Intellectual Property

Another Minnesota State Fair was recently wrapped up. Although some of the days were tremendously hot and humid, Minnesotans stayed true to “The Great Minnesota Get-Together.” Over 1.8 million attended, putting 2023 attendance in the all-time top 10. With a state population of 5.8 million, about 31% of the state’s residents attended (assuming each resident only came once). Both of

3D imagery is now a fully accepted tool in product design and manufacturing, as well as architecture, surgical preparation and training, dental modelling, and geology (to say nothing of the use of 3D animations in the entertainment, advertising and gaming industries). This is all possible using images that could only be rendered in 2D just a few years ago. With

Our global world is brimming with tension. There is war in Ukraine, superpowers are at odds with each other, numerous conflicts continue in Africa and the Middle East, and persistent nuclear proliferation concerns. International business, however, carries on (even though the media may imply otherwise). “Unscrupulous” entrepreneurs may try to take advantage of these tensions to produce and sell imitations

July – it’s the zenith of summer, so we wanted to provide you with a lightweight summer read about intellectual property. A beach read, so to speak. No heavy mental lifting here. Some brevity and perhaps some levity. As consumers, we are exposed to thousands of brands every day, via internet ads, highway billboards, radio and TV ads, print ads,

There has been a lot of news lately about governments and individuals stealing intellectual property (IP) from U.S. companies and taking that IP outside the U.S. In those news reports, very little is usually said about the law and why such activities are illegal. The United States government has numerous laws and regulations governing the export of sensitive information, including

Fifty years ago, the practice of patent law was a sleepy cloistered legal field. Patent attorneys were all nerds (engineers or scientists who had somehow made their way to law school). The general legal population had no interest in mixing with patent lawyers. Private practice patent lawyers worked in “patent law firms” – surrounded only by other patent lawyers. Changes

Trademark rights are acquired in the United States through (1) use of the trademark or (2) by filling a trademark application in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and obtaining a registration. Businesses sometimes opt not to register their trademarks at the USPTO. A mark that is in use but not federally registered creates “common law” trademark rights, but

We are old enough to remember when television only came into your home through an antenna, and there were only a handful of TV broadcast stations you could even watch. We. Are. So. Old. Then along came cable TV, with its eventual offering of hundreds of television channels, on-demand video viewing and digital recording capabilities. Now, we are in the

“Everything that can be invented has been invented.” All patent attorneys know this curious statement, and that it was supposedly uttered in 1899 by Charles H. Duell. It probably would have gone unnoticed except for the fact that when he said it, this alleged soothsayer was the Commissioner of the U.S. Patent Office. Most (but not all) patent attorneys also