That Which Is Known – “Prior Art” is one of the most important concepts in any statute-based system of granting a patent to an applicant. Stated succinctly, “prior art” is “that which […]
Crowdsourcing of Prior Art – A New Road to Patent Quality?
Patents Rights – Avoiding a Collision with the Social Media Iceberg
Social Media and Intellectual Property – The Iceberg and More – As our world becomes ever more connected, and opinions, ideas, and thoughts are exchanged freely through the rapidly increasing use of […]
Appeals Beyond the USPTO – the “End of the Line” in Patent Prosecution
Patent Prosecution and Appeal – a Review – As our regular readers may recall, several of our past columns have covered patent prosecution(1) and appeal(2) in the United States Patent and Trademark […]
Appeals in Patent Prosecution – Another Way to Cut the Deck
Reaching the Appeal Decision Point – As regular readers of this column know, after a patent application is filed, a series of proceedings known as prosecution (1) occurs between the Applicant (typically represented by […]
“This action is FINAL.” Or Not – “FINAL” Rejection Doesn’t Mean Final
Forewarned by Four Words – It’s been about four months since your patent practitioner worked with you to file an Amendment in response to an Office Action received from the USPTO in […]
Building The Case For Patentability: Prosecution in the USPTO
The Arcane World of Prosecution – Most engineers and scientists who have had some exposure to patents know that a substantial effort is required to file a patent application in the U.S. […]
Patentability and the “Long-Felt Unmet Need” – The Christmas Tree Stand as a Case Study
The Law, Statistics, and Anecdotes – One of the key laws for patentability of an invention is that the invention must be unobvious1. In making a determination with respect to obviousness, certain […]
Patent Models – A Blast from the Past
Where did The Limited Monopoly® come from anyhow? Back in 2005, friends from the Rochester Engineering Society heard that we had set off on our own and asked us to write a […]
The Duty of Candor in Proceedings before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Basic Principles – The prosecution of a patent application in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is an ex parte proceeding. This means that with few exceptions, the process of examination of […]
Inventorship: Who Thunk Of It?
The Law – The United States is unique in the industrialized world in that an inventor must be named as the applicant for a patent, rather than his employer. Federal statute 35 […]
