Intellectual Property News

September 2009 Newsletter

Relitigation of Patent Claims
In a patent case, under collateral estoppel, once a court has ruled upon an issue of fact or law, that ruling may preclude relitigation of the same issue or fact in a different suit involving the same parties. Once a patent has been declared invalid, a collateral estoppel barrier is created against further litigation involving the same patent, unless the plaintiff can demonstrate that he or she did not have a full and fair chance to litigate the validity of the patent in the earlier case. Similarly, defendants may be estopped from contesting issues of infringement and patent validity. If you have an invention and would like to determine if is patentable, call or email to schedule a meeting with one of our patent attorneys. More...

Foreign Patent Offices
The issuance of a patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office provides patent protection to an inventor only within the United States. Because each country has its own patent laws, neither other countries do not provide patent protection to a U.S. patentee, nor does the United States provide patent protection to a foreign patentee. Originally, if a U.S. inventor wished to obtain patent protection in other countries, he or she was required to obtain patents from each country in which patent protection was desired, which obviously entailed substantial time and expense. However, under the Paris Convention, international cooperation has streamlined the process of obtaining patents in other countries in many cases. If you feel you have rights that are being infringed, you should consider scheduling a meeting with one of our patent attorneys. More...

Trademark Rights of Priority
In the United States, subject to one exception, trademark rights arise from use in commerce, regardless of whether or not the mark is registered. The first user of a mark generally takes priority over all subsequent users with respect to use of the mark in that market. To help determine if a Mark is available for protection or to help register your Mark, please contact one of our Trademark Attorneys. More...

Trade Dress Protections
Trade dress is governed by the same set of laws that protect unregistered trademarks. While traditional trademark law protects words or logos, trade dress law protects the total packaging and design of a product. Because trade dress often serves the same function as a trademark or service mark -- the identification of goods and services in the marketplace -- trade dress can be protected under the federal trademark laws and in some cases registered as a trademark or service mark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. If you have questions about this or any other aspect of trademark protection, contact one of our trademark attorneys for more information. More...

Copyright Joint Authorship and Ownership
According to the Copyright Act, the authors of a joint work jointly own the copyright in the work they create. A joint work is defined in the Copyright Act as "a work prepared by two or more authors with the intention that their contributions be merged into inseparable or interdependent parts of a unitary whole." Courts have interpreted this to mean that all putative joint authors must intend to make a joint work at the time of the creation of that work. If joint authorship exists, the authors of the "joint work" will be recognized as the co-owners of the copyright in that work. The contributions to a joint work do not need to be equal in quality or quantity, they only need to be copyrightable contributions and the parties must agree that the work is a joint work. Contact a copyright specialists at The Intellectual Property Center for more information. More...

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