Ten Years! It’s a long time. Ten years is the entire initial term for a trademark registration and half the life of a granted utility patent. For a marriage, 10 years can be a milestone. According to one internet source (www.CreditDonkey.com), about 70% of U.S. married couples make it to their 10th anniversary (we were sort of surprised by this, thinking
Every experienced patent attorney has had a client who wanted – ASAP – to file a provisional patent application. Sometimes there is a good reason to quickly file a provisional application. Often, however, the desire for a rushed filing is based on an emotionally excited inventor who believes the invention will generate a pile of money. The real function of
Everyone loves cookies! To some, cookies are a big deal because of judged baking competitions (like at county fairs). To others, cookies are a major big deal, as in financially huge! From several stands, “Sweet Martha’s Cookie Jar” makes and sells over 3 million chocolate chip cookies a day, during the 12-day run of the Minnesota State Fair. Of course,
In today’s super competitive marketplace, clients sometimes find it difficult to choose a trademark that does not encroach on someone’s established trademark turf. The client usually looks at a new trademark from an ownership viewpoint, choosing a brand that it believes will deliver it to the Promised Land. If there is another who preceded the client and has rights that
Every day we are confronted with new acronyms, or more specifically internet abbreviations since many don’t exactly fall under the traditional definition of acronyms, like: LOL (Laughing Out Loud); OMW (On My Way); TIL (Today I Learned); IMO (In My Opinion). Bear with us as we dedicate a column to one such abbreviation and its connection to intellectual property (IP).
After a U.S patent application is filed, whether it is a provisional patent application or a nonprovisional patent application, the patent attorney is often confronted with the proverbial question: “Am I protected?” This simple question produces an enormous amount of apprehension. How do we explain to the client, after the client has spent considerable money and time in filing the
We always encourage our clients to select the best possible trademarks for their products. In our intellectual property lawyer view, “best” means a mark that is available for use with the client’s goods or services and that is likewise registerable on the Principal Register at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Our clients don’t always agree with us as to
Have you heard about the Madrid Protocol? Is it a new Covid-19 treatment? Is it the next Bond movie? Most know where “Madrid” is located . . . Spain. But what about the “Protocol” part? Intellectual property can sometimes be mysterious, especially when adult beverages and your imagination are shaken, not stirred. The Madrid Protocol is an IP tool that,
For most small business clients that seek a U.S. patent, commercial success in the United States alone is typically the goal. At the outset of a new product launch, revenue derived from sales outside the U.S. may not even be on the client’s radar. Likewise, seeking patent protection outside the U.S. may not be considered to be very important. The
The ideal situation for a new product in a competitive marketplace is to keep the new product under wraps as long as possible, while seeking trademark priority rights. However, the process for obtaining trademark rights (for a trademark that has not yet been used) requires the filing of an application to register that trademark at the United States Trademark Office.
Ten Years! It’s a long time. Ten years is the entire initial term for a trademark registration and half the life of a granted utility patent. For a marriage, 10 years can be a milestone. According to one internet source (www.CreditDonkey.com), about 70% of U.S. married couples make it to their 10th anniversary (we were sort of surprised by this, thinking
Every experienced patent attorney has had a client who wanted – ASAP – to file a provisional patent application. Sometimes there is a good reason to quickly file a provisional application. Often, however, the desire for a rushed filing is based on an emotionally excited inventor who believes the invention will generate a pile of money. The real function of
Everyone loves cookies! To some, cookies are a big deal because of judged baking competitions (like at county fairs). To others, cookies are a major big deal, as in financially huge! From several stands, “Sweet Martha’s Cookie Jar” makes and sells over 3 million chocolate chip cookies a day, during the 12-day run of the Minnesota State Fair. Of course,
In today’s super competitive marketplace, clients sometimes find it difficult to choose a trademark that does not encroach on someone’s established trademark turf. The client usually looks at a new trademark from an ownership viewpoint, choosing a brand that it believes will deliver it to the Promised Land. If there is another who preceded the client and has rights that
Every day we are confronted with new acronyms, or more specifically internet abbreviations since many don’t exactly fall under the traditional definition of acronyms, like: LOL (Laughing Out Loud); OMW (On My Way); TIL (Today I Learned); IMO (In My Opinion). Bear with us as we dedicate a column to one such abbreviation and its connection to intellectual property (IP).
After a U.S patent application is filed, whether it is a provisional patent application or a nonprovisional patent application, the patent attorney is often confronted with the proverbial question: “Am I protected?” This simple question produces an enormous amount of apprehension. How do we explain to the client, after the client has spent considerable money and time in filing the
We always encourage our clients to select the best possible trademarks for their products. In our intellectual property lawyer view, “best” means a mark that is available for use with the client’s goods or services and that is likewise registerable on the Principal Register at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Our clients don’t always agree with us as to
Have you heard about the Madrid Protocol? Is it a new Covid-19 treatment? Is it the next Bond movie? Most know where “Madrid” is located . . . Spain. But what about the “Protocol” part? Intellectual property can sometimes be mysterious, especially when adult beverages and your imagination are shaken, not stirred. The Madrid Protocol is an IP tool that,
For most small business clients that seek a U.S. patent, commercial success in the United States alone is typically the goal. At the outset of a new product launch, revenue derived from sales outside the U.S. may not even be on the client’s radar. Likewise, seeking patent protection outside the U.S. may not be considered to be very important. The
The ideal situation for a new product in a competitive marketplace is to keep the new product under wraps as long as possible, while seeking trademark priority rights. However, the process for obtaining trademark rights (for a trademark that has not yet been used) requires the filing of an application to register that trademark at the United States Trademark Office.
