As a patent attorney living in Austin, Texas, I have to deal with patent examiners at the USPTO when responding to office actions. My experiences with patent examiners at the USPTO are typically positive, although many of my patent attorney colleagues sometimes disagree. I do not view patent examiners as the enemy; they just have [...]
An Austin Patent Attorney’s overview of Pre-Appeal Brief Conference Request In a few instances as a patent attorney I felt that a patent examiner at the USPTO is being completely unreasonable in their rejection of claims. However, in these instances after amending the claims and working with the patent examiner to differentiate the claims and [...]
I was curious to see what inventions Elon Musk was directly involved (i.e. a noted inventor) in regarding TESLA. By being listed as a co-inventor of a patent application, others can tell what inventors had a part in developing the claimed technology in the patent application or subsequently granted patent. After a very brief review, [...]
Adding “company,” “.com,” or “.org” will not make a trademark distinct. In trademark law there are different categories of distinctiveness. The categories include: (1) arbitrary or fanciful, (2) suggestive, (3) descriptive, or (4) generic. An arbitrary or fanciful mark is the strongest type of protection a mark can receive, and the mark bears no logical [...]
I have recently started reviewing recently published patent applications for companies that seem to have interesting technology, such as Tesla, Apple, Microsoft Kinect, gaming companies, and IRobot. IRobot recently had a patent application published with the USPTO for a “Robot Confinement” system. This patent application US 20130103194 is directed towards confining a robot in a [...]
What is prosecution history estoppel? Prosecution history estoppel is the principle that statements used in communications between a patent attorney and a patent Examiner at the USPTO can and will be used against an Applicant if a patent is litigated. Patent history estoppel can be used against an Applicant to disavow claim scope through the [...]
Non-parallel claim scope can create patent production history, as well as other trouble when the patent is litigated. In this case Cooper Notification, Inc. (Cooper) appeals a decision from US District court holding that Twitter and other defendants did not infringe claims 12-18 of U.S. Patent 7,409,428. Cooper is the owner of the ‘428 patent [...]
How do I protect my idea before obtaining funding on Kickstarter? Kickstarter or other crowd funding platforms for creative and innovative projections and inventions are great resources for start-ups. The main resource for crow funding platforms, such as Kickstarter, is to obtain initial funding for your innovations. However, Kickstarter can also be used as a [...]
Design choice rejections are rejections that an Examiner at the USPTO can make if the claimed invention merely includes “design choices” that are different from the prior art. However, even minor differences between acclaimed invention and prior art may be patentable. Patent law has held that in a proper obviousness determine, "whether the changes from [...]
Comaper Corporation (hereinafter “Comaper”) v. Antec is a case dealing with the Federal Circuit reversing the District Court’s JMOL. Comaper is the owner of U.S. Patent No. 5,955,955 that is directed towards computer cooling devices. A representative claim at issue is reproduced below: 1. A cooling device for a computer, said computer having [...]