March 7, 2010
Patent Reform Act Moving Forward
Well, I’ve heard this one before – the Patent Reform Act is moving forward. This is something that has been, allegedly, moving forward for years. The article that I read noted that patent reform has been introduced in each of the last three Congresses. Does this one have a chance of passing? There’s really no telling.
Senators Leahy and Hatch have been big proponents of patent reform over the years. I appreciate that they realize the importance of intellectual property. Over the years, the various versions of the patent reform act have attempted to address issues such as moving to a “first to file” system, damages, and third party comments on pending patent applications. This proposed bill addresses those issues, as well as others allowing the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to set fees in an attempt to address the backlog problem.
February 22, 2010
Bill Gates Calls for Innovation
In a recent article posted by Bill Gates, he noted that in order to reach certain goals for reduction of CO2, insulation is not the answer, but rather through innovation. The goals referenced by Mr. Gates include a 30% reduction in CO2 by 2025 and an 80% reduction in CO2 by 2050. As Mr. Gates points out, the 2050 goal is likely not attainable – not without major innovation.
The issue, as I see it, is that this is a global goal. It is tough to have a global goal, however, if every country is not on board. If that is the case, then we must look to the law of averages. If only one of the major CO2 producing nations is not completely on board, then there is no way that the goal can really be attained. That is, not unless the remaining countries take their CO2 production down to nearly 0%. Unfortunately, there are some greenhouse gas emissions that we just cannot stop. As noted in the article, this may include, for example, the decaying process, making fertilizer, etc. So what does that mean for the USA? I believe it means a major shift in our transportation and energy production industry. It means that we will need a complete shift away from the archaic idea of burning fuel, i.e., petroleum, coal and even natural gas, in order to generate power.
February 4, 2010
Honda Sued for Trying to Save the Earth!
Honda can probably be considered one of the leaders in making more fuel efficient vehicles. They have always put out some pretty good vehicles, and now, with hybrid technologies, they have been manufacturing some vehicles that get between 40 and 45 miles per gallon. If I were Honda, I would want to boast about that too. Apparently, Honda started an ad campaign that offended Save the Earth Enterprises, an environmental group based here in the U.S. Save The Earth Enterprises sued Honda for trademark infringement over their recent ad campaign.
At first, I could not wrap my brain around this issue. I could not figure out who in their right mind would possibly confuse an environmental group with an automobile manufacturer. We have all heard about the (alleged) global warming issues, and if global warming was not enough of a reason to want to buy a more fuel efficient vehicle, then the price of fuel sure should have been. I also could not figure out what attorney in their right mind would possibly encourage their client, an environmental group, to sue a giant like Honda, who could only possibly be found at fault for manufacturing cars that may be too reliable (if you have had a bad experience with a Honda, please disregard that last comment).
February 2, 2010
Who Dat Say They Gonna Sue for Trademark Infringement? Da NFL – Dat Who!
Normally, most people out there know that the NFL gets their panties in a knot if you were to use any of their trademarks. For example, the NFL owns all the names and logos associated with each of the teams, as well as the name for that season ending football game that occurs on a Sunday – I didn’t want to write “Super Bowl” for fear of being sued by the NFL! Everyone who’s anyone knows that “The Big Game” is going to happen in a couple of weeks from now and that it is going to be between the New Orleans Saints and the team that beat my beloved Jets (just out of spite, I’m not going to mention the name).
We all know what New Orleans went through in 2005. Katrina was a terrible tragedy and the one thing that kept that city going was The Saints. I never really followed The Saints, but since they did so great this year, I watched a couple of games. I always saw people in the stands with signs on it that read “WHO DAT” and I would hear the likes of Drew Brees rally his team by chanting WHO DAT! I had no idea what it meant. I did some digging and asked some folks about it. I used to work with someone that I consider to be the biggest Saints fan ever. Apparently, there is a little war chant that they have in New Orleans – “Who Dat Say They Gonna Beat Dem Saints.” That’s a great chant and very original. In my opinion, it belongs to the people of New Orleans… not the NFL. I’m glad that The Saints have made it to the Super Bowl. New Orleans and its great citizens need this.
January 27, 2010
The Problem with the PTO Pilot Program to Accelerate Examination of “Green Technologies”
Back in December, the USPTO announced a pilot program to accelerate examination of patent applications directed to “green technologies.” Oddly enough, this announcement came just before the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Denmark. I will refrain from ranting about the politics of this, but I only wonder if the USPTO will decide to accelerate examination of those technologies that may have an impact on any other upcoming international conferences. I think national defense and anti-terrorism are pretty big topics nowadays, but I still have not seen anything in the Federal Register about accelerated examinations of patent applications in those fields. Well, enough of that.
The pilot program aims to decrease the pendency time for patent applications in certain green technologies. The current pending time (i.e., number of months between filing an application and receiving a final decision), according to the article, is about 40 months – with an average of 30 months passing before a first Office Action is mailed to the applicant. By my count, that’s not bad compared to several other technological fields. I represent some clients that have patent applications which have been pending for going on four years. The pilot program is open to the first 3000 patent applications related to green technologies in which a proper petition is filed.
January 25, 2010
Southern Cal beats up on South Carolina… in a trademark dispute
Those of you who know me know that I am a sports junkie. GO JETS – sorry, I had to find a way to subtly get that one in there. If you are reading this and thinking that you are about to hear me rant and rave about coaching changes or NCAA violations at Southern Cal, you are in for a surprise. This is a true intellectual property dispute between two schools with teams that I don’t particularly appreciate and with football coaches that are not on my top ten list (especially you Kiffin).
Anyway, the Trojans of Southern California have dealt a trademark blow to the South Carolina Gamecocks. This dispute revolves around the logos for each school and, more specifically, the logos that each school prints on their apparel. South Carolina appealed a decision from the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board refusing to register the school’s logo and also refusing to cancel a Southern California trademark. The Federal Circuit upheld both decisions.
January 21, 2010
The “Departure” of Conan O’Brien Brings Up Intellectual Property Issues
So unless you go to bed at 8PM (which I wish I did) or you don’t have a television, you have probably heard that Conan O’Brien’s attempt at hosting the coveted 11:30 time slot for NBC’s late night talk show will be short lived. NBC is bumping Conan and going back to Jay Leno. Personally, I used to watch Leno as I was falling asleep and found his skits to be somewhat humorous – Jaywalking, Battle of the Jaywalk Allstars, Headlines, etc. I never really stayed up late enough to watch Conan’s skits, but I am somewhat familiar with them – the talking picture thing, Triumph the Insult Dog (one of my personal favorites), etc.
As you probably know, the NBC late night debacle has been pretty contentious. My personal favorite was during Conan’s monologue a few nights ago when he was noting that hosting the Tonight Show, even for a short period of time, was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. He went on to give some advice to the kids out there – “you can do whatever you want to do… so long as Jay Leno doesn’t want to do it too.”
January 12, 2010
What type of patent application is right for me?
Generally speaking, a patent is a grant, by the government, for a fixed period of time, of the right to exclude others from making, using, selling, or offering for sale an invention as defined in the claims of a patent. (For more information, check our our Overview of U.S. Patent Protection.) Of course, the first step in the patent process is filing a patent application. There are several different types of patent applications that can be filed by an inventor. What follows is a brief outline of the types of patent applications that can be applied for, as well as the differences between them all. The patent applications that will be discussed below are Provisional Patent Applications, Utility Patent Applications (sometimes called Nonprovisional Patent Applications), Design Patent Applications, and Plant Patent Applications.
January 3, 2010
New Precedential Software Decision from the Board of Patent Appeals and Inteferences
As our readers know, we are anxiously awaiting the decision from the U.S. Supreme Court in the Bilski case (coverage here and here). This attorney, for one, is very much so wondering what will happen to software patents. I’ve made it no secret that I believe that patents should be granted to software based inventions. I think this would provide incentive for the industry to come out with more innovation. Look at what software has done for us just in the field of patents. It wasn’t more than 20 years ago that patent attorneys were dictating patents and secretaries were transcribing them on typewriters. It was about 10 years ago that the most common way for us to file our patent applications and our responses to office actions was to just mail them. I wonder when the patent office will catch up with the trademark office and send out Office Actions and other communications via email?
I am completely fine with the test set forth by the Federal Circuit in their decision in Bilski, but let’s not be too surprised if the Supreme Court tweaks it a little. To be fair, Bilski is technically not a software patent case. It does have ramifications on the software industry, but there are other industries that can be impacted by the Bilski decision. In my opinion, the § 101 argument will not be over until the courts finally come down with precedent in each of the affected technology areas. The areas that I think there will eventually be precedential decisions in are, of course, software, pharmaceutical and, very soon, pure business methods patents (which are all but dead anyway).
December 31, 2009
Michael Jordan Sues Grocery Stores for Trademark Infringement… After They Congratulate Him!
You may have already heard about the latest trademark infringement case, where Michael Jordan (yes, that Michael Jordan) has sued two grocery store chains, Jewel-Osco and Dominick’s for trademark infringement, after the stores ran full page ads in a Sports Illustrated issue dedicated to the accomplishments of Jordan. This comes on the heels of Jordan’s ridiculous Hall of Fame induction speech, in which he just ranted about how great he is. Michael – can you get more arrogant? Who is advising you? Please fire them and get someone else – I think you can afford it!
“Hmmm… I wonder if my attorney has read New Kids on the Block v. News America or ETW v. Jireh“
For those of you who like your information straight from the source and unfiltered, you can find Mr. Jordan’s complaints here and here.
At the end of the day, Jordan probably has a case. He owns a trademark on his name, and has probably gone to great lengths to protect his trademarks. Clearly, the Jordan brand is quite valuable. In my humble opinion, however, I do not think that every possible trademark infringement case needs to be prosecuted. There is such a thing as bad publicity.
