by Kathleen Lynch | May 27, 2026 | Design Patent, Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, Infringement, Innovation, Intellectual Property, Invention, Inventor, IP, IP asset management, Litigation, Patent, Patent Prosecution, Patentability, Plant Patent, Small Business, Start Up, Start Up Considerations, Uncategorized, Utility
This is the second in our series of posts breaking down the fundamentals of patents. In [Part 1], we discussed the scope of a patent and the process of obtaining one. Today, we’re focusing on the payoff: the benefits of a patent and how you can enforce your rights.
Now that you have a patent, what can it actually do for you?
Ultimately, a patent is only as valuable as your ability to enforce it. As a patent owner, you hold the exclusive right to prevent others from making, using, selling, or offering to sell your invention. But how do we determine if someone is actually stepping on your toes? It all comes down to the claims.
Defining the “Metes and Bounds”
A patented invention is strictly defined by its claims. Located at the very end of the patent document, these numbered paragraphs map out the legal “metes and bounds” of your intellectual property. Think of them as the invisible fence around your innovation.
When a dispute arises or a patent is asserted against an alleged infringer, the process follows two main steps:
- Interpretation: The court interprets the claims to determine the exact scope of the invention.
- Application: That scope is compared directly to the competitor’s product or activity to see if it falls within your protected territory.
The Power of Enforcement
Patent infringement is a serious matter handled exclusively via federal civil actions. If a competitor crosses the line, the law provides robust remedies to make things right.
As a patent owner, you can pursue:
- Monetary Damages: Recovery of actual damages (like lost profits or reasonable royalties).
- Treble Damages: If the infringement is proven to be willful or intentional, the court can award up to three timesthe actual damages.
- Injunctions: Court orders to immediately halt existing and future infringing activity.
- Fees: In exceptional cases, the recovery of court costs and attorneys’ fees.
Protect Your Innovation
Capitalizing on your innovative developments is critical to your organization’s growth, but you shouldn’t navigate the complex world of intellectual property alone. Having the right legal partner to guide your decisions is vital.
The Law Office of Kathleen Lynch PLLC is designed to help businesses like yours stay ahead of the game and safeguard what they build.
Ready to protect your competitive edge? Your first consultation is completely free.
by Kathleen Lynch | May 18, 2026 | Entrepreneur, Infringement, Innovation, Intellectual Property, Invention, Inventor, IP, Litigation, Patent, Patent Prosecution, Protection, Small Business, Start Up, Start Up Considerations, Uncategorized
This week, Actelion Pharmaceuticals (“Actelion”) failed in its effort to hold Mylan Pharmaceuticals (“Mylan”) liable for infringing its patents on a highly successful hypertension drug, Veletri®. The Federal Circuit’s decision serves as a stark reminder to businesses everywhere: in the world of intellectual property, omitting a single technical detail can cost you a monopoly.
The Dispute: A Battle Over a Generic Alternative
Actelion holds patent protection for Veletri, a life-saving drug used to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension. Seeking to enter the market with a lower-cost generic version, Mylan filed an Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) with the FDA, asserting that its generic product did not infringe Actelion’s intellectual property. Actelion promptly sued Mylan in federal court, asserting infringement of two patents covering the formulation process.
The entire case ultimately hinged on a single chemical metric: pH measurement.
The Flaw: The Missing Temperature Parameter
Actelion’s patent claims focused heavily on a specific requirement: the drug must be formulated from a bulk solution having a “pH of 13 or higher.” The issue at trial was how that pH should be measured. In chemistry, a solution’s pH fluctuates based on environment—specifically, temperature. However, Actelion’s patent specification failed to provide any explicit instructions on the temperature conditions required for taking the measurement.
Because the patent was silent, the court turned to standard industry practices. Generally, unless a scientist indicates otherwise, pH is measured at standard room temperature. When Mylan’s product is measured at room temperature, its pH is well below 13, meaning it does not literally infringe the patent.
Actelion attempted to argue that because Mylan refrigerates the solution during actual manufacturing, the pH should be measured at that colder operating temperature—where the chemical properties shift and the pH does indeed rise above 13. The district court rejected this argument, holding that because Actelion failed to specify any special conditions in its paperwork, standard room temperature must apply.
The Federal Circuit Weighs In
The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the district court’s finding of non-infringement. In its opinion, the court stated:
“The district court here properly relied on just that sort of extrinsic evidence to find that those skilled in making pharmaceutical compositions, when referring to pH, mean a measurement at standard temperature unless they indicate otherwise, and we discern no clear error in how the district court evaluated the record.”
The Takeaway
Details are everything. Had Actelion explicitly stated in its patent specification that the pH threshold was meant to be measured at the cold manufacturing temperature, Mylan’s product would have clearly infringed. Instead, because Actelion left out that vital context, Mylan was able to successfully design around the patent and keep its generic product on the path to market.
Capitalizing on innovative developments is critical to your organization’s growth, but protecting those developments requires meticulous execution. Having the right legal partner to help you navigate and stress-test your intellectual property strategy is essential to staying ahead of the game.
The Law Office of Kathleen Lynch PLLC is designed to help businesses secure their innovations and avoid costly drafting traps. Your first consultation is free. Contact us today at kl****@*****aw.com to protect what you build.
by Kathleen Lynch | May 5, 2026 | Design Patent, Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Intellectual Property, Inventor, IP, Patent, Plant Patent, Protection, Small Business, Start Up, Start Up Considerations, US Patent Office, Utility
Recently a new client came to me regarding whether his invention was patentable. I thought about this post and thought I’d repost it.
This is the first in a series of informational posts designed to demystify the core pillars of intellectual property law. Today, we focus on the patent: what it actually is and the specific protections it offers once granted by the government.
In the United States, there are three primary types of patents: Utility, Design, and Plant. Each serves a different purpose and offers a different window of protection.
1. Design Patents
Design patents protect the new, original, and ornamental aspects of a functional item. They don’t cover how a product works, but rather how it looks.
- Examples: The iconic shape of an iPhone® or the sleek curves of a Corvette® sports car.
- Term: Under current law, design patents have a life of 15 years from the date the patent is granted (for applications filed on or after May 13, 2015).
2. Plant Patents
A plant patent is a specialized grant for anyone who has invented or discovered—and asexually reproduced—a distinct and new variety of plant.
- Requirement: The variety must be “asexually reproduced,” meaning it is grown from something other than a seed (like a cutting or grafting).
- Term: Protection extends 20 years from the date of filing.
3. Utility Patents
Utility patents are the most common type and protect the “utility” or function of an invention. These cover:
- Articles of manufacture (physical products)
- Methods of manufacture (industrial processes)
- Compositions of matter (chemical formulas or pharmaceuticals)
- Business methods (often seen in the software and fintech sectors)
A Note on Software & Business Methods: This last category—business methods—remains a highly active area of legal debate in 2026. While they are still patentable, recent court decisions like Constellation Designs v. LG have reinforced that these patents must describe a specific technological solution rather than just a general “abstract idea.”
Requirements and Maintenance
To qualify for a utility patent, an invention must meet three strict criteria: it must be useful, novel (new), and non-obvious to someone skilled in that specific field.
A utility patent generally lasts for 20 years from the date of filing. However, the protection isn’t “set it and forget it.” To keep a utility patent active, you must pay maintenance fees to the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) at three critical intervals:+1
- 3.5 years after issuance
- 7.5 years after issuance
- 11.5 years after issuance
Failure to pay these fees (which have seen significant updates as of 2025/2026) will result in the patent expiring early and your invention falling into the public domain.
Stay Ahead of the Game
Protecting your innovative developments is a critical component of any successful organization. Deciding when to file—and which type of patent best fits your business goals—is a decision that shouldn’t be made alone.
The Law Office of Kathleen Lynch PLLC is here to help you navigate these complexities and ensure your IP strategy keeps you ahead of the competition.
Ready to protect your ideas? Your first consultation is free. Email us: kl****@*****aw.com
by Kathleen Lynch | Apr 28, 2026 | Confidentiality, Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, Intellectual Property, IP, IP Management, Trade Secrets
Recently, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a significant reversal of a California district court’s finding of trade secret misappropriation. In the case of International Medical Devices, Inc. (IMD) v. Cornell (April 2026), the court ruled that no reasonable jury could have found several alleged trade secrets to be, in fact, “secrets.”
The Dispute: Cosmetic Penile Implants
The litigation centered on the Penuma® cosmetic penile implant. The plaintiffs alleged that four specific elements of their technology were stolen trade secrets:
- Structural Pockets: Internal voids within the implant to enhance softness and elasticity.
- Mesh Tabs: Components around the distal tip to facilitate tissue ingrowth.
- Absorbable Sutures: Used in combination with mesh tabs to hold the implant during initial healing.
- The “Supply List”: A specific list of materials and instruments used to perform the surgical implantation.
The “Death” of a Trade Secret: Public Disclosure
The Federal Circuit held that the first three alleged secrets (the structural design elements) were ineligible for protection because they had already been disclosed in prior patents.
Citing the precedent in Atl. Rsch. Mktg. Sys., Inc. v. Troy, 659 F.3d 1345, the court reaffirmed a fundamental rule of intellectual property:
“A trade secret is secret, a patent is not. That which is disclosed in a patent cannot be a trade secret.”
Because these design concepts appeared in public patent filings—some dating back decades—they were part of the public domain. You cannot claim “secrecy” over information that the government has already published for the world to see.
The Failure of Internal Protection
The fourth alleged trade secret—the list of surgical instruments—failed for a different reason: lack of reasonable efforts to maintain secrecy.
The plaintiffs had emailed this list to the defendant without any:
- Confidentiality caveats
- “Trade Secret” labels
- Explicit instructions on restricted handling
Under the California Uniform Trade Secrets Act (CUTSA), information only qualifies as a trade secret if the owner takes active, reasonable steps to keep it secret. Because the plaintiffs treated the list as ordinary correspondence in the past, they could not retroactively claim it was a protected secret during litigation.
The Takeaway: How to Protect Your Innovation
This case serves as a vital reminder for tech and medical device companies: If you have a trade secret, keep it that way.
- Audit Your Patents: Ensure you aren’t trying to protect information as a “secret” if it’s already described in your (or someone else’s) patent filings.
- Use NDAs Every Time: Never disclose sensitive information to an outside individual or organization without a signed Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA).
- Label Everything: Mark confidential documents clearly as “Trade Secret”, “Proprietary” or “Confidential.”
- Need-to-Know Access: Limit employee access to sensitive data and provide regular training on internal security protocols.
Protect Your Innovation
Protecting your intellectual property is critical to the survival of any organization. In an evolving legal landscape, having the right counsel to navigate these decisions is more important than ever.
The Law Office of Kathleen Lynch PLLC is designed to help your business stay ahead of the game.
Your first consultation is free. Email us: kl****@*****aw.com
by Kathleen Lynch | Mar 26, 2026 | Patent, Patent Prosecution
A client of mine read this post and found me. He recently contacted me about a different matter, and it reminded me of this post, so I thought I would share it again.
We hear a lot these days about cost cutting and austerity. I also hear a bit of grousing from time to time from people who use IP legal services about costs. I believe inventors and companies can find reasonably priced intellectual property law services when the potential client does her homework.
First, check out smaller cities, towns and suburbs. Larger cities have higher overhead costs. Firms pay more for rent, salaries etc. Smaller cities and towns have many talented patent firms, attorneys and agents equally qualified to do the work at more reasonable rates.
If you are focusing on patent preparation and prosecution, you don’t need to stay in your own backyard. With all of the wonderful modern tools of connectedness, your patent agent or attorney can be as close or as far away as you want them to be. Documents are easily exchanged via the internet, and telephone and video conferences can connect folks who are time zones apart. Where there is a significant distance, time zones may become an issue, but you will find that most patent attorneys and agents are willing to provide the necessary flexibility to make the relationship work, including trips to your offices at a discount or gratis in exchange for keeping your business.
Background matters. Take a look and ask questions about what kind of work your patent attorney does. What was his or her major in college? Did they work as a scientist or engineer before they practiced patent law? If so, what did they do? What is the focus of their present practice? If you are looking for someone to prepare and file a patent application, you don’t want to work with someone whose experience is limited to patent litigation. Just like you wouldn’t allow your internist to perform heart surgery, you don’t want someone with a chemistry background preparing patent applications for you if you are in the high tech industry. Find someone who has the technical background suited to your project, as well as the experience needed to meet your needs. In looking for possible patent attorneys or agents, check out the US Patent and Trademark website which enables you to search either for a particular person or those registered to practice before the US Patent Office in a particular location. Once you have that, check out their credentials and ask questions before you make your decision.
Selecting the right patent attorney is important to ensure your patent strategy is managed by someone with the appropriate experience and background. The Law Office of Kathleen Lynch PLLC has over 35 years of experience in the preparation and prosecution of patent applications and is designed to help businesses such as yours keep ahead of the game. The first consultation is free. Email us at kl****@*****aw.com.
