Blog: Protecting Businesses and Their Owners
Cuozzo v. Lee: IP Protection Gets More Complicated
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 the Broadest Reasonable...
The Rate of Invention is Staggering
I just received my 150th issued US patent. That kind of landmark tends to trigger a look back. My first patent was number 6,756,879 and my 150th was patent number 9,166,974 -- meaning 2.41 million patents issued between my first and my 150th. To get a sense of the...
TPP Intellectual Property Chapter Leaked
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...
Can you patent an invention just to prevent the world from using it?
Eric Goldman blogged about a case where a person purchased a copyright to an unflattering photograph of himself with the intention of using copyright law to make the photograph disappear from the internet. Eric writes "Due to the decisive appellate ruling and the...
“Poor man’s patent” and “Poor man’s copyright”: The Tooth Fairies of the IP World
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 in turn (note: IP law varies...