Intellectual Property Law

Downloading a 142 MB PDF from the USPTO

Posted on March 09, 2010
This morning I received an e-mail “Notice of Publication” on a trademark case, the first one of these I remember seeing.   Here’s the notice (redacted): NOTICE OF PUBLICATION Serial Number: 55-555,555 Mark:  TRADEMARK (STANDARD CHARACTER MARK) International Class(es):  555 Applicant: ACME, LLC Attorney Reference Number: 012345 The mark identified above has been published in the Trademark Official Gazette (OG) on Mar 9, [...

New USPTO magazine for independent inventors

Posted on February 22, 2010
The USPTO has released it’s first issue of the “Inventors Eye,” the USPTO’s bimonthly publication for the independent inventor community.  The first issue includes articles on: Patent Reform – An Open Letter Protect Your Innovation: Avoid Scams – By Ronald Jaicks : Office of the Solicitor Spark of Genius: The Spiral Eye Needle – By John Calvert : [...

LegalZoom sued for Unauthorized Practice of Law

Posted on February 09, 2010
Gene Quinn at IPWatchDog reports that LegalZoom has been sued (class action lawsuit) for “unauthorized practice of law” in Missouri, allegedly for offering legal advice regarding a will and for preparing incorporation documents. Other related blog posts I turned up on this topic: Gene Quinn on LegalZoom and the filing of trademark applications in “LegalZoom Continues Unauthorized [...

Patent blogger sued by invention promoter

Posted on January 22, 2010
Patent blogger Gene Quinn of IPWatchdog.com was sued yesterday by invention promotion company InventHelp.  Gene wrote a post on his blog entitled “Invent Help Sues IPWatchdog Alleging they are Not a Scam” which has the complete story.  In the post, Gene indicates that he is looking for information about InventHelp’s practices from former Invent Help [...

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Social Media and Law Blogs 101

Posted on January 20, 2010
Links to two of my recent articles written for lawyers: Law Blogs 101, The Idaho Law Report, January 19, 2010. Social Media Opens Up a Variety of New Professional Connections, The Advocate (Official Publication of the Idaho State Bar), vol. 53, no. 1, p...

Why entrepreneurs hate lawyers

Posted on January 18, 2010
Read:  Venture Hacks blog on Top 10 reasons why entrepreneurs hate lawyers. Note:  Eight of his reasons are about failures to communicate, the other two are about money. Related posts:Five by Five – The Entrepreneurs Matt Homann (one of my favorite blawgers) has been doing...

Book Review ? The Way Toys Work

Posted on January 17, 2010
Most larger cities have a “children’s museum” where kids (and grown ups) can experience “hands on” science.  Anything that teaches kids that science is cool is worth supporting! Our local children’s museum is called the “Discovery Center of Idaho...

Resolve to be an Advisor

Posted on January 04, 2010
RULE 2.1: ADVISOR In representing a client, a lawyer shall exercise independent professional judgment and render candid advice. In rendering advice, a lawyer may refer not only to law but to other considerations such as moral, economic, social and political factors, that may be relevant to the client’s situation...

My Advice for 2010

Posted on December 31, 2009
The best book I read in 2009 was Seth Godin?s ?The Dip.” If you haven?t read it, DO. In ?The Dip,? Godin mentions the following passage from the Declaration of Independence: ?all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they [...

Winner ? 2009 The Marty Schwimmer Best Practice-Specific Blog

Posted on December 22, 2009
I was shocked to find out this morning that this blog won (along with Patrick Lamb?s In Search of Perfect Client Service blog) one of Dennis Kennedy’s 2009 Law-related Blogging Awards (”The Blawggies”), namely “The Marty Schwimmer Best Practice-Specific Blog...

Blog recommendation: Nolo?s ?Dear Rich? blog

Posted on December 09, 2009
One blog I stumbled on recently that is a great resource for learning how to answer those “miscellaneous” questions  patent practitioners get from prospective clients is Nolo’s “Dear Rich” blog (written by attorney Richard Stim)...

Cool tool for GoogleApps/Gmail users: Gboard

Posted on December 08, 2009
If your office uses GoogleApps, one slick $20 device that would make it considerably easier to efficiently use Gmail would be Gboard. Gboard is a USB number pad configured for linking directly to the keyboard shortcuts (forward, reply to all, etc.) that Gmail allows you to use...

Firefox extension for cut/paste Westlaw/Lexis citations

Posted on November 20, 2009
I rarely use Westlaw/Lexis, but the CiteGenie FireFox extension could be really useful for those of you whom do. As their website points out: Cutting and pasting when doing legal research using your browser is simple. But having to construct the citation for what you pasted is not so simple...

Google adds free legal case law research

Posted on November 18, 2009
Via this article:  Free Legal Research by Google & What It Means : My Shingle, Google has released the ability to search case law for free, including state case law.  UNREAL. To test it out, use this URL:  http://scholar.google.com/advanced_scholar_search?hl=en&as_sdt=2000...

Wikis and Law Firms

Posted on November 16, 2009
Some useful articles/posts on wikis and law firms: Law Practice Today :: Using Wiki Technology to Streamline Information Sharing and Document Management Tasks Slaw: Wikis and KM at Law Firms CNNMoney.com::Boosting teamwork with wikis Wikis in Knowledge Management at Law Firms ? Part One: ThoughtFarmer Example Wikis in Knowledge Management at Law Firms ? Part Two: Sharepoint Example Wikis for the [...

Tech Tips from the Idaho Practical Skills Seminar

Posted on November 12, 2009
Here’s a link to my law practice management article in the November/December issue of The Advocate (the official publication of the Idaho State Bar) on “Technology Tips from the Idaho Practical Skills Seminar.” Related posts:Idaho, Law Practice Management and Blawgs Posting has been a bit light here for the past...

My favorite quote from the Bilski v Kappos SCOTUS oral arguments

Posted on November 10, 2009
Most of the other patent blogs have been covering the Supreme Court oral arguments in the Bilski v. Kappos case.  [e.g., Patently-O] My favorite quote from the case comes from Justice Scalia (page 16 of the pdf): You know, you mention that there are all these — these new areas that didn’t exist in the past because [...

USPTO Director Kappos? Blog

Posted on November 10, 2009
David Kappos, Director of the USPTO is now publicly blogging!  See:  http://www.uspto.gov/blog/.  I look forward to reading his posts. The fact that USPTO.gov has RSS feeds (for the blog) now is VERY exciting.  Now, if they’d only provide RSS feeds for the “News and Notices” page contents (e...

Podcast recommendation: Grammar Girl

Posted on November 03, 2009
As science majors, patent attorneys/agents aren’t typically thought of as being masters of the English language, particularly with respect to using correct grammar.  Solution:  start taking short grammar lessons by listening to the Grammar Girl podcast (subtitled “Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing”)...

Google Wave Tips and Tricks

Posted on October 22, 2009
A group of my local (Boise) geek friends have been using Google Wave to share Google Wave tips and tricks with one another was we each kick Wave’s tires.  Here are some of the most useful tips/tricks that have come out of that ongoing conversation: 1...

Patenting Schrödinger?s cat

Posted on October 22, 2009
Not quite Schrödinger’s cat, but close.  I won’t spoil it for you…see the 12:01 Tuesday patent blog post Be All You Can’t Be: Army Patent Ambushed by Friendly Fire for the story. Related posts:Patenting Legal Methods Interesting… Attached for your consideration is The Patent Office Meets...

To Staple, or Not to Staple?

Posted on October 21, 2009
My office is slowing going paperless, doing a number of things including scanning all paper files to PDF when we close them. One little insight that those of you whom are not yet paperless should consider:   staples. To scan a file to PDF, all papers in it must first be unstapled...

ClaimMaster patent drafting plugin for Microsoft Word

Posted on September 21, 2009
stumbled on a new Microsoft Word plugin for patent attorneys last night – ClaimMaster. ClaimMaster has an amazing set of features: Identify Errors in Claims. Find Missing Antecedents. Identify Inconsistent Element  Numbers. Find Claim Terms Missing Support...

USPT-no-gO.gov ? Source of the issues?

Posted on September 18, 2009
It’s been pretty clear that in the last month or so that the services (e.g., PAIR, PatFT/AppFT, TESS, TDR) provided on the US Patent and Trademark Office’s website (uspto.gov) are frequently overloaded/off-line. Talking with a colleague about this same issue this morning, he noted that “uspto...

QuickJump ? software I can?t live without

Posted on September 16, 2009
I previously mentioned QuickJump in an earlier post, back when QuickJump was still in beta.  I had been using it for a few days when I wrote that post, and I’m still using it.  It is a great program that solves a HUGE need. QuickJump scans all of the folders on your computer (and your file [...

Depositing Checks by Email

Posted on September 14, 2009
There has been a lot of chatter online lately about banks starting to accept PDF’s and other scans of checks (personal and business) for deposit (rather than requiring you to go to the bank to deposit a check).  What a great potential time-saver for law firms! The Fujitsu ScanSnap Scanner blog has the scoop, including a [...

Google patents (design) its user interface

Posted on September 02, 2009
Via Gawker, Google has obtained (Sept. 1, 2009) a design patent that covers its user interface.  USPN D599,372. What’s amazing to me is how long it took to obtain the patent, the application was filed on March 7, 2006. The patent is also a good example of a patent containing a copyright or mask notice (see my [...

iPhone App for capturing ideas (invention disclosures) needs beta testers

Posted on August 23, 2009
A good friend of mine, Bill Meade, has a forthcoming iPhone app that he is in need of beta testers for.  I’ll let Bill explain: BasicIP Management, Inc. is developing an iPhone application (iCapture which is short for Invention Capture) for capturing invention ideas...

Ten Things Every Designer Needs to Know about Copyrights and Trademarks

Posted on August 19, 2009
I’m speaking tomorrow for AIGA Idaho on “Ten Things Every Designer Needs to Know about Copyrights and Trademarks.”  Details can be found on the AIGA Idaho website. I’ll be using this post as my “show notes”…a listing of links I think the presentation’s attendees (design professionals, graphic artists) will find useful...

Open Sourcing PACER Documents via a FireFox Extension

Posted on August 14, 2009
If you use PACER often, you might really like the “RECAP” FireFox extension (plug-in).  As you download court documents in PACER, RECAP sends a copy of them to the Internet Archive (making them available for free to the world.  RECAP also alerts you when one of the PACER documents you are about to download is [...

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