Another Trademark / Adwords Case … Carrier v. Reply!, Inc. And … Why You’d Better Police Your Brand.

There is no sense in belaboring this lesson. However, just so you know that this is an issue you should take seriously, we are going to post this quick note about the lawsuit filed recently by Carrier (the air conditioning people) against online lead generating company Reply! Inc. Reply sells online leads to businesses. One of the business categories is air conditioning contractors. In the complaint, Carrier alleges that Reply! devlelops leads for air conditioning contractors by bidding on Carrier’s brand on Google, then using Carrier’s logo on the landing page. Air conditioning units from other brands are quoted on the landing page as well. Reply also created the domain carrier.reply.com. Apparently Carrier didn’t like the use of their well-developed brand...

Five IP Mistakes To Avoid At All Costs

Does this Lesson really need an introduction?  Here are the five most common mistakes we see in our practice when providing legal counsel for intellectual property protection and enforcement.  The reason usually given for these mistakes (a reason which, although honest, doesn’t help when problems crop up … and in hindsight it can look pretty silly) is that there just isn’t enough time or manpower to work these issues up front.  What often results, unfortunately, is a loss of rights … and money … on the back end.   The Lesson.  Take a look at this short list, and take a few minutes to reflect on the status of your portfolio.  1. Failing to register your trademark. 2....

The Patent Process

By Stephen C. Thomas Today’s Lesson needs no words.  The message is … there is a reason patent attorneys are worth their pay.  See below.  This flow chart is pasted in directly from the USPTO web site.  Each step of the process requires a legal analysis based upon the current state of Title 35 of the U.S. Code, Code of Federal Regulations Chapter 37, the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP), and the controlling Court of Federal Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) and U.S. Supreme Court decisions in patent cases.   And … thas is not even a comprehensive list.  Oy! Note that in step 6 the USPTO recommends using a registered patent attorney or agent.  

Using Someone Else’s Trademark As An Adword to Divert Traffic to Your Web Site. Smart Marketing? Or Trademark Infringement?

Here is the scenario. Sales are down. Your competition is kicking your tail. You know that you can grab more market share if ONLY you could get the attention of potential customers searching for your product online, but your main competition has a nice, memorable, eye-and-ear catching trademark (which of course they have registered with the USPTO). The enemy is taking market share: his trademark is becoming the “go-to” search term for his/your product. You are looking for a way to distinguish your product and grab attention. Unfortunately the competing products are virtually the same. Its that darn trademark that is making the difference. He is beating you in the branding game. You know it, your business...

Why Register Your Trademark? Just Ask iCloud (umm … iCloud Communications, That Is)

By:  Steve Thomas
The old trademark rule is “First in Time, First in Right”. Which is a truism. However, iCloud Communications is about to learn the value of federal trademark registration. Simply being first in use of a mark may not matter when a giant like Apple steps all over your brand like a lumbering mastadon. iCloud is a cloud computing services provider in Arizona who claims to have spent over $500,000 building out its data center and tens of thousands of dollars per year building its brand, all since 2005. Apple, of course, recently launched its iCloud product, long after iCloud Communications claims to have begun operations under the iCloud name. However, now...

Dolby Attempts to Enforce Technology Patents Against RIM (Blackberry Storm, Tour, Bold, Pearl, Curve, and other models)

By Steve Thomas 
Here we go again … RIM back in the defendant seat? On June 14, 2011 Dolby International AB filed a patent infringement lawsuit against RIM in the Northern District of California (case no. 3:11-cv-02931) over RIM’s use of advanced audio encoding. At issue are five patents covering audio encoding (US6978236, US7003451, US7382886, US7469206, and US7590543). US6978236, which issued from a national stage filing of a Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) application, claims to cover “… a new method and an apparatus for spectral envelope encoding. The...

Never, Ever, Ever Quit. I4i Sticks to Its Guns against Microsoft… and Wins

It pays to keep fighting. Canadian software developer I4i demonstrated 290 million good reasons to keep fighting last week by sticking to their guns despite Microsoft’s full court press to invalidate the I4i patent. Microsoft was essentially arguing for a change in the standard for invalidating patents by asking the court to use the lower standard of preponderance of the evidence (aka the “51% rule”) from the statutory clear and convincing standard.
The Court didn’t buy Microsoft’s argument, which was supported heavily by briefs from the software industry including such giants as Cisco, Apple, and other amici filers. This case was started in 2007, proceeded through the trial...

Stanford Loses Big To Roche in HIV Patent Dispute

The best way to learn is from other’s mistakes. So, if you are a corporate entity that engages in product development or a university looking to capitalize on your researcher’s ingenuity LISTEN UP. Stanford learned a valuable (and yes, costly) lesson this week at the hands of the Supreme Court. While this wasn’t a real surprise to those of us watching the case there is a good take away here: assignment wording matters. Make sure, make DARN SURE, you get an agreement from every potential inventor in your organization that they actually assign, not just agree to assign, all developed intellectual property to the company (or university). And monitor your inventors to ensure that they do not execute any contradictory...

America’s Looming Helium Crisis (no, really)

Over the weekend, the New York Times’ Matthew Wald reported that we're running out of helium-3, a rare but useful helium isotope, thanks to a bit of bureaucratic blundering:
The United States is running out of a rare gas that is crucial for detecting smuggled nuclear weapons materials because one arm of the Energy Department was selling the gas six times as fast as another arm could accumulate it, and the two sides failed to communicate for years, according to a new Congressional...

New solar technology could break photovoltaic limits

 
Photovoltaic (PV) efficiency is a significant problem for today's commercial solar panels, which can collect only a theoretical maximum of about 30 percent of available light. Now, a team that includes a University of Missouri engineer is developing a flexible solar film that can theoretically capture more than 90 percent of available light. Prototypes could be produced within the next five years.
 
Patrick Pinhero, an associate professor in the MU Chemical Engineering Department, says energy generated using traditional photovoltaic methods of solar collection is inefficient and neglects much of the available solar electromagnetic (sunlight) spectrum. The device the team...
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