Intellectual Property

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

Since its origin the use of the internet has been (until now) mostly an interaction between people. From initially exchanging documents between scientists, to email communications among people, and then social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and TikTok, the internet has provided creative communications avenues for digital interaction. Amazon began as an online bookstore but now Amazon sells anything

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