify the source of goods and to distinguish goods from those of others. Trademark rights can be used…
Copyrights
A copyright is a form of intellectual property that protects original works or art including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and architecture and some designs. Copyright protection exists from the moment…
Provisional Applications
Under United States patent law, a provisional application is a legal document filed in the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) that allows an inventor to establish an early filing date, but which does not mature into an issued…
Utility Patents
In general, a utility patent protects the way an invention is used and works. Utility patents may be granted to anyone who invents a new and useful method, process, machine, device, manufactured item, or chemical compound – or any new…