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Patent Law

: Patently Obvious

Patently-O Bits and Bytes No. 59

By Dennis Crouch, Esq.

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The Patent Hawk Strikes: Gary Odom enjoyed inventing and patenting so much that he became a patent searcher. He also writes the Patent Hawk blog from his Oregon roost. He has now sued Microsoft in the Eastern District of Texas for infringing his Patent covering toolbar groupings (Patent No. 7,363,592). If you are using Office 2007, you might check to see whether your Microsoft click-through license includes indemnification.
Law students ask me about law firm titles, so I created the following "Glossary of Patent Law Firm Professionals"
- Associate: A lawyer who is not yet a partner, but is on that track.
- Partner: Could be either equity partner or non-equity partner.
- Equity Partner: An owner of the firm. Firms may have complex ownership structures and various levels of equity.
- Non-Equity Partner: A senior associate with a fancy title. Many firms do not tell its clients which partners are equity vs non-equity.
- Of Counsel: Catch-all used when an attorney wants to work a reduced load or not be fully engaged with the firm. Also, many firms hire lateral would-be partners as of counsel until the firm decides to make a partnership offer.
- Special Counsel: Same as of counsel.
- Senior Counsel: Same as of counsel, but indicates a senior level attorney
- Technical Advisor: non-lawyer, often a patent agent. Some firms separate patent agents from technical advisors based on PTO registration.
- Law Clerk: non-lawyer, typically also a law student.
- Docketing clerk: Typically a paralegal. The most important job in a patent prosecution firm.
- Patent Paralegals and Secretaries: The most difficult positions to fill with qualified individuals willing to work with patent attorneys.
- Contract Attorney: The person who is treated the worst but is paid fairly well. Spends the day doing document review and checking facebook.
Quote of the week: "Next time wear a tie. This is the Federal Circuit." Chief Judge Michel to appellate counsel.
Inventor Gil Hyatt gets $388 million more ? this time from the California Franchise Tax Board. The lawsuit by Hyatt was filed in 1998 after California assessed Hyatt with millions of dollars of income tax while Hyatt claimed he did not live in the state. In the case, the Supreme Court had rejected California's immunity argument ? finding that a Nevada court was not required to give full faith and credit to California's self-immunity statute. [Link] Gilbert Hyatt is known for receiving a broad patent on the microcontroller. Before the patent was invalidated, Hyatt received $70 million+ in royalties.