China joins WIPO’s Hague System for the International Registration of Industrial Designs Effective May 5, 2022 By Julie L. Spieker Earlier this month, the World Intellectual Property Organization (“WIPO”) announced that China has joined WIPO’s Hague System for the International Registration of Industrial Designs effective May 5, 2022. An industrial design is a form of intellectual property that protects the ornamental or visual features of an article not related to its functionality. In general, to […] Continue Reading →
Tread Lightly: Nike Trademark Lawsuit Raises NFT Questions By Nicholas J. Krob If you have read Brandon Clark’s January 25th “Copyright Ownership, Transfers, and NFTs” article (and if you haven’t, you should!), you will know that the growth of NFTs, or “Non-Fungible Tokens,” has brought with it a whole host of questions regarding intellectual property. Frequently, these questions center around copyright law. However, as demonstrated by a […] Continue Reading →
Federal Circuit holds that applicant admitted prior art in a challenged patent may not form the basis of a ground to institute an inter partes review, but may be considered as evidence By Joseph M. Hallman On February 2, 2022, in Qualcomm Incorporated v. Apple Inc., the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“Federal Circuit”) dismissed Qualcomm’s appeal of two related inter partes review (“IPR”) decisions of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”). The PTAB held several claims of a patent owned by Qualcomm to be unpatentable. […] Continue Reading →
Pluots & Apriums & Plumcots, Oh My! By Brian D. Keppler, Ph.D. You’ve likely seen them in grocery stores, but what is a pluot anyway? And an aprium? And then how are those different than a plumcot? All of these terms refer to hybrids within the genus Prunus, specifically a plum (Prunus salicina) and an apricot (Prunus armeniaca). Plumcots (which are also called apriplums) are 50/50 hybrids […] Continue Reading →
Highly Respected Intellectual Property Attorney Kevin M. Kercher Joins McKee, Voorhees & Sease, PLC By Richard Marsolais MVS is excited to announce that Kevin M. Kercher, a highly experienced and successful patent attorney, has joined the firm. Kevin, who is a registered patent attorney, will be bringing his significant engineering and intellectual property experience to serve clients in a number of industry and university sectors. Kevin’s vast experience includes preparation and prosecution […] Continue Reading →
Copyright Ownership, Transfers, and NFTs By Twitter recently went ablaze after Spice DAO, a decentralized autonomous organization, won an auction for 2.66 million euros (a little over $3 million USD) for an unpublished manuscript of Frank Herbert and Alejandro Jodorowsky’s never completed film Dune. The viral reaction wasn’t due to the purchase of the manuscript, rather it occurred after the organization […] Continue Reading →