Category Archives: Archive
DESIGN PATENTS — The IP Solution for Many Small Businesses
By: Sharon Adams The U. S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) recently commemorated the issuance of the 700,000th design patent for a “Hand-Held Learning Apparatus” currently assigned to the Emeryville, California-based LeapFrog Enterprises, Inc. A design patent often is an excellent intellectual property solution for many small businesses, especially businesses selling a product. If the […]
Trade Secrets Done Right
A recent San Mateo County case, Altavion v. Konica Minolta Systems Laboratory, Inc. , shows how a plaintiff can identify trade secrets with reasonable particularity on the way to winning a $4.8 million trade secret misappropriation case.
“Who Gave You Permission to Make That?” The Intellectual Property Implications of 3D Printing.
Although 3D printing has been around since the early 1980s, recent improvements and price decreases of 3D printing technology has made it available to an increasing number of businesses and consumers. Advances in the technology have allowed designers to 3D print designs virtually impossible to make just a few years ago, from an assortment of materials ranging from plastic to living cells. The price barrier to 3D printing has finally lowered to a point where regular consumers have begun entering the marketplace and companies such as Stratasys and 3D Systems have begun making relatively inexpensive lines of 3D “desktop” printers targeted at consumers. 3D printing, much like the PC in the early 1980s, is poised to make the leap from the domain of big businesses, researchers, and hobbyists to everyday consumers and small businesses.
Where Exceptional Becomes Normal
by: Andrew K Jacobson Garrison Keillor’s fictional Lake Wobegon is famous as the place “where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.” Exceptional gets defined down when it applies to everyone. Last month, the US Supreme Court has defined down the term exceptional regarding patent […]
Star-Struck, or Struck Dumb?
by Andrew Jacobson Comedian Nathan Fielder has been revealed as the brains behind the “Dumb Starbucks” shop that popped up without fanfare (or a health permit) on a Friday afternoon. It disappeared the next Monday. While the joke seemed to be on the people who waited in line for three hours for bad coffee and Vons-bought […]
Obama’s One Sentence on Patent Reform –
By Sharon Adams After Passing the Most Sweeping Patent Law Reform in Decades, President Obama’s State Of the Union speech briefly mentioned patent law. “And let’s pass a patent reform bill that allows our businesses to stay focused on innovation, not costly and needless litigation.” This single sentence appeared to be dropped into the middle […]
Towersquatting (and Contributory Cybersquatting)
by Andrew Jacobson The cybersquatter is a parasite that benefits from an internet user’s confusion who thinks that they are accessing a popular website, when they really get something else. The US banned cybersquatting in 1999’s Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (“ACPA”) and is codified at 15 U.S.C. § 1125(d). Malaysia’s oil company, Petronas, discovered a […]
YogaGlo Patent Loses Its Shine
By: Sharon Adams YogaGlo Patent # 8,605,152, Figure 1 INTRODUCTION There has been much controversy in the yoga community about the recent issuance of a patent to YogaGlo. The YogaGlo patent contains claims for videoing a yoga instructor teaching students, with an unobstructed line of sight from video camera to the instructor. There are so […]
What Could Go Wrong With a Wooden Horse?
One of the major justifications small business owners have for not protecting their information more carefully is “who would want our information? We’re just a small firm that doesn’t handle anything important for anybody.” A recent security breach reveals the risks. A small software service that provides back-end software solutions for car-hire services had its […]
California’s New LLC Law and You
by: Daniel E Gwozdz Daniel E Gwozdz is a 2012 graduate of Gonzaga School of Law and the newest attorney at Bay Oak Law. If the title above grabbed your attention, chances are that you are either a member of an Limited Liability Company or are interested in forming one. Limited Liability Companies, or LLCs, are […]
