How did you wind up in the IP industry? Much like the vast majority of my peers, I began my academic pursuits in engineering. During my first years in school, I wasn’t exactly the most studious of students. I still made decent grades, but I wouldn’t say I did my best. It wasn’t until towards the...Read more
Blog
By: Jonathan A. Platt, Partner Baseball Hall-of-Famer Warren Spahn famously said, “Hitting was timing, and pitching was upsetting timing.” Indeed, timing is important in so many endeavors; Friday is typically considered the riskiest day to schedule surgery, and the end of the month is usually the...Read more
By: Bonnie Smith If you have an invention that has potential commercial value to you or your company, you definitely want to consider protecting your invention by obtaining a patent. Although there is nothing to prevent you from preparing and filing your application with the USPTO without legal...Read more
By Luis Carrion , Managing Partner As with other businesses, the pandemic has significantly changed the way we operate, the way our people interact with each other, with our clients and with our neighborhood here in Cleveland. Although our physical office is open, many of our people continue to...Read more
What brought you to the IP Law industry? My father is a patent attorney, and he’s taught me everything I know about the industry. As a kid, I liked to think of new ideas and show them off to him, though he hasn’t patented any of my ideas yet. When he became a sole practitioner, he asked that I come...Read more
Patents and trade secrets provide two different approaches that can be utilized to protect your invention. While patents require public disclosure of features of the invention to obtain, trade secrets have the exact opposite requirement- secrecy. Patents are typically considered to provide a...Read more
Coronavirus caused inventors to change the way they thought about innovation, creating new products at a brisk pace. COVID has also changed the way we approach intellectual property law. As partner Nick Gingo described, many brands have shifted their operations to produce more COVID-friendly...Read more
As of October 2, 2020, patent applicants should be prepared to pay increased government fees at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. In a Federal Register Notice dated August 3, 2020, the USPTO indicated that the fee adjustments are needed to provide the USPTO with a sufficient amount of...Read more
Booking B.V. applied for 4 trademarks with the US Patent and Trademark Office for the use of “Booking.com” in a word and stylized mark, which was rejected by the assigned Examiner, saying it was too generic and indistinctive under the Lanham Act. Also known as the Trademark Act of 1946, the Lanham...Read more
Renner Otto Associate Kathryn Imeli says the three keys to succeeding in a career in IP law are mentorship, a firm that's willing to invest in you and most importantly - confidence. Tell us a little about your background. While I was completing my undergrade degree in Neuroscience and Biomedical...Read more
