Blurred Lines in Copyright Law Following ‘Blurred Lines’ Jury Verdict Under the Copyright Act of 1909, a work was protected when it was published with the notice of copyright protection. Although changed by the Copyright Act of 1976, releasing a sound recording of a composition under the 1909 act (i.e., musical notes and lyrics) did not constitute “publication”of a musical work. Thus, for musical works […] Continue Reading →
Lost Profit Damages Require Actual Sales by Patentee The award of damages in patent infringement cases is governed by 35 U.S.C. ยง 284. The statute provides “[u]pon finding for the [patent owner] the court shall award the claimant damages adequate to compensate for the infringement, but in no event less than a reasonable royalty for the use made of the invention by the […] Continue Reading →
Michelle Lee Confirmed as USPTO Director The Senate on Monday confirmed the White House’s nominee for the long-vacant director position at the USPTO. Director Lee had been serving as Deputy Director and acting Director for over a year, pending the nomination process. Director Lee takes over for former-Director Kappos, who left the position in February 2013. The confirmation has been both […] Continue Reading →
Alternative Patent Reform Legislation Proposed in Senate Even though the America Invents Act is just over 3 years old, patent reform legislation has arisen on several occasions over the past years. The most visible legislative efforts have involved the “Innovation Act” proposed by Senator Goodlatte in 2013, and again in 2015. The version of the Innovation Act introduced in 2013 stalled out […] Continue Reading →
Cancelation of Trademarks due to First Actual Use After Application Federal registration of a trademark provides a number of benefits to the trademark owner, including protection throughout the entire country, advantageous litigation position—for example presumption of validity and enhanced monetary damages—and enlistment of the U.S. Customs Service to stop importation of counterfeit goods. The federal trademark system provides two separate avenues for protecting a mark: […] Continue Reading →
Claim Preambles as Limitations- the Saga Continues The preamble of a patent claim normally recites some purpose or objective, but is generally not considered to limit the scope of the claim unless it “breaths life and meaning into the claim.” There are a number of ways that the preamble can take on patentable weight, including by serving as the antecedent basis for […] Continue Reading →
Are Trademarks for Beer Names Becoming a Commodity? While typically we think of finite resources such as oil and coal as commodities, it could be that the next big commodities are names for craft beers and breweries. According to a recent NPR story, which can be foundhere, the craft brewing industry is becoming an increasingly crowded industry with more than 3,000 breweries in […] Continue Reading →
Trade Secret Symposium The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is hosting a Trade Secret Symposium on Thursday, January 8, 2015 at its headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. This symposium is the first of its kind for trade secrets. More information is available on the USPTO website. Both live and webcast attendance is available for this event. The USPTO symposium […] Continue Reading →
Update on “Patent Troll” Legislation in the Wake of the 2014 Elections In December of 2013, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 3309, the "Innovation Act," ostensibly to address the problem of abusive patent litigation, sometimes referred to as patent trolling. While H.R. 3309 passed with bipartisan support by an overwhelming margin of 325-91 votes, its companion bill failed to clear the Senate. Failure of the […] Continue Reading →
USPTO Releases New Guidelines on Patent Subject Matter Eligibility The USPTO today released new Guidance on Patent Subject Matter Eligibility. The new guidance comes nearly 9 months after the first set of “2014 Procedure For Subject Matter Eligibility Analysis Of Claims Reciting Or Involving Laws Of Nature/Natural Principles, Natural Phenomena, And/Or Natural Products“ were released in March 2014. The March guidelines sought to implement […] Continue Reading →