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On June 24, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in Iancu v. Brunetti that the trademark FUCT should be allowed to register in light of existing federal Trademark Law registration prohibitions against trademark applications which are deemed to be “immoral” or “scandalous”. The Supreme Court found that the prohibition against registration of such an application is an unconstitutional restriction on free speech and thus violating… Read More »
On July 2, 2019, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced a new rule requiring all foreign-domiciled trademark applicants, registrants, and parties to Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) proceedings to be represented by a United States licensed attorney.
The requirement applies to all parties whose permanent legal residence or principal place of business is outside the United States. The new rule requires… Read More »
On April 3, 2019, President Trump issued a Memorandum on Combating Trafficking in Counterfeit and Pirated Goods to help manage the federal government’s efforts in targeting the problem. The memorandum targets fake goods trafficking through third-party online marketplaces such as Alibaba, Ebay, and Amazon for example. The memo also targets suppliers, intermediate parties coordinating the sales of goods, and marketplaces offering the goods for sale.
There are times to pay attention to our Supreme Court’s recent rulings involving Copyright Law. We summarize two recent cases to let you know their instruction under the law and utilize effectively in your business operations.
Rimini Street, Inc. v. Oracle USA Inc.
The U.S. Supreme Court on March 4, 2019 issued a unanimous decision holding that prevailing parties in copyright cases cannot collect litigation… Read More »
The USPTO is currently undertaking an initiative to ensure the accuracy and integrity of the Trademark Register and as part of this initiative, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) recently began piloting a program exploring the effectiveness of an expedited cancellation proceeding regarding two types of challenges to registered trademarks.
Under the pilot program, the TTAB identifies newly-filed cancellation proceedings limited to abandonment or… Read More »
In a recent Federal Circuit decision, Realtime Data, LLC v. Iancu, No. 18-1154 (Fed. Cir. 2019), Realtime Data LLC’s claims for a system for data compression were invalid as obvious in view of prior art. The Federal Circuit affirmed the decision of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB)’s that the claims involving data compression through “dictionary encoding” were covered by a prior invention and… Read More »
For those students participating in this weekend’s Connecticut Invention Convention (CIC) at UCONN and all inventors everywhere, since March 16, 2013 the United States has joined the rest of the world in using ‘First to File’ for creating patent rights. This changes the strategy of inventors and promotes the filing of provisional patent applications (PPA) with the United States Patent and Trade Office (USPTO). PPAs are… Read More »
Five reasons why patents are important for startups
Especially in this economy, we continue to hear the same question – “Do I need a patent?”
The answer is straightforward enough. The new US patent laws, practically speaking, are centered around a first-to-file system. If your startup is focused on innovation, below are the Top Five reasons why you should should be filing for patents early and… Read More »
If I were to develop a process to narrow the scope of my competitor’s patents and maintain strength of my patent portfolio, I could save on major down-the-road litigation and re-examination costs.
The strategy makes sense where my company has significant revenue from a particular core technology. Moreover, the strategy may work well in pioneering inventions or inventions in rapidly-moving and emerging technology areas. Early… Read More »
