International Trademarks And The Madrid Protocol
Posted on April 22, 2008 - Filed Under Legal and Law | Leave a Comment
Protecting your logo and so on with a trademark is a smart move. Ah, but what about protecting it in the United States AND internationally?
Filling for a trademark is a smart move for practically any business. Although the process can be lengthy, the final approval gives you the ability to stop competitors from using your mark to confuse consumers and perhaps steal them.
To obtain a trademark, one has to file an application with the Patent and Trademark Office. The application sets out the areas, known as classes, you wish the mark to apply to. Once the “PTO” approves your application, it is published for comment. Assuming no objections are raised, your trademark is approved. It is important to understand, however, the mark only applies to the United States.
Read More..>>Free Trademark Search - Is It Possible To Search My Trademark For Free?
Posted on April 21, 2008 - Filed Under Legal and Law | Leave a Comment
Yes and no is really the only way to answer this question. While there are some great preliminary sites anyone can access for free, that is NOT a clear cut indication of what’s out there in terms of company names, service names or product names.
Only comprehensive research will tell you if a name is truly available.
Let’s take a look at some free, preliminary sites and where they fail to be comprehensive:
- The USPTO Web Site: You’ll be able to search some of the Federal trademark files at this site.
The Diligence Of A Good Father Of A Family
Posted on April 21, 2008 - Filed Under Legal and Law | Leave a Comment
In any accident, whether it is a major or just a minor one, expect that a personal injury can be just around the corner. The accident that a person may be involved in would vary from a vehicular accident, a slip and fall accident, a construction site accident, an animal attack accident, a medical malpractice, a work-related accident, or a construction site accident. In any of these accidents, sustaining a personal injury is considered inevitable.
Read More..>>Identity Theft, Is There Hope For Victims?
Posted on April 21, 2008 - Filed Under Legal and Law | Leave a Comment
One of the lesser known Id theft sources comes from none other than your credit card company , and to make matters worse Visa fines processing companies for breaches of security instead of helping them secure their data.
Most larger companies are indeed secure however a security breach can happen to even the most secure of companies, you can never be completely safe from Identity theft, and you certainly don’t want your good credit at risk.
Read More..>>Digital Millennium Copyright Act Dmca Redefined - Steps To Keep Your Content And Intellectual Proper
Posted on April 21, 2008 - Filed Under Legal and Law | Leave a Comment
As Viacom prepares to square off against Google in its lawsuit over the use of copyrighted material on YouTube, the provisions of The Digital Millennium Copyright Act [DMCA] are being widely discussed and are sure to be hotly debated. When the law was passed in 1998, Internet and technology companies got a clause inserted that relieves them of liability for being just innocent conduits.
What that really means, and how it will be applied in this watershed case, remains to be seen.
Read More..>>Drummond Coal: A Trail Of Shame From Alabama To Colombia
Posted on April 21, 2008 - Filed Under Legal and Law | Leave a Comment
Gustavo Soler, Valmore Locarno and Victor Orcasita are dead because they wanted better food and safer conditions for coal miners in Colombia. I have borrowed from numerous newspaper, wire and radio reports to write about the trail of shame that began in Alabama and ended with three dead.
Alabama-based Drummond Coal Company is in a U.S. court this week, accused of hiring paramilitaries in Colombia to kill the three union organizers at its operation in northeastern Cesar province. Drummond, a powerful utility company with enormous political clout in Alabama, is being sued by the families of the men slain near Drummond’s La Loma mines.
Read More..>>Publish Your Patent Application? … Or Not
Posted on April 21, 2008 - Filed Under Legal and Law | Leave a Comment
Infringement and Provisional Damages
There is no action for infringement of your patent until it actually issues. However, through publication of your application, it may be possible to obtain provisional damages for the time between publication of the application and the issuance of the patent. Once your patent issues, infringement can give rise to treble damages and an award of attorney fees. During the phase from publication to issuance, only reasonable royalty damages can be awarded. Furthermore, a claim must survive and be substantially identical from publication to the issued patent.
Read More..>>Trademark Renewal & Maintenance – How Do I Keep My Trademark?
Posted on April 20, 2008 - Filed Under Legal and Law | Leave a Comment
After you’ve applied for your trademark, there will be a waiting period of approximately 18 months before your name is actually registered with the United States Patent & Trademark Office (herein referred to as the USPTO). Until then, it will be listed as “Pending.” Sometimes there are hold-ups; the USPTO may not allow you to use the name you’ve chosen to apply for because there is a similar name already trademarked. In this case, you will receive an “office action”, which is a notification from the USPTO. If you do receive an office action, it might be due to the USPTO simply needing more information in order to complete your trademark application. However, it also may be because your name is blocked by another name, which is the worst case scenario, and another reason why it is incredibly important to purchase comprehensive research before you file for your name!
Read More..>>After Ksr - Stronger Patents Or Just Harder To Get?
Posted on April 20, 2008 - Filed Under Legal and Law | Leave a Comment
A recent United States Supreme Court ruling is causing quite a stir in intellectual property circles. The case is KSR Int’l Co. v. Teleflex Inc., et al., 127 S. Ct. 1727 (2007).
Background
To obtain a patent, the invention must be useful, novel and non-obvious. See Patents. The first of these, utility, is present for nearly every invention. The second, novelty, generally requires that the invention claimed is not disclosed in full in a single reference (patents, published applications or any published document anywhere in the World), and the third, non-obviousness, generally requires that the invention as claimed is not fully disclosed in a combination of references. Previously, to reject a patent for obviousness though a combination of references required some suggestion or motivation in the references themselves (excluding the subject patent application) that would lead one skilled in the pertinent art to make the combination of their teachings.
Read More..>>Trademark - Answers You Want To Know
Posted on April 20, 2008 - Filed Under Legal and Law | Leave a Comment
A trademark refers to the protection provided by the law for any word, name, symbol or device that is original and new. There are several types of protective marks you can apply for and each one covers its own specific area for protection.
A trademark is the mark used to communicate that the product is both protected under trademark law and is the property of the mark owner. An example of a trademark would be the M symbol used for McDonald’s products: Anything produced by them would display the symbol of protection and ownership which consumers now recognize across the globe.
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