The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has recently announced that it has prepared further interim guidance for the patent examining corps to use when determining subject matter eligibility under 35 U.S.C. § 101 in view of the recent decision by the United States Supreme Court in Bilski v. Kappos. This [...]
The Supreme Court issued its ruling in the infamous “In re Bilski” case today. The bottom line: Bad news for Bilski, but probably good news for software patent holders.
Bilski attempted to claim a hedging method as his invention. Specifically, “a method of provide one of a good or service to at least one entity at [...]
The Legacy Approach: For decades, patent attorneys have been taught to submit claims to the USPTO that are as broad as possible. The theory is that submission of broad claims are opening gambits in a negotiation process that will ultimately yield the correct scope of claims for the applicant.
The Current Situation: The patent prosecution situation [...]
While there is no reason to go into the entire history of software patents, it is fair to say that filings of software patents increased exponentially during the 1990s. In 1998, in a case called State Street Bank & Trust Co. v. Signature Financial Group, Inc., the Federal Circuit held business methods were eligible for [...]
When investing in a small company, part of the critical information that investors need to know are (1) whether the product or products produced by the company infringe or will infringe patents owned by others, and (2) the strength of the company’s own patent portfolio.
While these questions seem related because they both deal with patents, [...]
Generally, there are two ways of transferring intellectual property to others: (1) an assignment, and (2) a license agreement.
Assignments:
An assignment is a legal document which transfers all the rights in an intellectual property to another. Patent and trademark assignments, for instance, are typically registered with the U.S. patent office and are a matter of public [...]
Since June 8, 1995, the United States Patent Office has offered inventors the option of filing a provisional application (or a “provisional”). According to the patent office, a provisional patent application was designed to provide a lower cost for a first patent filing in the United States and to give U.S. applicants parity with foreign [...]
A design patent protects an ornamental design for an article of manufacture. In other words, the design patent protects only the appearance of an article, but not its structural or functional features.
The procedures relating to granting of design patents are the similar to those of utility patents. A design patent has a term of 14 [...]
The foundation of United States patent law is based on a quid pro quo between the applicant and the government. The government grants a monopoly for the invention in exchange for a technology disclosure which should increase the public’s collective knowledge. Once the patent expires, anyone is then free to practice the invention. Furthermore, because [...]
A patent is a government grant or intellectual property right that allows its owner to exclude others from making, using, selling, or importing the claimed invention.
Patents are probably the strongest of all intellectual property protection because:
A patent protects the underlying concept of an invention. In a computer program, for instance, this usually involves the [...]