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• Correct Inventorship Prevents Patent Application Headaches ( October 2004 )
  

  Although companies race to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to build their patent portfolios, technically, a company is not granted a patent. In the United States, only the inventor or inventors may apply for a patent for their invention.

• Offering to Sell Your "Sliced Bread": A Potential Bar to Patentability ( September 2004 )
  

  I've worked with a lot of inventors, ranging from sophisticated universities to guys who just like to tinker with stuff in their garage. In nearly every case, the inventor considers his or her invention to be the greatest thing since sliced bread. Naturally, before filing a patent application, the inventor will often try to generate commercial interest in the invention.

• Publishing: How Your Patent Rights Could Perish ( September 2004 )
  

  Traditionally, the old adage "publish or perish" has governed a person's success in academia. Nowadays, most colleges have a new mantra when scientific inventions are involved. As universities continue to partner with businesses to commercialize their discoveries by patenting them, the new academic motto is perhaps "publish <i>and</i> perish." Under the Patent Act, an invention described in a "printed publication" more than <i>one year</i> before the filing date of a patent application will bar a patent on the invention.

• Inherency In The Prior Art; The Rules Are Becoming Clearer ( June 2004 )
  

  When is your invention "known" from a prior art reference thus rendering your invention unpatentable? If a prior art reference teaches your invention but does not explicitly recite each and every element, must the presence of the unrecited element, the inherent element, be apparent from reading the reference?

• Patent Trends in Nanotechnology ( November 2003 )
  

  The publication of patent applications by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) provides a means of following new developments in a field of interest. One such field of interest is nanotechnology, and reviewing some of the published applications in this field gives some insight into opportunities for further exploration and future patent protection.

• Inter Partes Reexamination Starting In 2003--A Potentially Useful Approach To Challenging Invalid Biotechnology Patents ( July 2003 )
  

  Patents form the foundation of most biotechnology companies and are crucial for their economic growth and advancement. However, an up-and-coming company may well come across competitors' patents that could block its future progress. Such blocking patents can cover the exact technology sought to be marketed by the company, or merely block an important subset of its activities. Either way, such patents can cause tremendous problems for a young biotech company at a time when it does not have much money, and additional financing is hard to come by.

• Watch Out for Statutory Bars - Don't Lose Your Patent Rights Before You Even File the Application ( October 2003 )
  

  Many people are aware of the need to keep patentable inventions secret. However, few people other than patent lawyers understand the reasons for the secrecy or are familiar with all of the actions that can cause an inventor to unintentionally lose the right to obtain a patent. As a result, some inventors unknowingly engage in behaviors that impair their patent rights.

• Cost-Effective Patenting ( October 2003 )
  

  Ever hear your patent attorney talk about cost-effectiveness? Not likely. Cost effectiveness is great for the clients, but not so good for the bottom line of a law office. The stakes are enormous. You probably noticed that the cost of protecting intellectual property has risen dramatically in the last several years.