Patent license agreements are complex legal agreements. If you download a form on the internet, you risk not acquiring all of the rights you need to e...
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...
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...
Foreign inventors may qualify for an EB-5 Visa if they expand business operations to the US and create jobs
Inventors and foreign companies with patent technology may wish to manufacture or sell in the US. For some, this is a path to a visa, especially for p...
The rise of 3D-pringting as intellectual property
The technology of 3D-printing has made great progress, and the laws affecting this industry are catching up. A 3D-printer is a machine that builds obj...
Luck of the draw: patent examiner assignment
Luck really does play a role in the patent process. Although most inventors and patent practitioners will not be surprised by Shine Tu’s findings, a...
New Year’s Resolution for your patent strategy: 5 steps to an effective defense for prior art rejections
March 2013 is just around the corner, and with it come the new patent laws initiated by the approval of the America Invents Act. This New Year’s, ma...
Rule 14: Killer Lessons from the popular Shark Tank TV show
“Rule 14: Patents are extremely valuable.” Patents are an investment in your business. To potential investors or lenders, they evidence several th...