by Kathleen Lynch | Feb 25, 2015 | Copying, Copyright, Infringement, Intellectual Property
If anyone caught the halftime show at the Super Bowl this year, you may remember the dancing sharks that were a part of Katy Perry’s halftime show. The sharks were an instant sensation, particularly the left shark who was seen dancing awkwardly behind Ms. Perry. Now one businessman has tried to capitalize on that.
Fernando Sosa is in the 3D printing business. Mr. Sosa makes and sells 3D printed sculptures typically of political figures. After the Super Bowl, Mr. Sosa developed and offered for sale a replica “Left Shark” figure. Attorneys for Katy Perry quickly fired off a cease and desist letter to Mr. Sosa claiming that the figure infringed Katy Perry’s intellectual property. In particular, the letter alleged that Mr. Sosa’s selling of the shark figurine violated Ms. Perry’s copyrights in the shark. Mr. Sosa has agreed to stop selling the shark.
According to CNN, Mr. Sosa remarked “ it looks like dictators and world leaders like Putin and Kim Jong Un or Chris Christie are much easier to deal with,” and “all this lawyer crap is stressful.”
Take away: before considering copying something in a public domain, think about whether any third party may have rights to the subject matter. This applies to sharks as well as digital images and content on the internet. Even though a digitized item can be downloaded, doesn’t mean it should be. One way to err on the side of caution is to check the ownership of the item. If a copyright notice accompanies the material that indicates the owner. Most owners can be contacted and some may grant a license to you to use their image or content (or shark) as you would like. However, it is the owner’s right to grant and not yours to take.
Protecting your innovative developments and respecting the intellectual property rights of third parties is critical to any organization. Having the right person to help you make those decisions is important. The Law Office of Kathleen Lynch PLLC is designed to help businesses such as yours keep ahead of the game. The first telephone consultation is free. Email us at [email protected].
by Kathleen Lynch | Feb 17, 2015 | Patent
The new inter partes review procedures were reviewed for the first time by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals recently. The court in a 2 to 1 decision, the Court upheld the Patent Office standard of review used by the Patent Office to invalidate patents.
Effective in September 2012, the new inter partes review procedure is an administrative process authorized under the America Invents Act. It provides a third party with the opportunity to dispute the validity of a recently issued patent before the US Patent Office.
Many are calling the new procedures a “death squad” to patents because these new procedures give the Patent Office broad authority to invalidate patents. The procedures are quickly being adopted by many companies to invalidate a competitor’s patent.
The process is an administrative one. As such, the process is relatively inexpensive and quicker than federal litigation. The procedures to date have invalidated more patents than the amount invalidated through the federal court system during the same time period.
Take away
keep an eye out for recently issued patents in your area of technology to determine whether the new inter partes review process might be an appropriate avenue for your company to pursue. Conversely, once your patent issues, you need to be aware of this procedure from a defensive standpoint as well.
Capitalizing on innovative developments is critical to any organization. Having the right person to help you make those decisions is important. The Law Office of Kathleen Lynch PLLC is designed to help businesses such as yours keep ahead of the game. The first telephone consultation is free. Email us at [email protected].
by Kathleen Lynch | Feb 3, 2015 | Innovation, Patent, Trade Secrets
Unitherm Food Systems, a food process machinery manufacturer, recently discovered that you cannot seek both patent and trade secret protection for the same innovation. Unitherm filed an action in 2014 against Hormel for disclosing Unitherm’s trade secrets to a competitor. Unitherm’s alleged trade secret focused on a method for pre-cooking sliced bacon.
In 2007, both companies executed a joint development agreement for developing an oven that would produce high levels of steam for cooking. Under the agreement, Hormel would own all intellectual property. In 2008 Unitherm filed a patent application covering the process of cooking food at high steam levels. Hormel withdrew from the agreement with Unitherm and filed for patent protection in 2010 on its own method of cooking bacon. Unitherm alleged that the method claimed by Hormel was that developed by Unitherm during the course of the joint development agreement and was proprietary.
The court threw out Unitherm’s claim for misappropriating its trade secret. The judge told Unitherm that they could not maintain a trade secret on something for which they were seeking patent protection.
Take away: you can’t claim something as a trade secret if you are going to try to obtain patent protection for the same innovation. Best practice: first figure out what is the best avenue for protection for your innovation (i.e. patent, design patent, trade secret, etc.). Then, try to obtain that protection for your innovation to the greatest extent allowed by law.
Protecting your innovative developments is critical to any organization. Having the right person to help you make that decision is important. The Law Office of Kathleen Lynch PLLC is designed to help businesses such as yours keep ahead of the game. The first telephone consultation is free. Email us at [email protected].
by Kathleen Lynch | Jan 29, 2015 | Entrepreneurship, Patent Prosecution, Start Up Considerations, Trademark Service Mark
Intellectual property is the life blood of many small businesses and entrepreneurial enterprises. Knowing how and what may need protection could mean the difference between success and failure. I set forth below three basic things every entrepreneur and business person should do to protect the intellectual property inherent in any organization.
- Identify your intellectual property
- Before you can protect your intellectual property assets, you need to understand what they are. Intellectual property is a bundle of legal rights. These consist essentially of patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets. Patents are directed primarily to objects of manufacture (things), methods of making or doing something, designs (ornamental aspects of a thing), compositions of matter and plants. If you make devices or compositions of matter, you will likely want to determine whether your device, composition, or methodologies associated with your business may be subject to patent protection. If you make an object, you may also want to consider whether there are any ornamental aspects of your object that may be new and subject to design patent protection.
- If you use trademarks, service marks or logos in connection with the sale of your goods or services, you may want to register those marks or logos nationally or internationally. If your business involves training or educational services, any materials used may be subject to copyright protection. If your business has been successful by using particular strategies or processes that have given it a competitive edge over your competition, you may want to properly identify those strategies as trade secrets. Some methodologies used in manufacturing may be better suited to trade secret protection rather than patent protection.
- Determine whether your intellectual property can be protected
- Once you have identified what you believe to be your intellectual property, you need to determine whether it is protectable under current laws. If you believe your new widget is patentable, a patentability search and assessment is a logical next step. A patentability search and assessment will provide you with the information you need to determine whether there is any meaningful patent protection available to you. This applies to objects, as well as methods, compositions of matter, and designs. A proper patentability search will search all relevant patent records and provide you with the most pertinent documentation of the state of the relevant art. A patent professional can assist with interpreting the search results to determine the scope of patent protection likely available to your invention.
- Similarly, with a trademark or logo, an availability search and assessment is a prudent next step. This involves searching relevant records to provide you with current uses of the same or similar marks or logos. From this information, you can determine whether to proceed with a trademark or service mark registration. A trademark professional can help you make that determination.
- Protect What Intellectual Property You Can
- Once you have identified and determined what rights are available to you, you can proceed with protecting your intellectual property to maximize your competitive advantage. Patentable aspects of any objects, methods, compositions or designs should be protected. Marks or logos available for use and registration should be the subject of US or international trademark or service mark applications.
- Copyrighted materials should be marked with the “©” or “Copyright” followed by the year(s) in which the material was created and name of the owner. Trade secrets, properly identified, should be protected through a series of procedures identified by your organization to ensure confidentiality. This may include, by example, limiting access to certain information, marking documents as “confidential”, ensuring all employees understand their obligations to maintain secrecy of proprietary information, executing confidentiality agreements with third parties where proprietary information may be exchanged.
Protecting your innovative developments is critical to any organization. Having the right person to help you make that decision is important. The Law Office of Kathleen Lynch PLLC is designed to help businesses such as yours keep ahead of the game. The first telephone consultation is free. Email us at [email protected].
by Kathleen Lynch | Jan 14, 2015 | Entrepreneurship, Patent Prosecution, Start Up Considerations
Recently, one of my clients asked me about the pros and cons of marking “patent pending” on his invention. I advised him that I thought he should mark his invention and here’s why.
First, it puts others on notice that you intend to protect your invention with a patent. That means that if the patent covering your product issues, then others will need to assess whether they infringe your patent, if they use, make, sell, or offer for sale the product as described in the issued patent.
Second, while marking “patent pending” has no legal effect, when and if the patent issues, display of the patent number does impact your legal rights. Failure to mark your invention, once a patent issues, will prevent you from collecting damages until you either begin marking or you give actual notice of patent infringement.
Third, if you are putting others on notice that your product may be patentable, that may be advantageous when talking to investors or potential licensees. If your product becomes protected via a patent, then you have exclusive rights to exploit your patent for a period of 20 years from the date of filing. This may be a significant business advantage depending on the area of technology and existing business environment.
Finally, patent marking can be done either physically on the product itself or virtually. Virtual marking requires a website where information on patented products for your organization can be found. This saves in retooling time and expense. In addition, changes to the website can be done quickly and easily to maintain a complete and accurate record of all patents covered by your company.
Protecting your innovative developments is critical to any organization. Having the right person to help you make that decision is important. The Law Office of Kathleen Lynch PLLC is designed to help businesses such as yours keep ahead of the game. The first telephone consultation is free. Email us at [email protected].
