Year: 2016

® ™ Should I get a trademark, copyright, or patent? How do I go about getting a trademark? Do I need an attorney? What are the roles of the USPTO and the trademark attorney? If you’ve ever had any of these or other trademark questions, now there’s a free website you can go to for answers. The...

written by James Klobucar, Esq., Patent Attorney at Gearhart Law www.Gearhartlaw.com One of the latest news stories to take the internet by storm stemmed from reports that King.com, makers of the wildly popular Candy Crush mobile application (amongst others), has trademarked the word “candy” in the United States. The furor brought about statements of disbelief...

written by Susanne Somersalo, Ph.D., Esq., patent attorney at Gearhart Law www.GearhartLaw.com How to expedite patent prosecution? Some statistics According to the USPTO statistics of November 2013 there were 590,070 patent applications waiting to get examined in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The expected time from filing of a patent application to the first office...

written by Roy Rosser, Ph.D., Patent Agent www.GearhartLaw.com Christmas Tree: Real or Fake? With Christmas trees, even a child can tell the difference just by looking. So the real question for trees is not are they fake, but “Which is greener?” A topic that is bitterly disputed on the websites of the National Christmas Tree Association...

written by Elizabeth Gearhart, Ph.D., Patent Agent at Gearhart Law www.gearhartstg.wpenginepowered.com Crowdfunding refers to people or organizations obtaining funds for their cause by asking a large audience for money, allowing them to bypass the banks and large investors such as venture capitalists. The concept has been around for a long time, but the internet has...

How does the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) encourage innovation? One way is through resources for inventors. One such resource can be found on the USPTO website, and is called “Inventors Eye Newsletter.” You can get to it by clicking on the USPTO website’s ‘Inventors” tab, or subscribe to the newsletter by...

written by Roy Rosser, Ph.D., Patent Agent www.GearhartLaw.com A Brief History of Animated Turkey Decoys, told in Patents Yes, it’s that time of year again, already. Time to man up, load the 12 gauge and shoot yourself a turkey. Having cleaned the shotgun and ironed my freshly washed camo outfit, I was sorting through my extensive...

written by James Klocubar, Esq., Patent Attorney at Gearhart Law www.GearhartLaw.com The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has finalized amendments to the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act (HSR Act) clarifying the scope of reportable transactions involving the transfer of rights in a patent in the pharmaceutical (including biologics and medicine manufacturing) industry. The final rule defines and applies the...

written by James Klobucar, Esq., Patent Attorney at Gearhart Law www.GearhartLaw.com Innovation Act of 2013: Taking Aim At Patent Trolls Just recently, patent reform legislation was introduced to Congress by a bipartisan group led by House Judiciary Committee Chairperson Bob Goodlatte (R-Va). The bill (H.R. 3309) is being tentatively referred to as the “Innovation Act of...

Not another fitness craze – Erector® Sets for grownups!. written by Roy Rosser, Ph.D., Patent Agent www.GearhartLaw.com In 1949, two innovators faced a problem familiar to most inventors and entrepreneurs – how to construct a prototype of an idea without spending much money. Custom engineering – particularly of precision parts – can be horrendously expensive.   And...