artful Insights
artful Insights
UDRP: One Tool To Address Online IP Infringement
You run an ecommerce business, selling products through your own website—let’s say it’s [yourname.com]. One day, a customer emails you asking why their order never arrived. You check their confirmation number, but there’s no record…
Read MoreDon’t Despair. Try to Declare! – Best Practices for Rule 132 Declarations
A Rule 132 Declaration is one patent prosecution tool for introducing relevant evidence into the examination record for overcoming a rejection. Because attorney arguments cannot take the place of factual evidence, it can be beneficial…
Read MoreFinal Rule on USPTO Fee Changes
The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued a final rule increasing fees effective 19 January 2025. The new fee rules include across-the-board increases of about 7.5% and other targeted increases intended to secure funds…
Read MoreE-commerce Patent Enforcement: Protecting Rights Holders in Online Retail
Too often, a company will create a new product, market it via online retail channels, and then discover someone (often multiple entities) has copied their product, interfering with profits and brand development for the original…
Read MoreEx Parte Reexaminations
Ex Parte Reexamination remains a viable way for patent owners and third parties to request the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to reconsider the validity of a granted patent based on patents and other printed…
Read MoreNew Micro-Entity Fee Reduction Now Available at the European Patent Office
With all the focus on the new European Unitary Patent System and Unified Patent Court, a recent development at the European Patent Office (EPO) has flown under the radar of many U.S. patent practitioners. Toby…
Read MorePractical Tips for Responding to Office Action Rejections (Part II)
When responding to an Office Action, as a patent practitioner, you have a variety of tools available in your “toolbox”. A previous posting discussed several such tools. Another tool available in the toolbox is to…
Read MorePractical Tips for Responding to Office Action Rejections (Part I)
When responding to an Office Action, as a patent practitioner, you have a variety of tools available in your “toolbox”. One such tool includes identifying whether the cited art even qualifies under 35 USC 102(a)…
Read MorePractical Tips for Claim Drafting
Drafting patent claims can be tricky, in that sometimes we may not think about the implications of how we choose to draft a given claim. For example, is there really any significant difference between “The…
Read MoreDouble Patenting Drama: Recent Cases and USPTO Proposals
The legal framework for obviousness-type double patenting (ODP) and its relationship to patent term adjustment (PTA) continues to evolve. In Gilead, the Federal Circuit held that a later-issued but earlier-expiring patent is a proper ODP reference…
Read MorePatent Eligibility Test Under 35 U.S.C. § 101 and Response Strategies
The precedent set by the Supreme Court in Diamond v. Chakrabarty (447 U.S. 303 (1980)) held that “anything under the sun that is made by man” is patentable under 35 U.S.C. § 101. This standard…
Read MoreTrademark Rights and Freedom of Speech: Unpacking the Supreme Court’s Ruling in Vidal v. Elster
The Supreme Court issued its decision in Vidal v. Elster this past week. Elster addresses a constitutional challenge to the prohibition on the registration of a mark that “[c]onsists of or comprises a name … identifying…
Read MoreDon’t Ask Your Lawyer for a “Standard Agreement”
Clients will often contact their attorney and ask for a “standard agreement.” Essentially the request is for the lawyer to pull something out of their form bank that can be provided for little or no…
Read MoreVisual Signatures: Trade Dress Law for Brand Protection
Trade dress serves as the visual signature of a brand, encompassing everything from product and packaging designs to color schemes and overall presentation. In essence, it’s the unique “look and feel” that sets a product…
Read MoreUSPTO Inventorship Guidelines for AI-Assisted Inventions
President Biden issued the “Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence” on October 30, 2023, including the objective to “promote a fair, open, and competitive ecosystem and marketplace…
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