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 […]
Widerman Malek Law Blog
What is an Open Patent?
In 1959, Volvo came out with the three-point seat belt, a seat belt designed by Swedish Engineer Nils Bohlin. Bohlin wanted to design a seat belt that could prevent whiplash and deaths. His design is considered an industrial design which was patented as such in 1962. Seven years later Volvo decided to offer Bohlin’s seat […]
Thanksgiving Day Patents
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 […]
There Is No Such Thing As A Complete Patent Search
By: Mark R. Malek My previous articles (see them here, here and here) have provided information on the requirements of disclosing prior art and about how to do some prior art searching. Many times, I am asked by a client to provide them a “complete” patent search that locates every piece of related prior art […]
Yandy Infringes Upon Sesame Street’s Big Bird Trademark
Can a company’s mascots be trademarked? The answer to that question is yes, yes they can. A trademark is defined by dictionary.com as any name, symbol, figure, letter, word, or mark adopted and used by a manufacturer or merchant in order to designate his or her goods and to distinguish them from those manufactured or […]
The Duty of Disclosure When Filing A Patent Application
By: Mark R. Malek Generally speaking, the patent application process is not an adversarial one. In other words, it is not like Business Litigation where there is a plaintiff and a defendant with opposing views that are generally not aligned. Instead, the patent application process is one in which the patent applicant (inventor) works hand […]
