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Are Your Rights Being Infringed by AI?

November 8, 2023
By
Jeffrey C. Norris
Partner

The potential for misuse now exists in the new world of artificial intelligence (AI). AI has a vast array of potential benefits. Regardless of the type of end use, AI is only as good or useful as the information that is fed into the training system. Therein lies one risk that protected information may be improperly used to educate an AI system.

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The Federal Circuit Sinks Reissue Claims for Floating Apparatus: A Lesson for Patent Prosecution

August 31, 2023
By
Bryan P. Finneran
Associate Attorney

The FNG decision (In Re Float’N’Grill LLC, 2022-1438 (Fed. Cir. 2023)) serves as a reminder that it is risky not to file a continuation application when broader claims may be desired after the original patent claims are allowed. The FNG decision also highlights the importance of describing other embodiments of an invention as opposed to narrowly describing a single embodiment, and failing to indicate certain features are optional. A good patent attorney is trained to carefully draft patent applications with varying claim scope, so that an invention is not limited to only one way of practicing the invention.

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The PTAB Says to Let Them Eat Cake

June 16, 2023
By
Ken W. Pung
Associate Attorney

In an appeal filed by the cosmetics company L'Oréal, the PTAB affirmed an examiner’s § 112(b) rejection against claims related to an anti-aging composition over the term “fondant texture”.

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The Importance of Docketing for Law Firms

July 16, 2021
By
Heidi N. Beachy
Paralegal Manager - Docket Control

Docketing is one of the most important aspects of any law firm. There are a variety of systems available to law firms to manage the docketing process. Some law firms may create their own system using resources already accessible to them, such as a spreadsheet, database or calendar.

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Domain Names as Trademarks

May 28, 2021
By

Clients often ask whether domain names can serve as trademarks. That is, for example, can .com, .net, or some other top-level domain (TLD) in conjunction with another term(s) be trademarked? While the answer has in the past been based almost exclusively on the term(s) with which the TLD is combined, that has recently changed – at least in certain circumstances.

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Copyright Protection for Software

March 3, 2021
By
Beverly A. Marsh
Partner

Clients often want to know how they can best protect their software. The answer usually lies in a combination of different forms of intellectual property, including copyrights, patents, and trademarks. Whereas patents protect inventions (how it works, what it does) and trademarks protect brands, copyrights protect original works of authorship.

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Trademark Squatting – Is It A Thing?

January 12, 2021
By

Perhaps “trademark squatting” is not yet a commonly used term in trademark law, as is “cybersquatting” in the realm of domain name registrations. But maybe it should be. Because some trademark applicants have substantially the same unscrupulous goals as a cybersquatter – to obtain a registration solely for the purpose of holding it ransom to others.

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The Importance of Reviewing Court Local Rules and Judges' Rules

October 30, 2020
By
DeAnna J. Barnett
Litigation Paralegal Manager

The Court’s local rules and local patent rules are as important to civil litigants as the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure themselves because they address particularities that are not addressed in the Federal Rules. Each United States District Court has its own set of local rules.

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