So the big tournament starts tonight – that’s right, we are starting with 64 teams and the team that goes through the tournament undefeated brings home the big trophy. Half the fun is looking for that Cinderella team that upsets a few teams on the way, maybe even makes it to the Sweet 16. This […]
By: Mark R. Malek As has often been the case with some of my articles in the past, I like to introduce little practice tips as something interesting happens in my day to day life of prosecuting patent applications here at Widerman & Malek. I recently received a call from an Examiner on a case […]
By: Mark R. Malek You may recall that my last article was directed to the requirement to pay maintenance fees in order to keep your patent alive. As was discussed in that article, maintenance fees must be paid at 3.5 years, 7.5 years and 11.5 years after the patent has issued. When someone has not paid […]
By: Mark R. Malek If you haven’t noticed, many of my posts lately have revolved around the questions that I get from various clients. This one was a tough one. Not necessarily from the perspective of not knowing what to do, but having to hear the horror story from this client. Unfortunately, it is a […]
By: Mark R. Malek So you have just received your Notice of Allowance for your patent application. In the Notice of Allowance, there is a requirement for you to pay an issue fee and a publication fee. You may have paid the publication fee early pursuant to a request for early publication. Section 1129 of […]
By: Mark R. Malek My last article provided a brief overview of the patent system. I also wrote another article about why patents are somewhat important. This prompted me to reflect on my typical conversations with potential clients, and the questions that generally arise as to the different types of patents. This article will attempt to […]
By: Mark R. Malek In my previous article, I indicated that a patent is important to protect the rights of innovators and to encourage them to continue to innovate. This is done by providing a patent holder with an exclusive right to exclude others from making, using, selling, or offering to sell the invention that is […]
By: Mark R. Malek Patent rights are derived from the U.S. Constitution. Many people mistakenly call patents rights a monopoly, but that is not exactly accurate. I will be posting a follow up article on this one that explains precisely why patents are not monopolies, and why it drives me completely nuts when people call them […]
By: Mark R. Malek I am sure everyone has starved themselves to the point of near collapse in anticipation of the Thanksgiving Holiday Weekend. For the sake of showing that the Patent world is very in touch with the holiday season, we would like to share with you some Thanksgiving related patents that we came […]
