If you’ve ever overheard water-cooler banter about patents, chances are it was about utility patents, the most common kind of patent issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). A ...

What is a Utility Patent? Utility patents cover a new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter. Design patents are much more common in the fashion industry since design ...

“The tension between patents and trade dress protection is most evident when the alleged trade dress (or aspects thereof) has been disclosed in a utility patent.” Patents and trademarks protect ...

An underhanded tactic used for some time by shady Amazon sellers has been to file a bogus patent infringement claim against another seller, taking them out of action for several weeks or months while ...

“The court clearly drew the line on use of the utility patents at whether the trade dress elements were claimed in those patents or not.” On June 12, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ...

You never know when you will have an unexpected need that could be easily addressed if you just knew where to go or what to use. My curiosity has often been rewarded by walking down the aisle less ...

Patent milestone highlights a decade-long journey from early product ideas to the development of a patented adult ...

Engineers are well trained to be inventors, but most lack the legal know-how to be experts at getting patents on their inventions. Should they get a utility patent or a provisional one? How about a ...

Patents protect inventors from having their inventions copied and distributed illegally for profit. The United States Patent and Trademark Office issues patents in design, plant and utility categories ...

You've just invented the greatest product known to mankind—or at least you think so. And you know that you must quickly protect this brilliant idea with a patent because someone will surely steal it ...

I’m getting ready to teach my Fall 2021 Patent Law class, and that means doing an updated patent grant graph. This year’s version shows U.S. utility patents granted per year from 1840-2020: Data for ...