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 […]
Widerman Malek Law Blog
The Advantages of Registering Business Name with the State
Business owners know that they should file their businesses with the state for tax purposes. This is a responsibility and usually done begrudgingly. After all, who wants to pay taxes? But are there any advantages for registering business with the state? You may be surprised to learn that there are three major advantages for registering […]
Reviving A Patent That Was Abandoned For Failure To Pay Maintenance Fees
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 […]
Reviving An Abandoned Patent Application
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 […]
Patent Maintenance Fees
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 […]
Is Susan G. Komen for the Cure® a Trademark Bully?
When does fighting to protect a trademark borderline on trademark bullying? Trademarks are established to protect an individual’s, a corporation’s, or non-profit organization’s creative work. What happens when the trademark owner takes protecting their trademark too far as to be deemed as domineering? The best examples of crossing the line can be witnessed with non-profit […]
5 Ways Employers Can Claim Ownership of Their Former Employees’ IP Content
Entrepreneurs who are starting up their own businesses should be careful in protecting their IP inventions from former employees. They should not take for granted that the IP work they create off company hours is theirs to keep. Employers may be able to stake a claim in ownership. Here are five ways employers can claim […]
We Both Have the Same Business Name. Am I in Trouble?
You started your company four years ago and everything is going well when all of a sudden you are handed a cease and desist letter. The letter informs you that you are using another company’s trademark – their company name. What are you to do? With the world increasingly getting smaller thanks to the internet, […]
Five Classic Examples of Trademark
What is a company trademark? “A trademark is 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 sold by others.” – defined by dictionary.com. There are many different types of distinctive marks […]
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 […]
