Doctrine of Patent Exhaustion Examined in Bowman v. Monsanto Company
Monsanto, a Missouri headquartered company which manufactures a genetically modified soybean seed called the Roundup Ready Seed sued farmer Vernon Bowman for infringing on their seed patent. Monsanto claimed Bowman reproduced their patented seeds for planting and harvesting without their permission. Can a farmer reproduce patented seeds?
Each state has its own unique set of marital property laws in place to govern divorce settlements. A state will either follow separate property or community property laws. In separate property states such as Florida, property acquired during the marriage by one spouse remains that spouse’s property upon divorce, whereas in community property states all […]
By: Mark R. Malek This concludes the series of articles that I have been writing on entity status in the United States Patent Office. The first article introduced the new micro-entity status. The next article gave some background information on what would happen if you claimed the wrong entity status before the USPTO, and the latest […]
March 16, 2013 has come and gone, and United States patent law has shifted from a first-to-invent system to a first-to-file system. So what does that mean to you as an inventor? First, you need to understand what may qualify as prior art that can render your invention unpatentable.
By: Mark R. Malek As you may recall, my last couple of articles have been about the different statuses that an inventor can claim when paying fees to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The first of these series of articles was an introduction to the micro-entity status, which allows inventors that qualify as […]
The short answer is Yes. An inventor is granted a one year grace period where their disclosure is not considered prior art for their invention. However, posting an App without first obtaining any patent protection is a risky proposition. Previously, the law followed a first to invent system. This means that if an inventor could […]
By: Mark R. Malek In my last article, I outlined the new filing status in the Patent Office that can save inventors even more money in the patent process – that of the micro-entity. As you may recall from that article, when filing a patent application (and throughout the patent prosecution process), you must pay […]
By: Mark R. Malek As many of you may know, the United States Patent System recently went through a little transformation on March 15, 2013. The biggest and most public of these transformations was the transition from a first to invent system to a first to file system (more on that later). One thing that […]
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