Yahoo demands Facebook license Its patents
Just as the IP Wire forewarned on February 3, one risk of IPOs is lawsuits. In the most recent case of this phenomenon, Yahoo has threatened to sue soon-to-be IPO provider Facebook over claims that the social network giant has infringed on a number of the search engine’s web technology patents. According to an email statement [...]
Good news and bad news from the USPTO
Both good and bad news is coming out of the USPTO recently. On the bad news front, patentees could face higher fees, which were proposed by the USPTO in accordance with the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act. Some design patent fee increases are fairly modest; those for design patent examination and search fees would increase by [...]
Tips to avoid trademark trouble in China and other countries
With all the trademark violations coming out of China (see IP Blog), it’s important for chief intellectual property officers to figure out how to avoid trouble in other countries if they hope to export or produce their patented products there. “What [intellectual property officers] often don’t realize though, is that trademark ownership can also influence [...]
Fish & Richardson named top U.S. IP law firm for second year in a row
Fish & Richardson has received “Tier 1″ IP rankings in every national U.S. category — Patent Prosecution, Patent Litigation, Life Sciences, and ITC — in Managing Intellectual Property (MIP) magazine’s annual ranking of the top IP law firms in the U.S., www.marketwatch.com recently reported. This is the second year in a row that Fish has [...]
Apple wants to sue bankrupt Kodak over patents
If you thought selling off your patents and filing for bankruptcy was enough to save a floundering company, think again. In the latest unexpected turn in the Kodak bankruptcy case, which the once prominent camera maker filed for on January 19 (see IP Blog), Apple Inc. last week asked a bankruptcy judge for permission to [...]
China’s trademark system a quagmire for businesses both large and small
Entering China with a trademark is no easy business, full of “murky rules and opportunistic ‘trademark squatters’”, www.reuters.com recently reported. Take it from entrepreneur Bill Walters of New Jersey who tried to enter the Chinese market in 2010, after launching his OSPOP sneakers in 2007. He found pirated copies of his shoes already there and [...]
Target, in hopes of expanding into Canada in 2013, settles name dispute with Canadian retailer
After a year-long battle over the right to use the Target name, Minnesota-based Target got Fairweather, Ltd. to settle, agreeing to stop using the Target name on its line of apparel, so that the state-side Target could expand into Canada by January 31,2013. More details on the settlement were not released. But given the powerful name [...]
How does Monte Carlo simulation analysis aid in valuing trade secrets?
Jacquelyn Dal Santo in a Willamette Management Associates Insight article outlined a hypothetical case study which assumes an analyst will value a trade secret using the discounted cash flow method. She poses the question about how to best handle the following data gaps. Bookmark on DeliciousDigg this postRecommend on Facebookshare via RedditShare with StumblersTweet about [...]
New USPTO patent regulations may foster more litigation
One of the goals of the America Invents Act (AIA) was to cut down on the number of patent litigation cases being filed. But recently released regulations by the USPTO may do just the opposite. Bookmark on DeliciousDigg this postRecommend on Facebookshare via RedditShare with StumblersTweet about itSubscribe to the comments on this post
Crocs implements licensing strategy to exploit its brand
Crocs Inc., maker of the comfortable shoes, is about to do what others with successful brands do to increase their revenues: license its brand beyond its core products. As reported recently in the Wall Street Journal and www.brandchannel.com, the company has “announced licensing agreements with several manufacturers as it . . . expand[s] its brand to [...]
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