August 28th, 2017
Comments Off on White House Nominates Andrei Iancu as New Head of U.S. Patent and Trademark Office | IP Watercooler Blog
On Friday, August 25, The Trump administration nominated Andrei Iancu to serve as the next head of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The position had formerly been held by the former head of Google’s patent program, Michelle Lee, who resigned from the position in June.
Iancu, who is currently the managing partner of a large law [...]
August 17th, 2017
Comments Off on Strategies for Seeking Expedited Handling of Patent Applications | IP Watercooler Blog, Patents
Many of our clients – especially early stage startup companies – have a need to protect their new technology very quickly. Fortunately, the U.S. Patent Office and many other patent offices have implemented relatively new, very effective mechanisms for the speedy examination of patent applications. In the U.S., for example, for an additional patent office [...]
March 3rd, 2017
Comments Off on Recommended Procedures for Setting Up a Corporate Patent Program | IP Watercooler Blog
Below are some recommended procedures to help corporate entities identify and protect new, potentially patentable inventions.
1. Make sure that your employees are under an obligation to assign, to your company, their rights in any inventions that they develop in the course of their work. Otherwise, it may be difficult for your company to obtain [...]
March 3rd, 2017
Comments Off on Checklist For Addressing IP Issues In Mergers and Acquisitions | IP Watercooler Blog
Scott E. Brient – Brient Intellectual Property Law, LLC
1. Assess the patent-related practices of the target company.a. Does the target company have a concrete set of procedures in place for identifying and protecting new innovations, including business methods and systems inventions?
b. Does the target have an IP ownership provision in place [...]