Many inventors do not understand a very basic prerequisite to getting a patent: the duty to fully disclose to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) how to make and use the inventor’s invention. The rationale for this requirement is deeply embedded in...
Linus Pauling once said, “The way to get good ideas is to get lots of ideas and throw the bad ones away.” A collaborative workspace embodies Mr. Pauling’s observation that brainstorming generates solutions. Bringing talented people together to discuss, analyze and...
What Is the Rule? 37 Code of Federal Regulations Rule 1.56 (usually referred to as “Rule 56”) requires a “duty of disclosure, candor and good faith” on the part of patent applicants. (Read Rule 56 here.). Patent applicants vary from the huge corporation that files...
Trade secrets are often the catch-all category of intellectual property (IP) protection. Patents cover inventions, copyrights protect creative works of expression, trademarks focus on branding and trade secrets… well, they cover the rest. A trade secret is information...
Why should research and development (R&D) teams or organizations care about patents? The answer might surprise you. A recent report by Forbes states that each year R&D introduces more than 250,000 new products into the marketplace. Of those, 66% will fail...
In Part 2 of this series, we discussed the need to valuate your IP assets as well as the methods you can use to achieve this end. This final segment focuses on the rubber-meets-the-road question of what kinds of protection should be used for each IP asset and how much...
