The Trademark Electronic Search System (“TESS”) is a public online database that can be used for searching United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) pending and registered trademarks. TESS contains both active and inactive trademark registrations, as well as applications.
Read MoreMany brand owners, entrepreneurs, and company executives underestimate the value of registering a trademark. Trademarks can play an important role in growing your brand or company because they can serve as a brand identifier.
Read MoreIn the information age, companies have the ability to reach potential consumers worldwide through social media, email campaigns, and Internet marketing, as well as through traditional marketing channels. However, opportunistic and unscrupulous people use many of these same tools to sell counterfeit goods and trade on the good names and strong brands of others.
Read MoreTrademark management is an important part of maintaining an intellectual property portfolio. Intellectual property attorneys, specifically trademark attorneys, have expertise in helping clients consolidate their trademark holdings to ensure their clients’ intellectual property is properly protected.
Read MoreAttorneys help trademark owners navigate through the application and prosecution process to achieve registration, as well as maintenance of those rights.
Read MoreTrademarks are intellectual property rights that can be established in common law, without the need for registration. However, registration of a mark at either the state or federal level provides important benefits. Registration creates a public record of the claim to those rights providing notice to third parties, which is important in a dispute regarding those rights.
Read MoreTrademarks serve as “source identifiers” to consumers about where a particular product or service is derived from. Most commonly, trademarks consist of a word, phrase, and/or design. However, a trademark can also be a sensory mark such as a color, sound, or even a scent, that—due to its distinctive use—becomes a symbol of a company, product, or service.
Read MorePresident Obama signed the Defend Trade Secrets Act (“DTSA”) that protects intellectual property, specifically trade secrets, against misappropriation. The DTSA expands protection available under the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 (“EEA”).
Read MoreStudies indicate that trade secrets are the most prevalent form of intellectual property protection. Historically, trade secrets prevented foreign enemies from obtaining covert military advancements. Today, trade secret protection extends to many types of information, including a design, compilation, formula, research, strategy, technique, practice, instrument, pattern, process or even sometimes a customer list.
Read MoreTrade secret lawyers help businesses and individuals identify trade secrets and how to best protect them. In evaluating the intellectual property of a business, lawyers can perform a due diligence review to help identify and valuate the intangible assets of the business, including trade secrets.
Read MoreUnlike other forms of intellectual property, trade secrets are not registered. The USTA definition tells us that, in order for the right in a trade secret to exist, it must be:
• valuable because others don’t know about it;
• something others can’t get the information about without obtaining it from the owner; and
• kept a true secret by the owner taking active and reasonable measures to protect it from becoming publicly known.
Read MoreA trade secret is any formula, process, design, or compilation of information, which is not generally ascertainable, by which a company can obtain an economic advantage over competitors or customers.
Read MoreInter partes review is a trial proceeding conducted at the Board to review the patentability of one or more claims in a patent only on a ground that could be raised under §§ 102 or 103, and only on the basis of prior art consisting of patents or printed publications. For more information regarding inter parties review proceedings, see our post: What are the basics of patent inter partes review proceedings?
Read MoreThe United States has the oldest existing patenting system in the world. Since its inception, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has enjoyed a steady increase in the number of patent applicants both from domestic and foreign inventors. To date, the USPTO has issued over 7,000,000 patents spanning a vast number of different technologies.
Read MoreThe process for obtaining a patent should include several steps to help ensure the idea is viable for patent protection and that the cost and time required to navigate through the patent process is worth the investment.
Read MorePatent lawyers can help inventors and invention owners with a wide scope of services—from the inception of an idea to the enforcement of those rights.
Read MoreFor an idea to be patentable, it must be new and useful, novel, and non-obvious. An invention is not patentable if it is already in use by the public, or if it consists of abstract ideas or things that already exist in nature.
Read MoreA patent is a form of intellectual property which gives an inventor the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling, or importing an invention—for a limited time.
Read MoreU.S. patents and trademarks do not generally provide protection in other countries. Some U.S companies have found that foreign manufacturers copy their products, packaging, brochures, and logos. For this reason, those U.S. companies seek patent, copyright, and trademark protection in potential foreign markets in advance of exporting their products to those markets or launching a branding program.
Read MoreInternational lawyers help with identifying potential issues in international transactions, and with preparing proper agreements and safeguards for such transactions.
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