Intellectual Property Law

Patent Agents Can?t Do X

Posted on August 14, 2008
We recently had a patent engineer in our office who was studying for the patent bar exam (and eventual “patent agent” status). To wit, I spent some time recently trying to really understand what a patent agent can/can’t do (beyond standard prosecution)...

PTO Ethical Rules

Posted on August 14, 2008
Why in the world is it so difficult to find the USPTO Code of Professional Responsibility online? Why isn’t it clearly linked to on the OED’s website? Seriously! While those rules are hammered into every attorney’s head (they are generally duplicative of our state bar ethics rules), non-attorney practitioners (in my experience) don’t always [...

Recent Trademark Office News & Notices

Posted on August 13, 2008
- Expanded PDF size–”On or about August 29, 2008, the USPTO plans to enhance TEAS to (1) increase the size limitation of PDF attachments from 3 to 5 megabytes; and (2) accept other “non-Adobe flavors” of PDFs. Please note, however, that the number of pages within any PDF file may not exceed 100 pages, separate [...

TEAS now requiring attorneys to list state bar?

Posted on August 13, 2008
I just noticed something I hadn’t seen before…the TEAS form signature block now directs attorneys to provide which state bar they are a member of: If an attorney, enter “Attorney of record, [specify at least one state] bar member.” Update, I also notice that you must select a box that says: I hereby confirm that this response [...

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One solution to the exploding cost of health insurance?

Posted on August 11, 2008
Someone asked me about health insurance options for small businesses earlier. I pointed them to a three year old post I wrote on “Health Savings Accounts for Lawyers and Business Owners.” I’m still using mine and am VERY glad I set it up...

Excellent Summary regarding ?EAR Export Licenses?

Posted on August 11, 2008
Excellent summary by Gene Quinn of PLI Patent Blog regarding “EAR Export Licenses” as they relate to outsourcing patent application drafting. [Originally posted on The Invent Blog. Copyright © Nipper, LLC 2004-2007. All Rights Reserved...

Eureka! I get it! (Twitter)

Posted on August 08, 2008
I’ve been a Twitter hater for a long time now.  Twitter, bleh!  I was a skeptic, thinking “why in the world would people care what I had for dinner?”  My epiphany came after an excellent seminar on personal branding put on by the guys at Tricycle...

First Post Medimmune DJ Dismissal

Posted on August 08, 2008
PHOSITA blog with a copy of the order in what appears to be the First Post Medimmune DJ Dismissal. See also: Patent Baristas - Supreme Court High-Fives MedImmune, Wikipedia - MedImmune, Inc. v. Genentech, Inc. [Originally posted on The Invent Blog...

Google Patents?now with watermarks

Posted on August 04, 2008
Scratch Google from the premier place for downloading pdf copies of patents. I downloaded a patent copy from them earlier that included this nice watermark/stamp: Bummer. [Originally posted on The Invent Blog. Copyright © Nipper, LLC 2004-2007...

Delicious Copyright URLs

Posted on July 30, 2008
I’m a HUGE fan of del.icio.us. I tag stuff every day (or so it seems). I dawned on me earlier that my old del.icio.us tags are a gold mine of great links for my readers. So…let’s start with some delicious copyright URLs: Internet Cases » A guide to registering the copyright in your [...

New plug-ins

Posted on July 30, 2008
I’ve added a couple new plug-ins in the last couple weeks: 1. A plug-in for my foreign readers. If you load the website (www.inventblog.com) you will see (in the right hand sidebar) links to common language translations of this site. [Global Translator] 2...

Are attorneys (on average) lacking in basic technical skills?

Posted on July 26, 2008
It is surprising to most people, but attorneys tend to be late adopters of technology. I think it is a result of having a “I don’t have time to learn something new, must keep working” mentality. Proof: check out branding guru Justin Foster’s recent post on “5 technical skills a modern professional should [...

USPTO Notice Regarding the Scope of Foreign Filing Licenses

Posted on July 24, 2008
Applicants and registered patent practitioners are reminded that the export of subject matter abroad pursuant to a license from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), such as a foreign filing license, is limited to purposes related to the filing of foreign patent applications...

USPTO Survey on Patent eCommerce Customer Satisfaction

Posted on July 22, 2008
Via an email most of you probably received from the Patent Office too: As a valued United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) customer, your opinions are important and enable the USPTO to learn what is working well and where there is room for improvement...

How could USPTO.gov be improved?

Posted on July 20, 2008
Great list of changes the USPTO should make regarding web page organization and access to patent data The Patent Librarian: Transparency in the US Patent System. For other things that could be changed…see ReThink(IP) on “Things we hate about the USPTO...

Slick sliding animation for helping you determine if a copyrighted work is in the public domain

Posted on July 16, 2008
Via the American Library Association’s Copyright Advisory Network Digital Copyright Slider. See also their Fair Use Checklist (pdf). [Originally posted on The Invent Blog. Copyright © Nipper, LLC 2004-2007. All Rights Reserved.]

Best new gadget?.Netflix Player by Roku

Posted on July 15, 2008
Netflix (last year?) added a service called “Watch Instantly” where they allowed subscribers to watch streamed selections on their computers for free (as part of their subscription). The titles in the “Watch Instantly” library (10,000+ of them) aren’t “New Releases,” but older movies and TV episodes...

Invention Promotion Company settles with FTC for $10.7 million

Posted on July 14, 2008
Apparently, the FTC has settled its case with Davison & Associates for $10.7 million in cash, real estate and investment assets, less than half of the $26 million dollar judgment awarded in 2006. See: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review - “O’Hara invention promoter, FTC settle case for $10...

Online Time Clock for Law Firm Employees

Posted on July 13, 2008
With mentions in TechCrunch, Technorati, Inc.com, and an iPhone App…..one local Idaho software company (TSheets) is making big waves! See also this Idaho Business Review post. As a user of their product (my office uses their software for our employees), I completely understand why...

Quicktime, TIF and USPTO Images

Posted on July 02, 2008
Quick update to an earlier “tech tip”* post of mine (”Tech Tip: Die QuickTime, Die“) regarding how QuickTime blocks the use of AlternaTiff (my preferred Tiff viewer for USPTO patent images). Earlier today, I decided to smack QuickTime around again (my problem was back, even though (1) I reinstalled AlternaTiff AND (2) AlternaTiff showed up as [...

Thomas Edison used ?click wrap??

Posted on June 27, 2008
Matt Buchanan’s new blog on “Friday fun - Edison’s mark” (referring to terms and conditions Edison used on a marking plate for his Amberola Phonograph). [Originally posted on The Invent Blog. Copyright © Nipper, LLC 2004-2007...

Did you know that most books published between 1923 and 1963 are in the public domain?

Posted on June 25, 2008
At least that is what Google, in reviewing Copyright renewals is finding. See Google Book Search Blog on US copyright renewal records available for download. Google’s latest announcement (the topic of that post) was scraping together a 56MB XML file (zipped) containing a list of the books that were not renewed...

Where lawyers don?t eat

Posted on June 23, 2008
Above the Law has a post up on “Where the Lawyers Eat Out” which contains a list of “recommendations for restaurants in various Biglaw cities.” Something tells me that ‘if’ Boise was a “Biglaw city” that this local restaurant would probably not make the list: The Crescent “NO LAWYERS” Bar & Grill...

?Doah? of the week

Posted on June 19, 2008
Techdirt: Expensive Patent Attorneys Know How To Cut & Paste, But Not Search & Replace [Originally posted on The Invent Blog. Copyright © Nipper, LLC 2004-2007. All Rights Reserved.]

Remember when the practice of patent law was ?fun??

Posted on June 12, 2008
It isn’t anymore…hasn’t been for a few years. My fellow practitioners know exactly what I mean. Then, I read this: …The SPE indicated that it was the policy in his Art Group not to issue any patents any more. In fact, some examiners in this unidentified Art Group have not issued a single patent in over 2 [...

Why a Patent Firm Should Consider Outsourcing?Speed

Posted on June 12, 2008
Three years ago I wrote a post on the ReThink(IP) blog on ?Insourcing Patent Work? where I talked about ?insourcing,? namely rather than sending patent work overseas, instead sending it inland (US) to smaller metropolitan areas where hourly rates and costs in general are less...

Foreign clients ? Billing and Collecting

Posted on June 10, 2008
Excellent article for practitioners (and their bookkeepers) doing work for foreign clients — ABA Law Practice Magazine on Dollars to Dinars: Billing and Collecting in a Global Market The world is flat. Thomas Friedman made the case for it in his best-seller of that title, and every day the news brings more evidence that the global [...

For Doug?

Posted on June 03, 2008
I’ve really enjoyed my friendship with fellow patent attorney Doug Sorocco (PHOSITA blog) over the past few years…particularly how we rib one another about where we live (me - Idaho, him - Oklahoma). In that he is on vacation while the rest of us are at work…...

New PDF Patent downloaders

Posted on June 02, 2008
Rolf Claessen’s new patent pdf download tool. http://www.ipnewsflash.com/get_pdf.php PatentRetriever. http://www.patentretriever.com/ [Originally posted on The Invent Blog. Copyright © Nipper, LLC 2004-2007. All Rights Reserved.]

New UPSTO Notices

Posted on June 02, 2008
Notice of Town Hall Meeting on the Protection of Industrial Designs [signed 28 May 2008] [PDF] (29May2008) USPTO Welcomes New Member to Management Team (28May2008) [Originally posted on The Invent Blog. Copyright © Nipper, LLC 2004-2007. All Rights Reserved...

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