The United States Patent Office has begun testing a new website. The USPTO’s press release states that the “new site has been redesigned to improve the look and feel, as well as to enhance the user experience with improved navigation.” Ultimately, the goal is to make the USPTO’s website “technologically up-to-date, user friendly, and responsive [...]

Filed under: In the USPTO, Patent, Trademark by davidi
Comments Off

Michael Jackson passed away on June 25, 2009.  When remembering the King of Pop’s intellectual property, most people think of music and copyrights associated with the music; however, Michael Jackson was also a patent holder as the named inventor for United States Patent No. 5,255,452 (“the ‘452 patent”) issued on October 26, 1993 for a [...]

Filed under: Miscellaneous, Patent by davidi
Comments Off

Michael Jackson passed away on June 25, 2009, but the music legacy he left behind will last forever.  Michael was a song writer, performer and actor, and was also the owner of publishing rights to the majority of the Beatles’ songs.
The Beatles’ songs have federal copyright registrations.  Copyrights are rights granted to the creator of [...]

Filed under: Copyright, Events, Miscellaneous by brandond
No Comments »

On Thursday, June 18, 2009, President Barack Obama announced his plan to nominate David Kappos as the new Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).  Kappos is considered an IP-guru, and his nomination is widely supported by industry leaders because of reform that may be [...]

Filed under: In Congress, Miscellaneous by brandond
No Comments »

On May 12, 2009, the ACLU filed a lawsuit in New  York Federal Court over the constitutionality of patented breast cancer genes. The ACLU is representing a group of pathologists, researchers, non-profit organizations, and cancer patients in filing a suit against the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Myraid Genetics, and the Directors of [...]

Filed under: Alive Patents, In the Courts, Patent by brandond
Comments Off

United States Patent No. 7,486,943 (“the ‘943 patent”) issued on February 3, 2009 for a SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR VERIFYING ACCESS BASED ON A DETERMINED GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION OF A SUBSCRIBER OF A SERVICE PROVIDED VIA A COMPUTER NETWORK.
The ‘943 patent was assigned to Major League Baseball Advanced Media and describes a way of determining [...]

Filed under: Alive Patents by davidi
Comments Off

On June 1, 2009 the Supreme Court granted certiorari to Bernard L. Bilski and Rand A. Warsaw regarding the patenting of business methods discussed in the November 2008 article “In re Bilski: CAFC Clarifies “Transformation of Matter” Test for Business Method Patents.”  (http://blog.patents-tms.com/?p=253)  Bilski and Warsaw appealed the rejection of their business method application to [...]

Filed under: In the Courts, In the USPTO, Patent by brandond
Comments Off

AdWords is a Google advertising product that allows advertisers to bid on words.  Then, when a searcher enters one of those words, the advertiser’s website appears on either the side or top of the returned search page.
On May 14, 2009, Google announced that it will change its policy on trademarks with AdWords.  Currently, Google prohibits [...]

Filed under: In the Courts, Trademark by davidi
Comments Off