ContactBusiness Legal Issues
Posted Friday, August 21, 2009 by Jim Ruttler.
Entrepreneurs naturally gravitate towards patent and trademark legal issues to protect newly developed brands and ideas. However, equally important, are business legal issues, such as legal entity formation, partnership and operating agreements, licensing, and other similar issues. There are many options for business law attorneys. One in particular is Michelle Bomberger in Bellevue, Washington. Michelle is personable and knowledgeable and she has actual business experience prior to becoming a lawyer.
Prior Art from Related Application
Posted Thursday, August 13, 2009 by Jim Ruttler.
When prosecuting two or more applications with the Patent Office, such as divisionals, continuations, or continuation-in-part applications, there will invariably be different art cited during examination of each of the applications, especially when there is a different examiner handling each of the applications. While one would assume that each of the examiners were aware of the other art cited in related applications, this is unfortunately not always the case. Accordingly, it is required that art cited in one case be submitted for consideration in all other related cases through individual information disclosure statements.
Delicious Little Candies
Posted Thursday, August 06, 2009 by Katie Long.
NPR recently aired an interesting copyright infringement story about PEZ Candy Inc. Pez is seeking to have its copyrights enforced against the owner/operators of a PEZ candy dispenser museum. The small museum located in California houses over 800 pieces of PEZ memorabilia. According to the story, it is not the museum itself that PEZ Candy Inc. objects to, but rather the sale of non official PEZ gear that is so offensive. PEZ is protecting its rights by seeking an injunction against the museum. The museum owners feel unfairly attacked since they see themselves and free advertisement for the candy company. The museum charges admission and sells items such as shirts, gift packs, books, and pens. To allow the museum to sell unofficial merchandise will severely dilute the value of Pez’s intellectual property. On the other hand, to go after the small business owner makes Pez look like a big bad corporation. Pez Candy Inc. is placed in an interesting position in situations like this. Check out the NPR article here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106859982 .
Response After Final
Posted Friday, July 31, 2009 by Jim Ruttler.
As set forth in a previous entry, there are three ways to respond to a final office action: file a Request for Continued Examination (RCE), file a Notice of Appeal (NOA), or file a continuation application. However, each of these options involves additional expense, so it is desirable to maximize the opportunities to converse with the examiner prior to incurring the additional expense. One way to do this is to file a response to the final office action and follow up this response with a phone call to the examiner. Doing so can result in the examiner reversing his or her position and allowing some claimed subject matter. And, even if the examiner finds the response unpersuasive, you will have benefited from additional consideration by the examiner and there will still be the opportunity to file the RCE, NOA, or continuation application. However, you’ll need to be aware that filing a response to final does not toll the deadlines for filing an RCE, NOA, or continuation application.
Unconventional Trademarks
Posted Monday, July 27, 2009 by Katie Long.
Trademarks protection is for more than just business names. Other mark forms eligible for federal trademark registration include numbers, symbols, slogans, tag lines, sounds, smells, package designs, and colors. When attempting to register a mark, regardless of its form, the Trademark Office considers whether or not the mark creates a separate commercial impression which identifies and distinguishes the goods of one party from the goods of another. While the spectrum of marks that theoretically can be registered is vast, in practice it can be difficult to get some of the more unconventional marks (color, sound, smell) registered. To obtain registration of an unconventional mark, one must have a heavily supported showing of secondary meaning. Secondary meaning is attained when the consuming public recognizes the mark in its primary sense, as well as recognizing the mark as an indication of the source of the associated product. Some interesting marks that have been able to show this heightened level of recognition include Owens-Corning Fiberglass Corporation’s distinctive pink coloring of their fiberglass insulation and the National broadcasting Company’s musical notes of g, e, and c played on the chimes.
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