A New York federal court used the U.S. trademark law to stop an overseas infringer of the Juicy Couture mark from selling its allegedly infringing clo...
Tommy Lee in a Motley Mess
A trade secret misappropriation lawsuit was filed against rock star drummer Tommy Lee and his band Motley Crue. Howard King claims that in 1991 he dev...
Examiner Interviews
A patent applicant can request an examiner interview during most stages of patent prosecution, which allows the applicant to have patentability discus...
How long does it take to obtain a patent or trademark registration? FY 2012 Statistics from the USPTO
Trademarks In FY 2012 the average time from filing to first Office Action in a trademark application was 3.2 months, and the average total pendency un...
Pizza Franchise Sues Former Franchisee Over Trade Secret
After 20 years of operating a Little Caesars franchise, Sioux Falls Pizza Company, Inc. (“SFPC”) established its own pizza company at the ...
Checklist to Determine Whether a Design Feature is Functional or Ornamental
In order to qualify for design patent protection, a claimed feature (or combination of features) must be primarily ornamental, not functional. In anal...
Product Placement
Most of us are aware of an industry called “product placement” where companies pay to get their product featured in a hit movie or television show...
Competing with overseas manufacturers in the fashion industry
The California Attorney General is aiding the efforts of U.S. fashion designers to fairly compete with overseas clothing manufacturers in China and In...
Obviousness Test for Design Patents
In our previous article, we looked at how a patent professional performs an obviousness analysis and some potential arguments a patent applicant might...
Obviousness Rejections in Patent Applications
We worry most about obviousness when an invention claims an incremental improvement over the existing technology. Obviousness is less of an issue wher...