On behalf of The Myers Law Group posted in Patents on Tuesday, May 26, 2015. If you have a brilliant idea for an invention, you'll want to undertake a patent search right away. A patent search can clarify whether your invention is truly new and non-obvious so you don't waste money and time protecting and developing something that has already been invented. The United States Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO"), which has kept records of all patents since 1790, refers to inventions as "prior art." This implies that something is "state of the art" or "new." Searching government records through the USPTO will allow [...]

On behalf of The Myers Law Group posted in Patents on Thursday, April 9, 2015. Patent law in the U.S. might change once again: as of February 2015, Congress is reconsidering the "Innovation Act," a bill that could implement several changes, including making it difficult for non-practicing entities (also known as "patent trolls") to claim their patents have been infringed upon. Patent trolls usually buy up patents and then use them against unsuspecting businesses, without contributing anything to the economy themselves. Often, defendants will simply settle the case as a way to avoid further costly litigation. It is easy to see, then, why many [...]

On behalf of The Myers Law Group posted in Patents on Tuesday, March 31, 2015. If you bring a claim for patent infringement, a recent case from the U.S. Supreme Court has made recovery of attorneys' fees easier than ever before. Typically, the party that wins the lawsuit in a patent infringement case has a right to seek attorneys' fees if a case is considered "exceptional" under a particular statute. These types of fee arrangements are meant to serve as a deterrent to parties who want to bring unwarranted suits on invalid or unenforceable patents. In this case, the Supreme Court re-examined the statute [...]

On behalf of The Myers Law Group posted in Patents on Thursday, February 26, 2015. When it comes to claiming rights over patentable technology, the United States recently joined the rest of the world in adopting a "first to file" system. This change, part of the sweeping America Invents Act ("AIA"), went into effect March 16, 2013. As many have noted, the law significantly impacted the way intellectual property is protected. Under the new system, even if an inventor is the first to invent something, she must quickly file a patent application on her invention before anyone else files or could lose out to [...]

On behalf of The Myers Law Group posted in Patents on Thursday, February 12, 2015. Your business's patent portfolio, or the list of patents owned by your company, contains the fruits of your labor, so to speak. Managing your patent portfolio and comparing it to those of other companies is essential to helping you better determine the economic value of your own patents and maintaining your competitive edge in the marketplace. It also helps you keep an eye on potential copycats, which can be an irksome and costly issue to deal with. When other businesses are copying your inventions, they are profiting off of [...]

On behalf of The Myers Law Group posted in Patents on Tuesday, February 3, 2015. While "intellectual property" may sound like a complicated area of the law, its basic principles are simple: at its core, intellectual property law is about who owns property that is the result of mental efforts. The owner of this type of property has rights based on federal laws concerning patents, trademarks, and copyrights, as well as state laws concerning trade secrets. A patent provides an owner with protection over a tangible thing. The federal government issues patents, which are documents that give the owner the right to exclude other [...]