Another shift in favor of patent holders has been the increased availability of patent litigation funding. Due to its expense, patent litigation has been referred to by some as the “sport of kings.” We have also heard patents referred to as a
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If you practice law long enough, you see the pendulum shift between the respective rights of patent owners and accused infringers. The pendulum seems to be shifting, at least somewhat, back toward the inventors. In October of last year, John Squires, Director
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Not only do we help our clients get U.S. patents, but we help them get patents in places like Europe, Canada, Japan, China, Australia, Mexico, and Brazil. In order to prosecute a patent in a foreign patent office, we have to retain counsel
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Patenting inventions that involve web-based interactions between a business and customers or other third parties can be particularly challenging because of a problem called “divided infringement.” The problem is that in order to distinguish the prior art, you often have to identify system
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Inventors typically come to us with an idea of what they think is new about their invention. Usually, they have not done a prior art search, and as a result, are sometimes overly optimistic about the breadth of a patent they might ultimately
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Patents are not cheap, and the process can be frustrating and time consuming. So, it is important to think about why you want a patent in the first place. It may turn out that patenting is not an optimal way to achieve your goals. For
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On more than one occasion we have heard a client express surprise or frustration that the Patent Office issued one of their competitors a patent which seems invalid because it claims something known in the “prior art” or has some overly broad
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It is sometimes the case that the real driver of value in a patented machine or system is in the aftermarket for replaceable components. The problem is that, on their own, the replaceable components often lack any unique functionality and are unprotectable with
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In our experience, many clients are under the impression that the naming of inventors on a patent application is discretionary and that they can simply select whom they wish to name. We have seen situations where, for internal political reasons, someone wants
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Are you periodically checking to make sure that your patent marking is up to date? Failure to properly mark your products with the patents that cover them can be very costly if you ever go to enforce your patents. Normally, patent infringement
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