For an applicant to be granted a patent, the patent claims defining the invention must be written so as to satisfy several criteria, including novelty, non-obviousness, clarity, and definiteness. Historically, satisfying these four criteria has been the primary...
Intellectual Property Litigation
IP strategies for strengthening your new idea
Often the biggest problem for building a business around a new idea or invention is not coming up with the initial concept but developing a strategy that enables it to flourish in the marketplace. Once an inventor has the idea, need to consider the landscape in the...
Infringement claims only work when there is a registered copyright
A significant change in intellectual property law took place when the Supreme Court ruled recently on a copyright infringement case. With contradictory rulings on the books in the Circuit Courts, the highest court unanimously determined that copyright infringement...
How does bankruptcy impact trademark rights?
The Supreme Court of the United States settled a complex question regarding trademark rights in bankruptcy. The case, Mission Product Holdings, Inc. v. Tempnology, LLC, arose out of Tempnology filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2015. The company said in light of its...
White House calls for crackdown on counterfeit goods
The White House issued a memorandum on April 3 warning consumers about counterfeit and pirated goods. It focused on third party web sites, marketplaces and intermediaries that traffic in counterfeit and pirated goods. These include sites such as Alibaba, eBay and...
It’s Cards vs. Crabs in a Game of Cards
Many are familiar with Cards Against Humanity. The premise of this popular party game is for one player to draw a black card with a question or a “fill-in-the-blank” prompt, and the fellow players then respond using answers provided on white cards in their...
Coffee growers seek to protect the Kona name
The laidback lifestyle in Hawaii makes it a wonderful place to visit. However, like other unique places on the planet, local residents and business take great care in protecting what makes the place special, especially when they see non-natives using the culture or...
Carlton’s dance lawsuits come to an end
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air actor Alfonso Ribeiro has been in the news a lot since attempting to copyright his “Carlton” dance. At the beginning of this year, we wrote about how the actor took issue with the video game creators of Fortnite, who used a...
Jaguar Land Rover’s $130 million trademark suit bombs
Jaguar Land Rover Ltd. has lost its bid to stop what it saw as trademark infringement by Bombardier Recreational Products (BRP). This suit was brought because BRP has an ATV sports vehicle with side-by-side seats named the Can-Am Defender. Jaguar contended that the...
Amazon is both friend and foe
Amazon has ruffled the feathers of some of its clients recently. It started with selling private house brands of batteries and phone chargers and then expanded into toys, clothing and furniture. Soon companies complained that their online retail partner was creating...