INNOVATIVE PATENT & INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ATTORNEYS
How to protect your business with a trademark
If you are a business owner, you must protect your company’s assets. This includes your logo, slogan and name. One way to do this is by trademarking the name of your company or product. A trademark will not only help protect what belongs to you but it will also...
Patent searches: what you need to know
When you are trying to develop an idea for your next invention or product, it is essential to ensure that someone else has not already patented it. Inventors are granted proprietary rights through patents. Therefore, a patent search is a process of looking for...
What are the differences between common law trademarks and registered trademarks?
We all know trademarks are used by businesses to protect wording or imagery that pertains to their brand. There are different degrees of trademarks, however, that are obtained in different ways. If you’ve ever seen that little “TM” next to a logo,...
Can I lose the rights to my invention?
Under United States law, patents protect an inventor’s rights to their work. It is prudent for inventors to patent inventions as soon as possible. Inventors have a finite amount of time with which they can lawfully retain their patent rights. The revoking of...
Recognizing you’ve got a patentable idea
At their core, engineers are problem-solvers. Sometimes this may involve reusing an existing tool in a new way. Sometimes it means modifying a tool to do something a little different. If the new use meets a few requirements, engineers or their employers can file for...
Understanding trade secrets and confidential information
Many small firms in Minnesota have information that they want to shield from the prying eyes of their competitors. Minnesota has two categories of protectable information: trade secrets and confidential information. Understanding the difference can be the key to...
What are the benefits of registering a trademark?
There are a variety of different potential benefits of a trademark to be familiar with when considering whether or not to get one. Trademarks are brand names or designs which are used in connection with products or services to help identify them. Benefits of...
Getting patents for life sciences is becoming more complicated
For U.S. patent law, if one sought a life science patent, there was a quid pro quo arraignment. Essentially, in exchange for disclosing the “secret sauce,” the inventor of the life science breakthrough received a limited monopoly on that breakthrough,...
Court of Appeals: Former employees infringed on former employer’s patents
As regular readers of our Minneapolis Intellectual Property Blog know, it is not uncommon for companies that hold patents to clash with former employees over patent rights and allegations of patent infringement. Though most employers require new hires to sign...
Allegations of cultural appropriation trademark shows perils
As readers of this blog know, trademark issues are complicated. However, one thing that many may not realize is that choosing what and if to trademark something can also be a complicated question because just because a company can trademark something, does not mean...