Summer Associate Michael Nathanson also contributed to this article. Since the inception of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) in 2012, design patents obtained a higher rate of favorable ...

July 31, 2023 - Design patents and utility patents have co-existed in harmony — each staying in its own lane, covering its own subject matter — for over 180 years. The U.S. Patent Act was enacted in ...

On January 23, 2016, Applicant Bonnie Floyd filed a utility patent application claiming a cooling blanket with ventilated openings along a matrix of sealed compartments. The utility application ...

Demand for design patent protections has been increasing in the last decade, and there is no indication that this trend will slow down. James Rieke, partner at Merchant & Gould, spoke to Minnesota ...

The future is only redesigned every so often, so it is worth asking, what will this new technology look like, and how can pioneers protect their user-facing innovations that will define this emerging ...

There are numerous misconceptions that swirl around the concept of building a patent portfolio. Chief among them perhaps is the truth that adequate intellectual property protection for almost any ...

“The tension between patents and trade dress protection is most evident when the alleged trade dress (or aspects thereof) has been disclosed in a utility patent.” Patents and trademarks protect ...

Design patent counsel are concerned that an upcoming case at the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit could result in uncertainty over when design patents are obvious. The Federal Circuit granted ...

The USPTO issued new guidelines for determining obviousness in utility patent applications in light of the Supreme Court's recent decision in KSR v. Teleflex. In it's announcement, the office also ...

Firms will steer clients towards other ways of getting quicker examinations, but fear the ramifications of the USPTO’s decision Frustrations are boiling over after the USPTO ended a programme that had ...