Many people tend to confuse the types of intellectual property protections that are available to them. In short, a patent protects the function of an invention, a trademark protections a name and/or logo that may be used to identify the source of goods and/or services, and a copyright is meant to protect original works of authorship.
Widerman Malek Law Blog
First-To-File … So What?
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.
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 […]
So What Is The Big Deal With Patents?
By: Mark R. Malek Patent rights are derived from the U.S. Constitution. Many people mistakenly call patents rights a monopoly, but that is not exactly accurate. I will be posting a follow up article on this one that explains precisely why patents are not monopolies, and why it drives me completely nuts when people call them […]
Third Party Submissions
By: Dan Pierron Yet another part of the America Invents Act are Third Party Submission of Prior Art. This presents the opportunity for ex parte participation in the form of introducing prior art to be considered by the examiner in a pending application. This adds another tool in the arsenal of options for a party considering an […]
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 […]
Where to Search for Prior Art
By: Mark R. Malek The first article I posted about this series was directed to the duty to disclose prior art to the Patent Office during the patent prosecution process. The next article tried to give some information about what constituted prior art. Now that we know what prior art is, let’s go over some good […]
What is Prior Art?
By: Mark R. Malek In my last article, I noted that an inventor has a duty to disclose prior art that they know of when filing a patent application. But what is prior art? The answer to this question is extraordinarily important in determining not only patentability of an invention, but also in determining whether or […]
