Category: Blake’s Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights

HI all. I just participated in a fun panel on Copyright Issues with respect to social media. Four other attorneys were involved, including Tina Willis, a personal injury attorney out of Florida. You can find a video of the panel discussion here.
Enjoy!

I was recently quoted in the Connecticut Law Tribune regarding patent trolls in Connecticut and what the state and lawyers are doing to fight against Non-practicing Entities (NPEs). The article can be found here.

I just added four new patents to my Patents page . These are patent applications that I prepared and were recently issued. One was for salve 070.PN.&OS=PN/D683, rx 070&RS=PN/D683,070″>Cigar Punch for a client in Thomaston, CT. The other was for a salve Packaging System and Method for a client in Oxford, CT. The third and fourth patents were for fish liver extracts that were used for human brain treatment, and that client was in Malta, NY and then moved to San Antonio, TX. Thus, as you can see, I have clients all over Connecticut and the USA.

I am happy to announce that I am once again teaching the graduate engineering course Management of Intellectual Property Assets at Fairfield University, located in Fairfield, Connecticut.
The course will enable students to recognize the different types of intellectual property (IP) and to use corresponding forms of protection. In addition, the students will learn to assess the value of IP to the organization and perceive effective methods for using it to advance important company objectives such as increasing its sales volume, improving its profit margin, or improving the business value, upon its sale. The course also teaches how to determine the monetary value of a company’s holdings in IP and how to establish the policies and processes for protecting them from competition. Throughout the course we will address the legal issues surrounding rights of ownership, the existence of infringement, and technology transfer. The student will develop an ability to recognize the specific issues that distinguish an invention or other form of IP from its potential competition in the market place, causing it to be superior to competitive products or services.
I generally teach this course in the Spring, so if interested, sign up for it in the Fall of 2014.

I was recently looking at my client list, view and after 10 years of having my own patent-trademark-copyright practice I realized that I truly have clients all over the world. Here is just a short list of where my international clients are located:

Dubai;
Ilmenau, Germany;
Pforzheim, Fed Rep Germany;
Angus, Scotland;
Brampton, Ontario, Canada;
Shanghai, China.

In the USA, I have clients in 22 states. Some of these clients are located here:

Fairhope, AL;
Phoenix, AZ;
San Diego, CA;
Sacramento, CA;
Saratoga, CA;
Fort Collins, CO;
Ansonia, CT;
Avon, CT;
Beacon Falls, CT;
Berline, CT;
Branford, CT;
Bridgeport, CT;
Bristol, CT;
Brookfield, CT;
Cheshire, CT;
Chester, CT;
Clinton, CT;
Cromwell, CT;
Danbury, CT;
Derby, CT;
East Granby, CT;
East Haddam, CT;
East Hampton, CT;
East Lyme, CT;
Easton, CT;
Essex, CT;
Fairfield, CT;
Gales Ferry, CT;
Granby, CT;
Goshen, CT;
Griswold, CT;
Groton, CT;
Guilford, CT;
Hamden, CT;
Hartford, CT;
Huntington, CT;
Kent, CT;
Killingworth, CT;
Madison, CT;
Manchester, CT;
Meriden, CT;
Middlebury, CT;
Middletown, CT;
Milford, CT;
Monroe, CT;
New Britain, CT;
New Canaan; CT;
New Fairfield, CT;
New Haven, CT;
New Milford, CT;
Newington, CT;
Newtown, CT;
Niantic, CT;
Noank, CT;
Northford, CT;
Norwalk, CT;
Norwich, CT;
Old Greenwich, CT;
Old Lyme, CT;
Old Saybrook, CT
Orange, CT;
Oxford, CT;
Plainville, CT;
Plymouth, CT;
Pomfret Center; CT;
Ridgefield, CT;
Riverside, CT;
Rocky Hill, CT;
Sandy Hook, CT;
Seymour, CT;
Shelton, CT;
Sherman, CT;
Simsbury, CT;
Somers, CT;
Southbury, CT;
South Windsor, CT;
Stamford, CT;
Storrs Mansfield, CT;
Stratford, CT;
Terryville, CT;
Thomaston, CT;
Tolland, CT;
Torrington, CT;
Trumbull, CT;
Uncasville, CT;
Wallingford, CT;
Waterford, CT;
Wethersfield, CT;
West Hartford, CT;
West Haven, CT;
Weston, CT;
Westport, CT;
Winsdor, CT;
Winstead, CT;
Wolcott, CT;
Woodbridge, CT;
Parkland, FL;
Ormond Beach, FL;
Alpharetta, GA;
Canton, GA;
Highland Park, IL;
Pittsfield, MA;
Boston, MA;
Springfield, MA;
Portland, MA;
Alexandria, MN;
Smithfield, NC;
Cary, NC;
Hindsdale, NH;
Stratham, NH;
Nashua, NH;
Ridgefield, NJ;
Morris Plains, NJ;
Stateline, NV;
Yorktown Heights, NY;
Harrison, NY;
New York, NY;
Oneonta, NY;
Flushing, NY;
Long Island City, NY;
Bayville, NY;
New Rochelle, NY;
Brooklyn, NY;
Jamaica, NY;
Staten Island, NY;
Goshen, NY;
Tarrytown, NY;
Sunbury, PA;
Media, PA;
Chattanooga, TN;
San Antonio, TX;
Helotes, TX;
Newport News, VA;
Centreville, VA;
Hampton, VA; and
Rochester, VT.

So please remember, wherever you are in the world, I can provide you with patent or trademark legal services!

The USPTO reported 277,861 issued patents for 2013, a 10% increase from the previous record year of 2012! The average pendency for patents has decreased to about 37 months.

Chart below shows the number of patents per year since 1963.

I just read an interesting article here at the patentlyo blog regarding “virtual designs” and how they are generally eligible for design patent protection. Remember a design patent only protects the ornamental design of an object. However, most people think of design patents as applying to physical objects, such as athletic shoes, furniture, lamps, etc. However, the patentlyo article makes clear that design patents can also protect “virtual designs”. Virtual designs mean things such as graphical user interfaces (GUIs) to isolated icons and arrows grouped in USPTO classes D14/485 to 495. So keep that in mind when developing new icons, or software graphical work!

I recently saw that Patent No. 8,240,155 has issued. What is amazingly dumb about the issuance of this patent is that it purports to cover the invention of cooling a container to below freezing, and then pouring beer (that is above freezing) into the container. I think cooling beer glasses in the freezer has been well known for maybe….at least since the invention of freezers? The claim is reprinted below:

“1. A method for serving beer from a font, comprising the steps of: chilling a container for beer to a temperature of at least -5.degree. C.; and, filling the container with the
beer from the font, the beer being delivered from the font at a temperature
above the freezing point of water for creating a drink having a head of foam and
crystals of frozen beer formed below the head of foam after filling of the
container with the beer.”

So next time you put your beer glass in the freezer and then pour a beer into it from a “font”, you may be infringing the above patent! By the way, I wasn’t sure what a “font” meant with respect to beer. After a little research, it appears that a font is simply the beer faucet you often see in bars.

I was recently quoted by the Waterbury Republican American newspaper regarding patent trolls. The article was written by Phil Hall who interviewed me a couple of weeks ago for this story. Basically the story is about scan to email trolls who go after small business owners who own all-in-one copier/scanner machines. The story is avaible here, mind by permission: Trolls .

The US congress has introduced anti-abusive litigation tactics (patent troll) legislation for discussion purposes. A good discussion and summary of the legislation can be found at PatentlyO.com The proposed legislation does make it more difficult for patent trolls to sue for patent infringement, but it also makes it more difficult for legitimate patent owners to sue for patent infringement as well. During my quick review of the materials, there is no definition of what a “patent troll” is, or what “abusive litigation tactics” are. Thus, I am reserving judgement on the efficacy of the proposed legislation.M