IP Now

War Among Tech Giants

Apple, Microsoft, and others, team up to battle Google, Samsung, and several Android smartphone makers. Headlines on various reports appearing all over the net today are referring to a recently filed action for patent infringement as an all out nuclear war among technology giants. The suit names “Rockstar Bidco” – a group consisting of none other …

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Slaying the Troll: How The Innovation Act of 2013 Could Help Combat Patent Trolling

The Innovation Act of 2013, if passed by both chambers of Congress and signed by President Obama, could beget important and much-needed change for the patent litigation industry, especially as it pertains to so-called patent trolling. Patent trolling is a practice in which a group, typically a large corporation, procures an impressive portfolio of patents …

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Patent Search- What is A Search and Why it Makes Sense to Perform One

In the context of obtaining a patent, a “search” is a professional search of various online databases for inventions that are similar to your invention. The name of such searches varies within our industry, but at our office we simply call such searches a “Patent Search,” and is also often called a novelty search. Patent …

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Ibormeith IP, LLC v. Mercedes-Benz USA

Ibormeith IP, LLC, a company owning the patent rights to technologies in the automotive industry, was assigned a patent on some really neat safety features for automobiles- a monitoring device to alert drivers that may be falling asleep. Due to an inadequate disclosure in the patent’s specification, however, Ibormeith recently lost its claim for patent …

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Missing Parts Pilot Program Extended to December 31, 2013

The value of this program for the small inventor with an eye on the budget is tremendous.  The program is best explained by an example. First, I will explain the patent application filing costs at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) without this program.*  Take small inventor Mark, who qualifies as a “micro-entity.”  …

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Keurig, Inc. v. Sturm Foods, Inc.: Court Rules No Infringement Due to Exhausted Rights

The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a lower court’s decision holding Sturm did not infringe Keurig’s patents, because Keurig’s patent rights were exhausted. Patent exhaustion is an affirmative defense to a claim of patent infringement, which is triggered, in some instances as in this case, when a patent owner authorizes …

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Intellect Wireless, Inc. v. HTC Corp.: Misrepresentation to PTO renders patent unenforceable

In a case that should serve as a warning to anyone looking to overcome Office Actions by making misleading or false statements to the PTO, an infringement action was dismissed after a patent was found unenforceable due to inequitable conduct during its prosecution. A patent involving wireless transmission of caller identification information, owned by Intellect …

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In re City of Houston: Cities try (and fail) to trademark their seals

The United States Trademark and Patent Office (USPTO) recently refused registrations for trademark filed by the city of Houston, Texas and the District of Columbia, which sought to register marks that included official government seals. The court cited Section 2(b) of the Lanham Act, which prohibits registration of a proposed trademark that consists of or …

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The Trademark Color Rainbow

What do UPS, Tiffany, and 3M have in common? Chocolate brown trucks, robins-egg blue colored jewelry boxes, and canary yellow sticky notes. Chocolate brown, robins-egg blue, and canary yellow. Color, color, color is the answer of course! These are the distinctive colors that these prominent companies use to identify themselves. It may be more apt …

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Obama’s IP Chief Resigns

Victoria Espinel, intellectual property chief at the White House, has stepped down from her official position as of August 9, 2013. Espinel was the first person to ever serve as the official intellectual property enforcement officer at the White House, a position that was established through Congressional legislation in 2008 but was not filled until …

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Tech Executives Ban Together to Fight Patent Trolling

A confederation of tech executives have banded together in an attempt to lobby Congressional lawmakers in the US House of Representatives for laxer intellectual property laws. This is an odd occurrence, one would think that tech CEOs like these would want more stringent IP laws in order to protect their assets, but these executives maintain …

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