By: Mark R. Malek 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 […]
Widerman Malek Law Blog
Amending A Patent Application After Allowance
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
A Brief Overview On Patents
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 […]
Show Me the Royalties!
For songwriters, one of the greatest perks of copyrighting their work is the continuous flow of royalty checks. If Merv Griffin were still alive today he could attest to that. Merv Griffin wrote the recognizable music called “Think” which aired five days a week on the game show Jeopardy during the final jeopardy question. The […]
Can Someone Trademark Your Catchphrase After It Is Cancelled?
Do you remember the ridiculously cheesy LifeCall commercial that first aired in 1989? Perhaps you may be able to recall it better with this famous catchphrase, “Help! I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.” Do you now remember? LifeCall, a medical alert and protection company produced this commercial showing an elderly woman fall within her […]
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, […]
