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Will Patent Grants Keep Escalating in US?
US utility patents have issued at a more rapid pace in the last ten years – see bar graph. While it took almost 15 years (from 1976 to 1991) for one-million US utility patents to issue between US Pat. 4,000,000 and US Pat. 5,000,000, the pace of patenting has...
Women Continued to Spur Innovation Through 2019; Can Upward Trend Continue?
In July 2020, the US Patent and Trademark Office released a report titled "Progress and Potential: 2020 Update on U.S. Women inventor-Patentees”. Building on the report released in 2019 [reported in AskPat here:...
Supreme Court Defends Free Speech – Registration of Profane Words As Trademarks Now Clearly Permitted in the US
On June 24, 2019, the Justices struck down as unconstitutional a provision of the Lanham Act (US Trademark Law) that prohibited granting federal trademark protection for "immoral" or "scandalous" material. The case was brought by Erik Brunetti, who founded...
Secret Sales of a Product Embodying Your Invention Are Prior Art
Before the America Invents Act (AIA) went into effect in 2013, 35 U.S.C. §102 barred the patentability of an invention that was “patented or described in a printed publication in this or a foreign country or in public use or on sale in this country, more...
Working with a Patent Agent Rather than a Patent Attorney Is More Risky
Chief Judge Leonard P. Stark of the Delaware District Court recently ruled that the privilege against disclosure in discovery of confidential communications with patent agents is much narrower than the privilege applicable to confidential communications...
Study Confirms Women Have Untapped Potential to Spur Innovation
On February 11, 2019, the US Patent and Trademark Office released a report titled "Progress and Potential: a profile of women inventors on U.S. patents" on the trends of women inventors named on US patents granted in the last 40 years (1976-2016). Prepared...
An Inventor’s Efforts to Exploit the Invention Before Filing A Patent Application Can Adversely Impact Whether a Patent Will Be Granted
Inventors will be denied a patent on their invention if the invention was in public use, on sale or otherwise available to the public more than one year before the effective filing date of their patent application. If an inventor has sold the invention or...
Introducing Two Attorneys Soon to Be Our New District Court Judges in Delaware
On February 14, 2017, the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary held a hearing on the nominations of Colm F. Connolly and Maryellen Noreika to be United States District Judges for the District of Delaware. If these two nominees are confirmed, the...
Watch Out for Trademark Scams and Misleading Notices
In the last few months, I’ve received several calls and e-mails from clients who want to know if they should pay an invoice that they received from a “Patent and Trademark Resource Center” or “Patent and Trademark Organization,” or the like. Toss these in...
Will Delaware Again Be the Top Patent Litigation District?
In TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC, 581 US ___ (2017) the Supreme Court on May 22, 2017 held that the residence requirement of the patent infringement venue statute 28 USC 1400(b) refers only to a defendant’s State of Incorporation. The...
No More Bitching About “Disparaging” Trademarks
On June 19, 2017, the Supreme Court ruled in Matal v. Tam, No. 15-1293, that the disparagement provision of Section 2(a) of the US Trademark Act is unconstitutional because under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, “Speech may not be banned on...
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