Super Bowl Trademarks We were thankful to Kansas City Chiefs for making this year an exceptionally exciting football season as they made it to the AFC Championship Game this year. Now its time to turn our attention to the most watched football game of the year, the Super Bowl. As we get our party hats, Read more about Superb Owl or Super Bowl Trademarks[…]
On January 22, 2019, the Supreme Court ruled that a commercial sale of a chemotherapy drug to a third party who agreed to keep the invention confidential, was enough to trigger the On-Sale Bar and prevented the inventor from suing for patent infringement. The sale of the invention placed the invention “on sale” and because Read more about Recent Supreme Court On-Sale Bar Case[…]
Fortnite Sued for Dance Moves Recently, online video game makers have been selling avitar custom modifications including various tools or weapons, skins, clothing and emotes such as a dances or player movements. Many players use these emotes as a way to celebrae or to simply have fun while playing the game. However, some of these Read more about Fortnight Sued for Dance Moves – Lessons Learned[…]
Software Patents Protection and Enforcement of Software Patents is on the rise as a result of recent changes at the Patent Office and from the Courts. As a result, it may be a good time to protect your software with a Software Patent Application. Patents protect inventions if they fall into one of four general Read more about Software Patents (Revisited)[…]
Patents Protect Your Business Patents are usually considered as being the holy grail for inventors with sometimes strange or wacky ideas. However, Patents are more often used by businesses and can provide a savvy entrepreneur with significant growth opportunities. Many businesses can benefit from protecting their technology or innovation from competitors, including those in manufacturing Read more about How Patents Protect Your Business[…]
Copyrights and Work for Hire Doctrine Stan Lee, the co-creator and ambassador of the Marvel Universe, died this week. From a copyright perspective, Lee’s legacy is a complicated mess. Marvel, one of the original comic book publishers introduced over 8,000 characters including those created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Joe Simon and Steve Ditko. This Read more about Stan Lee’s Copyrights and Work for Hire[…]
Copyright in Buildings Generally, copyright protects all works of art including those which are related to a building design and to artwork fixed to buildings. However, because copyrights do not extend to functional works, buildings were not always considered Copyrightable. Currently, the law protects artwork for and on buildings under both traditional copyright law and Read more about Copyright in Buildings for Architects and Artists[…]
Race to File a Patent Application Why would an inventor file a patent application covering a blockchain? Recently, many American and Chinese inventors have filed for patent applications covering blockchain technologies. IBM recently was awarded a blockchain patent (US Pat. No. 10,091,228) for detecting network security breaches. Currently, IBM has 89 blockchain patents, while Alibaba (a Read more about Racing to file a Patent Application for Blockchains[…]
In America, a lot of successful companies like Apple, Disney, Google and Microsoft invest time and money into trademark protection. However, trademark protection is not limited to large companies, many smaller companies including sports teams and universities also invest in trademark protection. In some cases, they have whole departments in charge of brand management where Read more about Trademark Protection – Cease and Desist[…]
A common question we get from new businesses is how to copyright a website. The U.S. Copyright Office does not expressly recognize websites as being copyrightable. However, you can register the text, images, sounds, movies, computer code or even databases associated with a website or web page. A website is generally considered to be an Read more about 101 Series – How to Copyright a Website[…]