Heidi S. Nebel Appointed to the USPTO Patent Public Advisory Committee

By Richard Marsolais

MVS is very excited to announce that Heidi S. Nebel, Managing Partner and Chair of the MVS Chemical and Biotechnology Practice Group, has been appointed by the Secretary of Commerce, Gina M. Raimondo, to the prestigious United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Patent Public Advisory Committee (PPAC). Heidi was sworn in on December 15th […]

Nintendo Game Console Creator Passes Away

By Kirk M. Hartung

Masayuki Uemura, the lead engineer of the Nintendo popular home video game system, passed away on December 6, 2021, in Japan at the age of 78.  With an electronic engineering degree from Chiba Institute of Technology, Uemura initially worked at Sharp Corporation.  He went to work at Nintendo in 1971 and became head of hardware […]

Innovation in a Time of Need – An Employment Perspective – Part 2

By Luke T. Mohrhauser

In the previous post we talked about creating an environment that fosters innovation and encourages all employees at a company to participate in the process. This post will discuss protecting your innovation from other outside parties. Now that you have created an environment that fosters innovation and you are seeing the benefits of your new […]

Innovation in a Time of Need – An Employment Perspective – Part 1

By Luke T. Mohrhauser

We have all heard the sayings, “Necessity Breeds Innovation” or “Crisis Breeds Innovation”. In recent times, there is plenty of necessity and crisis. Take, for instance, the issues facing many companies, including those in the manufacturing industry. At a recent conference, in conversations with clients, and in numerous articles, the same sentiment is provided – […]

Check it Twice: TTAB Puts Attorney on “Naughty List” for Intent to Deceive USPTO

By Nicholas J. Krob

While it is not advisable for anyone to sign something without reading it first, the same is especially true for lawyers, who are paid to focus on the details. As demonstrated by a recent Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) decision, inattention to such details can have costly repercussions when dealing with the United States […]

Celebrating Technology Transfer Professionals Day on December 12th

On Sunday, we celebrate Technology Transfer Professionals Day that honors those individuals that work to help universities and research institutions advance their critical discoveries to a final product or service. The day was chosen since it was the anniversary of the Bayh-Dole Act, that was enacted on December 12, 1980, and was instrumental in encouraging […]

Partnering with Academia – Insights from Princeton’s Engage 2021 Conference

By Jill N. Link, Pharm.D.

As counsel to various university clients as well as those in industry (of many types!) I am frequently asked my opinion of how best to work with academia to conduct research, while also maximizing the future ability to commercialize resulting intellectual property (IP). This is a question with many nuanced answers. I am not seeking […]

Two New ex Parte Trademark Cancellation Proceedings

By Julie L. Spieker

On December 18, 2021, new regulations implementing the Trademark Modernization Act of 2020 (“the TMA”) will officially go into effect allowing individuals, businesses, and the USPTO to clear unused registered trademarks from the federal trademark register. New ex parte expungement and reexamination proceedings are said to provide a faster, more efficient, and less expensive alternative […]

Federal Circuit dismisses another appeal by Apple Inc.

By Joseph M. Hallman

On November 10, 2021, in Apple Inc. v. Qualcomm Incorporated (Apple v. Qualcomm), the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“Federal Circuit”) dismissed Apple Inc.’s (“Apple”) consolidated appeal from four decisions made by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”). The PTAB held that claims of patents owned by Qualcomm Incorporated (“Qualcomm”) […]

When your own patent application counts as prior art: Beware the Continuation-In-Part

By Cassie J. Edgar

Often during patent prosecution new technologies, concepts and data grow out of an original filing. How can you protect those new innovations? The natural reaction is to file a child application off of the parent filing, in order to preserve the earlier priority date through a continuation or continuation-in-part (CIP) application. A continuation is limited […]