Patent - Page 15
This is FindLaw's collection of Patent articles, part of the Intellectual Property section of the Corporate Counsel Center. Law articles in this archive are predominantly written by lawyers for a professional audience seeking business solutions to legal issues. Start your free research with FindLaw.
Intellectual Property
Patent Articles
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On June 3, 2002, the Supreme Court issued one of its most important decisions in decades construing the "arising under" jurisdiction of United States District Courts. In Holmes Group, Inc. v. Vornado Air Circulation Systems, Inc., seven Justices of the Court held that a civil action is not one "arising under" federal law - including federal patent, trademark, and copyright law - if the well-pleaded complaint of the plaintiff does not allege a claim whose resolution depends on a substantial question of federal law. -
Contrary to rampant speculation in the legal community that the doctrine of equivalents for patent claims was dead or nearly so, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously reasserted the legal vitality of equitable patent rights in the case of Festo Corp. v. Shoketsu Kinzoku Kogyo Kabushiki Co.. The Court vacated the judgment of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on May 28, 2002. -
A utility patent confers the right to exclude others from making, using, offering to sell, or selling an invention in the United States. The patent term measures the time period in which a patent holder may exercise patent rights. During a patent's exclusivity period, the patent owner(s) may capitalize on the patent in a variety of ways including manufacturing, marketing, licensing, or selling an invention. -
Nanotechnology, the science and technology of precisely controlling the structure of matter at the molecular level, is widely viewed as the most significant technological frontier currently being explored. Materials and devices at the nanoscale (a nanometer is one billionth of one meter) hold vast promise for innovation in virtually every industry and public endeavor including health, electronics, transportation, the environment and national security, and has been heralded by many as "the next industrial revolution." -
While method patents have long been available to protect inventors of useful, novel methods of accomplishing particular tasks, such as surgical procedures, business method patents - on a particular method of doing business - are new to the scene. -
Intellectual property due diligence is generally conducted coincident with an investment or acquisition. Often the intellectual property is the most important asset of the target, particularly in the case of a start-up. Certain characteristics typify the due diligence process, regardless of the nature of the transaction, the underlying technology, or the size of the portfolio. Those characteristics include a short timeline, budget constraints, reliance upon representations made by counsel and the principals of the target, and the necessity of drawing conclusions. -
Patented articles (products, devices, items, etc.) must be marked as patented if patentee is to be awarded damages resulting from infringement of the patent. The marking provisions of the patent statute are within 35 U.S.C. 287(a). -
Many inventors file provisional applications as a first stage in applying for a patent. Provisional applications can be filed without claims, so the inventor does not have to decide which features will distinguish the invention over the "prior art," and since provisionals are not examined, they can be filed without the usual formatting of a conventional patent application. -
Madey v. Duke promises to set off a lively debate about the direction of research at federally funded universities and in particular the role of patents both to protect the intellectual property wealth of such institutions but also the very right to continue to function as research institutions, free from third party patent problems. The confirmation by the court that a nonprofit or other university enjoys no special privilege or experimental use exemption to conduct testing or research guarantees that in the 108th Congress there will be a reconsideration of earlier attempts to provide a statutory research exemption. -
Ever hear your patent attorney talk about cost-effectiveness? Not likely. Cost effectiveness is great for the clients, but not so good for the bottom line of a law office. The stakes are enormous. You probably noticed that the cost of protecting intellectual property has risen dramatically in the last several years.