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Author Archives: tom
What is an effective filing date?
What is an effective filing date? If you”ve done some reading about patents, you may have seen references to an “effective filing date.” For instance, while patent attorneys will often shorthand an explanation of patents by saying they offer protection … Continue reading
Posted in Patent
Tagged effective filing date, filing date, patent application, patent FAQ
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TED Talk: Johanna Blakley: Lessons from fashion’s free culture
In this video, Johanna Blakley provides a good overview of the interaction between copyright and fashion. There are some slight inaccuracies in what she presents, but overall it is an excellent talk. And her remarks in the last few minutes … Continue reading
Posted in Copyright, News
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Can a slogan be a trademark?
A trademark can be many things: a word, a symbol, a logo, a name, and even a slogan. A trademark can really be anything that signifies the source of the product or service and that also distinguishes it from others. … Continue reading
A Lesson in Copyrights and Licensing from The Verve
Do you remember the song Bittersweet Symphony? It was a huge hit around the world in 1997, used in movies, TV shows, and commercials. It has been sampled many times for re-use in other songs. The hit was written and performed … Continue reading
Posted in Copyright
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Is Web Scraping Legal?
I had a friend get in touch with me a while back about the legalities of web scraping. He found, and I’m finding too, a tremendous lack of information about web scraping. I think this is a result of there being so many strange ramifications depending on the many variables in the facts of each situation. I got interested in the legal issues involved in web scraping, and so I put together a hypothetical to test some of them out. Continue reading
How to Patent an Idea
Sorry, you can’t. You can’t patent just “an idea.” It isn’t allowed by the law. Patents are granted only for things, processes, machines, manufactured articles, inventions. Abstract ideas and theories, alone, cannot be patented. Recent Supreme Court law just … Continue reading
Job-Creating Patents
In an Op-Ed piece at the New York Times I came across via Patently-O, Paul Michel and Henry Nothhaft argue for the infusion of $1 billion into the Patent Office. What I noticed most in this article was their citation that … Continue reading
Filing a Non-Publication Request
Not very long ago, patent applications were maintained in secrecy until they issued as patents. Today, however, an application is published 18 months after its effective filing date, meaning that anyone can see your invention after you file it. By … Continue reading
Love, Marriage, Divorce & Patents
Patently-O has some interesting discussion regarding the ownership of a patent after a divorce. The case is Enovsys v. Nextel and stems from Sprint-Nextel’s appeal of a patent infringement verdict. As part of its argument, Sprint claimed that the plaintiff … Continue reading
Patents Explained: Claims
At last, the claims! The heart of the patent! Appropriately bringing this series of explanatory posts to an end, the claims conclude a patent. A patent can have one claim or many; generally, though, they’ve got 20 or less because … Continue reading