Intellectual Property News

June 2005 Newsletter

How to Enforce or Challenge a Patent
A patent gives the patent owner an exclusive right in the subject matter of the patent. If another person or company makes, uses, sells, offers for sale, or imports the subject matter of the patent, that other person or company is said to be infringing on the patent rights of the patent owner. The patent owner in such a situation may wish to have the infringing conduct stop or may be entitled to monetary compensation for the infringing conduct. Because the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has no jurisdiction over a patent once it issues it does not have any enforcement powers with regard to patent rights. The ordinary course of action to take against an act of patent infringement is to bring a lawsuit in court. In addition, a non-patent owner who believes that a patent issued by the USPTO is not valid may bring a lawsuit to challenge the validity of that patent. If you have questions about the specific enforcement of a patent, contact one of our patent attorneys to discuss your specific legal rights. More...

How to Read a Patent
A patent is a complex, legal and technical document. A patent can define your legal rights, therefore assistance of a knowledgeable and skilled attorney can be invaluable when evaluating your patent rights. However, reviewing patents can be useful when considering patent protection. It is often helpful when considering whether to patent something to determine what the current state of the art, i.e. what published applications or issued patents may relate to your invention. Before, reading a patent, it is helpful to understand them. The most important part of a patent is the claim section. Reading the claim section, is referred to as Patent Claim Interpretation. It helps understand what the breadth of the patent. The claim language defines claim scope. Therefore, the language of the claim frames and ultimately resolves all issues of claim interpretation. In determining the meaning of disputed claim terms, however; a construing court considers the written description, the drawings, the prosecution history, and extrinsic evidence. These additional sources provide a context to illuminate the meaning of claim terms. Nonetheless, throughout the interpretation process, the focus must and does remain on the meaning of the claim language itself. More...

Is Someone Diluting Your Brand Identity/ TM/SM
A trademark (or service mark) is infringed when the mark or a similar mark is used in a way that is likely to confuse the public into believing that the trademark owner was the source or sponsor of a product that it did not actually make or endorse. If you believe your mark is being diluted, contact one of our trademark attorneys to discuss how to protect your mark. More...

Intellectual Property and the World Wide Web
The internet is a great resource of information as well as images, documents, programs and web pages. Various types of intellectual property protection are available to protect these owners of these works. For example, Copyright protects original authorship fixed in tangible form. For works transmitted online, the copyrightable authorship may consist of text, artwork, music, audiovisual material, sound recordings, etc. Copyright does not protect ideas, procedures, systems, or methods of operation. Under U.S. law, copyright protection subsists from the time the work is fixed. Copyright registration is not mandatory, but it has important benefits. The vast majority of the images that are online are copyrighted to someone. Only works with an expired copyright, works created by the government, or works specifically dedicated by the copyright holder as "public domain" are considered public domain. More...

Computer Software a Hybrid - Is It an Invention or a Work of Art?
All computer programs, fixed in any form by any method, performing any function for any purpose, are entitled to copyright protection. In addition, software may be entitled to patent protection when it meets the statutory requirements for patentability. This dual level of protection has confused many inventors as to when and what types of protection should be used to protect Software programs. Software programs consist of code, graphics, screen displays, menu navigation and specialized function routines. Different aspects of software applications are entitled to different types of protection. In general, however, patent protection is the strongest but one of the shorter types of protection while copyright protection is longer, but generally not as strong. More...

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