by Kathleen Lynch | May 11, 2016 | Entrepreneurship, Innovation
Hold off on scheduling that facelift. Researchers at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) have developed a compound that acts like a second, more youthful skin. The composition is known as XPL (cross-linked polymer layer). It is applied to the skin in two steps. First, a layer of transparent cream is applied to the skin. Then a catalyst is applied. The catalyst binds the cream to the skin as a transparent film.
While XPL has obvious applications as a wrinkle cream, it may also be used as an SPF and to treat certain skin conditions such as dermatitis or psoriasis. The video demonstrating the cream’s performance can be viewed here.
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 kl****@*****aw.com.
by Kathleen Lynch | Mar 22, 2016 | Entrepreneurship, Start Up Considerations
Paul McCartney is using a US Copyright provision to right a wrong he feels occurred many years ago. As you may recall, the bulk of the Beatles tunes were attributed to the duo of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. However, in the 1960’s, Paul McCartney and the other Beatles lost their publishing rights to many of their songs when ATV, a publishing company created by the Beatles, their manager and some of their investors, was sold without the knowledge of the band members.
At one time Yoko Ono, John Lennon’s widow and McCartney tried to purchase ATV for 20 million dollars. The deal fell through and Michael Jackson purchased ATV for 47.5 million in 1985. McCartney may now be able to reclaim those rights 56 years later.
Rather than let it be, McCartney filed a “notice of termination” with the US Copyright Office. This enables a songwriter to reclaim ownership in publishing rights for a song anywhere between 2 to 10 years before the 56 year lapse of time after the publication rights were originally sold. Some of the songs won’t be eligible for release until the singer is 83.
What’s the take away here. Any artist, author or creator of a work protected under copyright law should understand those rights . In addition, anyone who may have an interest subject to copyright law should think carefully about corporate structure and where the ownership of the intellectual property should be held when forming a new business. This often takes the form of an IP holding company. Situations may vary, but who will own the rights in the copyright and how the business will be structured should be well thought out when setting up any business.
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 kl****@*****aw.com.
by Kathleen Lynch | Mar 2, 2016 | Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Start Up Considerations, Trademark Service Mark
A European General Court recently denied the Coca-Cola Company European Community trademark protection for the shape of its new bottle design. European Community trademark protection provides trademark rights to the owner throughout all European Union member states.
The bottle design was determined by the court to lack distinction. In fairness, protection of a shape in the EU is difficult to prove. The shape must be shown to be recognizable by consumers by shape alone. Coke failed to meet its burden of proof in this situation.
Here, Coke revamped its bottle design and made it less distinctive than previous designs, which were protected by EU Community trademark registration. In an effort to modernize their product packaging, Coke may have drifted away from its recognizable bottle shape.
What’s the take away here? For any company, protecting the shape of a product through trademark registration is a challenge. The shape must be sufficiently distinctive to enable consumers to recognize the product over the competition. If your organization is going to go down that route, be sure to create a sufficiently distinctive product that is recognizable by your customers over the competition.
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 kl****@*****aw.com.
by Kathleen Lynch | Jan 26, 2016 | Entrepreneurship, Innovation
An article today in Bloomberg.com discussed the formation of a new consortium: IP Europe. The consortium is made up of some of Europe’s largest intellectual property stakeholders. These include Ericsson, Airbus, French phone company Orange SA and train manufacturer Alstom.
IP Europe plans to lobby the European Commission in hopes to make it easier for European based companies to compete with the US and China and other countries to capitalize on their innovations. The group will concentrate on key industry patents which through industry standardization become necessary for all industry participants. These tend to provide continuously decreasing revenues over time.
The new IP Europe consortium will be headed by former EU Commission Official Morgens Peter Carl.
Protecting and enforcing your intellectual property 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 kl****@*****aw.com.
by Kathleen Lynch | Jan 18, 2016 | Entrepreneurship, Innovation
Last month President Obama awarded the National Medals of Science, as well as the National Medals of Technology and Innovation to a number of recipients. Among the recipients of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation was a UNC professor, Joseph DeSimone.
Mr. DeSimone is the founder of Carbon3D. He has taken a sabbatical from UNC to focus on his company which is developing new 3D printing technology.
The Carbon3D process, referred to as CLIP, is a chemical process the uses light and oxygen to eliminate the mechanical steps used in standard 3D printing. The process projects light through an oxygen-permeable window into a bed of UV curable resin. The object is lifted out of the resin bath as it is grown. The process enables the 3D printing speeds to increase substantially and enhance the quality as well. Check out their video.
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 kl****@*****aw.com.
by Kathleen Lynch | Dec 18, 2015 | Entrepreneurship, Innovation
The last of the Regional Patent Offices is up and running. Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Michelle Lee recently attended a ribbon cutting ceremony to open the Texas Region Office of the USPTO.
The Texas Regional Office is the last of the satellite offices for the USPTO. Others are located in Detroit, Silicon Valley and Denver. The satellite offices were opened to help recruit talented patent examiners from around the country, help decrease the backlog of patent cases to be examined, and to establish offices of expertise.
The addition of four patent offices has decreased the average time to examination and to issue. In addition, the regional patent offices have enable the USPTO to hire patent examiners with the expertise needed to handle areas of advanced and cutting edge areas of technology. The regional patent offices also offer services to small businesses and entrepreneurs that will be offered to the communities in each of the regional areas.
A statement recently released by the USPTO describes the importance of the regional offices by recognizing that “it’s important to ensure the USPTO can engage effectively with communities, industries, and innovators. The USPTO’s regional offices play a crucial role in these efforts, assisting inventors, entrepreneurs, and small businesses in their respective regions, while supporting the USPTO’s core mission of fostering American innovation and competitiveness.”
Identifying, protecting and leveraging intellectual property 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 kl****@*****aw.com.
