Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross today announced the appointment of Laura A. Peter as deputy under secretary of commerce for intellectual property and deputy director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), effective November 13, 2018. Peter most recently held the position of deputy general counsel of A10 Networks in Silicon Valley and […]
Widerman Malek Law Blog
Trademark Piracy – Amazon Brand Registry
Over the past several months a disturbing practice has been occurring at the USPTO. Trademark pirates are fraudulently changing the email address of the correspondence section within a trademark registration. Once changed, the trademark pirate contacts Amazon Brand Registry and requests the trademark be registered to the fraudulent email address/pirate. Amazon will email a secret […]
Beginning the Patent Process
Attorney Kelly Swartz explains the first steps in protecting your patent. Patents are an invaluable piece of intellectual property. Frequently sought after by Fortune 500 companies and start-ups alike, a patent can protect your invention from reverse engineering and give you an advantage in the marketplace, as well as making your invention more attractive to […]
Federal Court Shuts Down Allergan’s Attempt to Shield Patents
A recent Federal Circuit ruling held that tribal sovereign immunity does not apply in reviews at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board which rejected an attempt from Allergan PLC to shield patents for its dry-eye medication, Restasis, by transferring them to a Native American tribe. According to an article by Reuters, the drug generated $1.5 […]
Japan Patent Law, Just Amended
At Widerman Malek, we pride ourselves on being a resource for our clients and referral sources especially when it relates to intellectual property matters. We work closely with other intellectual property professionals across the country and the world which allows us to best service our clients. We recently received an update regarding patent law procedure […]
U.S. Patent Number 10,000,000 Has Issued
On Tuesday, June 19, 2018, the United States Patent and Trademark Office issued U.S. Patent No. 10,000,000. This is quite a milestone for the patent office. The first U.S. Patent was issued on July 31, 1790 to Samuel Hopkins for a process of making potash, which is an ingredient used in fertilizer. Fast-forward 228 years […]
How To Obtain A Software Patent
Up until recently, software patents accounted for about half of all patents issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The U.S. Supreme Court has since made it more difficult to receive a software patent. However, the tide is shifting back in favor of inventors and patent owners. In fact, since the initial […]
Protecting Software Using Patent And Trade Secret Law
Protecting Software Using Patent And Trade Secret Law Traditional legal strategies have pitted trade secret law and patent law against one another. This is because patents are made public while trade secrets must be kept confidential. However, there is a way to utilize the best of what both have to offer.
Overcoming Patent Application Rejections by the USPTO
35 USC §101 Rejections Since the U.S. Supreme Court decided Alice v. CLS Bank in 2014 there has been a drastic increase in 35 USC §101 rejections. The decision emphasized that inventions “directed to an abstract idea” are not patentable. The U.S. Patent Office has used this decision to reject a majority of software utility […]
Protecting Your Software’s Application Programming Interface (API)
In this article, we are continuing the discussion of a legal strategy to protect software that involves segmenting software into three tiers and protecting each tier separately. This strategy has been developed in response to a 2014 U.S. Supreme Court case, Alice v. CLS Bank, that effectively slammed the door on receiving and enforcing software […]
