Former Pitcher Claims That Signs Were a Trade Secret
August 20th, 2021
Maintaining that “sign stealing” by Houston Astros cost him a job in the major leagues, former Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Mike Bolsinger has refiled a lawsuit against the team in a Texas court. As the Houston Chronicle notes, Bolsinger, who hasn…
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Categories: Trade Secrets
Bad Punctuation Can Be Fatal to Patent Rights
August 13th, 2021
As we recently wrote about in this blog, even something as seemingly trivial as the little word “a” can be important when it comes to interpreting a patent. Punctuation is also more important than you might think when it comes to legal documents…
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Categories: Patents
Countries Fight over Champagne and Rice
August 6th, 2021
People usually think about a trademark as something a company owns. But a similar kind of intellectual property right can also be “owned” (in a sense) by a country or geographical region. A trademark, as the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)…
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Categories: Trademarks
EU Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court Finally Coming in 2022?
August 4th, 2021
After many years of delays, a Unitary EU Patent and EU Patent Court may finally come into existence in 2022. According to the European Patent Office (EPO), the new system will offer users of the patent system a “cost-effective option for patent pro…
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Categories: Patents
IP Guidelines for Startups: How to Protect Your Products and Designs
July 28th, 2021
A startup’s intellectual property (IP) can be greatly valuable in the marketplace. Many startups focus on patenting their inventions. This is important, as a company’s product or innovation is its most valuable asset. However, this causes some ne…
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Categories: Avoiding IP Litigation
What does “A” mean in a patent application?
July 21st, 2021
What does the little word “a” mean in a patent application? It’s surprisingly unclear. In the recent case of Niz-Chavez v. Garland, US Supreme Court decided that “a” meant “one.” That might seem obvious, but the government in that case…
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Categories: Patents
Supreme Court Clarifies Process for Challenging Patent Validity
July 16th, 2021
The US Supreme Court has recently issued a decision on the doctrine of assignor estoppel – a rule that prevents patent owners that assign their patents from then challenging the validity of those patents. As the Court noted, In the late 1990s, Csab…
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Categories: Patents
How to Measure the Quality of a Patent – and a Patent Law Firm
July 14th, 2021
All patents – and all patent applications – aren’t created equal. But how do you measure the quality of a patent or application? As a white paper from the Canadian Intellectual Property Office notes, It is often said that “you can’t manage…
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Categories: Patents
Arthrex Wins Supreme Court Battle but May Still Lose the War
July 7th, 2021
A Pyrrhic victory is a victory that inflicts such a devastating toll on the victor that it’s tantamount to defeat. The phrase originates from a quote from Pyrrhus of Epirus, whose triumph over the Romans in in 279 BCE destroyed most of his army. Ar…
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Categories: Patents
In Patent Cases, What You Say Can Come Back to Haunt You
June 30th, 2021
In a patent infringement action involving a long list of big-name defendants, a plaintiff learned that what you say to the Patent Office during the patent prosecution process can come back to haunt you in court when you try to enforce your patent rig…
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Categories: Patents
