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Employee Inventions

Lisa C. Coppolo — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 11:42:04 GMT

Typically, ownership of an idea or invention is determined by whom and in what context the creation took place. For example, an individual who invents something entirely on his own retains complete ownership. On the other hand, an individual hired by a company for the purpose of creating new products or ideas relinquishes those rights to his employer as one of the conditions of his employment.

Trade secrets can be any type of information, process, idea or "know how" that is not generally known and gives the possessor an advantage in the marketplace. Trade secrets, therefore, include a wide range of confidential business information known as proprietary information, such as chemical formulas, industrial processes, business plans, and customer lists.

How

The First Amendment, Non-Commercial Use, and Fair Use

Lisa C. Coppolo — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 19:48:44 GMT

Fair use is a legislatively codified equitable doctrine designed to carve out certain exceptions to the copyright monopoly for the benefit of the public. 17 U.S.C. §107; see Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc., 510 U.S. 569 (1994). Fair use has traditionally been defined as a privilege in others than the owner of the copyright to use the copyrighted material in a In MedImmune, Inc. v. Genentech, Inc., 127 S. Ct. 764 (2007), the United States Supreme Court held that a court has jurisdiction over a “nonrepudiating licensee” declaratory suit, at least in instances in which the patent owner has threatened, implicitly or explicitly, to enforce the patent upon nonpayment of royalties on the licensee’s products and the threat would cause major harm to the licensee’s busine

Supreme Court's Interpretation of Obviousness and Combination Inventions

Lisa C. Coppolo — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 19:57:48 GMT

In KSR International Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 127 S. Ct. 1727, 2007 U.S. LEXIS 4745 (April 30, 2007), the Supreme Court held that common sense governs when assessing the patentability of inventions that combine prior art elements. It affirmed its prior decisions, which urged caution in granting patents on combinations. It rejected rigid applications of the Federal Circuit’s “TSM” (teaching, suggestion, motivation) t

Anti-Counterfeiting

Lisa C. Coppolo — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 19:56:46 GMT

It has been estimated that the sales of counterfeit goods reach a staggering $500 billion each year and counterfeiting has usurped 750,000 American jobs and costs the United States approximately $200 billion dollars each year. These startling figures beg the questions: what is counterfeiting, where does a counterfeit mark fit into the overall scheme of counterfeiting, and what is being done both criminally and civilly to protect both con

Trade Dress Infringement by Store Brands

Lisa C. Coppolo — Mon, 12 May 2008 12:22:55 GMT

In McNeil Nutritionals v. Heartland Sweeteners, the Third Circuit ruled that store brand copies of national brands can have packaging that comes closer to that of the national brands than a competing national brand could, provided the store brand packaging displays the well-known store brand and does not copy the national brand’s packaging. Explaining the case, Anne Gilson LaLonde writes:

Willful Infringement, Objective Recklessness and the Trial Attorney-Client Privilege

Lisa C. Coppolo — Mon, 12 May 2008 11:17:06 GMT

The Patent Act empowers a court to treble actual damages awarded to a patent owner for patent infringement. 35 U.S.C.S. § 284. Section 284 does not provide a standard for enhancing damages, but courts historically have linked damage enhancement, as well as the authorization to award a patent owner attorney fees in "exceptional" cases under 35 U.S.C.S. § 285, to a finding that an infringer's conduct was "willf

Defining Patent Claim Terms-Decisions on the Patentee as Lexicographer

Lisa C. Coppolo — Mon, 12 May 2008 10:36:13 GMT

A venerable patent law axiom-"a patentee may be its own lexicographer"-- allows a drafter to define, explicitly or even implicitly, in a patent specification an ambiguous word or phrase in a patent claim or even give an unconventional meaning to a word or phrase that has an otherwise clear ordinary meaning in a technical field. In this expert commentary, Donald S. Chisum discusses six Federal Circuit cases since 2005, which illustrate that it is not so

Intellectual Property Law Basics

Lisa C. Coppolo — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 07:57:10 GMT

Patent Law

Patent law covers the legal conditions under which an invention may be patented. In the U.S., patent law requires that the invention be of patentable subject matter, and have utility, novelty, and non-obviousness. A patent examiner judges patentability during an official examination of a patent application. If the patent is granted, the invention is presumed to have been patentable. However, if an error occurs during the grantin

Types of Firms Practicing Intellectual Property Law

Lisa C. Coppolo — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 10:29:10 GMT

Small Law Perspective: Sophisticated intellectual property practices are often found in small boutique law firms that specialize in a single practice area. Firms in this category will often take on matters that are more typically seen in a large law firm and will produce average revenues per attorney that rival those seen in large law.

Copyright Workflow

Lisa C. Coppolo — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 11:36:14 GMT

1) Research Copyright Registrations

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Obtain Authoritative IP Treatises and Expert Legal Analysis at the LexisNexis Bookstore

Lisa C. Coppolo — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 19:17:56 GMT

The LexisNexis Bookstore provides the most comprehensive collection of legal research products available on the web, with the full LexisNexis Publishing^TM line of Matthew Bender®, Michie^TM, and Shepard's® products available to assist with your research.

Top IP title

The Patent Overhaul Even Congress Would Approve

Lisa C. Coppolo — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 09:55:33 GMT

Protect IP and leave nothing to chance by relying on the world’s largest collection of searchable full-text and bibliographic patent databases, including images, citations, legal status and patent family collections. TotalPatent™ is an online, patent research and retrieval application thatoffers users access to a single, new platform that combines comprehensive first-level data coverage, a user friendly design, and powerful search functionality

So, Your Client's Big Idea Is Being Bootlegged in Singapore?

Lisa C. Coppolo — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 09:58:00 GMT

PatentOptimizer is a first-to-market service that facilitates the patent professional’s analysis of patent applications and granted patents by enabling them to identify key issues in the patent prosecution and litigation processes. PatentOptimizer helps streamline the patent analysis process and serves as a critical quality-control check. It also helps patent practitioners develop internally consistent, concise and well-tailored patent applica