Gov. Peter Shumlin has signed a bill that will make the practice of patent trolling punishable under Vermont law as an act of bad faith. The legal approach was developed by DRM attorneys Peter Kunin and Eric Poehlmann.
The Vermont House and Senate have approved a first-in-the-nation bill that provides a legal tool for Vermont companies who face extortionate claims of patent infringement from “patent trolls.” DRM lawyers Peter Kunin and Eric Poehlmann were instrumental in developing the legal approach that is codified in the new legislation.
Patent Attorney Kevin C. McGrath and patent specialist Andrew Millikin have joined the Intellectual Property practice at Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC.
Patent attorney Thomas D. Kohler, in collaboration with CITEC Business Solutions, will provide a workshop on patent basics and intellectual property strategy for new product ideas on October 29 and 30, 2012 in Potsdam and Watertown, N.Y. The workshop is designed to assist North Country business leaders in developing skills that are essential in today’s dynamic economic environment.
(Plattsburgh) Lawrence H. Meier and Thomas D. Kohler, veteran intellectual property attorneys with the law firm Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC, will team up with the North Country Chamber of Commerce to provide an introduction to intellectual property strategy and to discuss how businesses use trademarks to protect their valuable brands in a seminar on Thursday, June 14 from 8:00 – 10:00 a.m. at the Chamber.
(Burlington) The Intellectual Property Law Group at Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC has launched a blog, The IP Stone: Deciphering Intellectual Property Law for Business, to address practical business questions and engage readers in conversations related to patents, trademarks, trade secrets and other forms of intellectual property rights.
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This webinar focuses on basic principles and current issues involving domain name, keyword and other trademark violations and how they can be enforced in the online context, including cybersquatting and typosquatting, the ICANN Uniform Dispute Resolution Procedure, the Federal Anti-Cybersquatting Protection Act and the new Generic Top Level (gTLD) Domain Name program.
(Palo Alto, Calif.) Attorney Thomas D. Kohler, an intellectual property attorney and director of the law firm Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC in Burlington, Vt., will present Protecting Product Configurations: Trademark vs. Design Patent at a meeting of the Bay Area Inhouse MedTech Attorneys in Palo Alto on February 3.
Patents and trade secrets are used by businesses to protect technology and other essential business information needed to achieve or maintain a competitive advantage. Whether, when and/or how each may be used most effectively to support business objectives will be covered in a seminar to be presented on Thursday, January 19, 2012 from 8:00-10:30 a.m. by attorneys from Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC and hosted at the North Country Chamber of Commerce in Plattsburgh, N.Y.
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This webinar provides a lively and interesting look at well known products, whether they are protected as trademarks or through design patents, and what should be considered when making this important decision. Is it best to register the shape of a product as a trademark, or would a design patent have more advantages? What are the minimum design characteristics that would qualify for either type of protection? If a design patent expires, is it possible to then register the product design as a trademark and continue the protection?
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On Friday, September 16, President Obama signed into law the most significant overhaul of U.S. patent law since the current statute was enacted in 1952. The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA), passed by the Senate on September 8 after years of debate, touches on virtually every aspect of patent law. In this presentation, veteran patent attorney Lawrence Meier discusses the most significant areas of change, including “first-to-file,” “prior use” defense, provisions on patent marking, post-grant review procedures and invention assignment rules.
(BURLINGTON) Last week, President Obama signed into law the most significant overhaul of the U.S. patent statute in nearly 60 years. To assist businesses in understanding the broad scope and key changes in the law, veteran patent attorney Lawrence H. Meier will present “The America Invents Act: How Patent Reform Affects Your Business” on Thursday, September 29 at 8 a.m. The presentation will be offered to invited guests in Downs Rachlin Martin’s Burlington, Vt., office and will also be broadcast via webinar to all who wish to attend.
Attorney Lawrence H. Meier, a director and chair of the intellectual Property Law Group at Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC in Burlington will join Todd S. Keiller, director, U VM Ventures and Office of Technology Commercialization and Mark Allegretta, president and chief scientific officer of BioMosaics, Inc., to discuss how the patent law changes under consideration will affect Vermont bioscience and software technology companies.
A trademark or “mark” is the legal term for a brand name. Trademarks identify a company’s products or services and distinguish them from products and services provided by other companies. Many things can serve as trademarks, including words, slogans, symbols, designs, product shapes, and product packaging. Even smell, sound and color can be protected as trademarks. The traditional definition of a “trademark” applied only to marks used to identify goods (and not services). Increasingly, however, the word “trademark” is used to describe service marks as well. A service mark is a mark used to identify services. The legal rules applicable to service marks and trademarks are the same.
Although a patent is often thought of as the physical document that illustrates and describes an invention, a patent is actually a grant from the U.S. government of the right to exclude others for a limited period of time from “practicing” the invention “claimed” in the physical document. The power of the U.S. government to grant these patent rights flows from the U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8. In the U.S., there are three types of patents – utility, design and plant. The utility patent is by far the most common type of patent granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. An application for a utility patent is a complex document that seeks to provide the inventor the broadest scope of legal protection possible.
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Have you identified your company’s valuable “trade secrets” and taken steps to insure that they are protected? How do you identify what is a trade secret? Which laws protect trade secrets? What constitutes “misappropriation”? What defenses are available to a person or company accused of trade secret misappropriation? How are trade secrets litigated and damages calculated? Experienced litigator Walter Judge addresses these questions and questions from the audience in this valuable one-hour, recorded webinar.
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In this introductory session for established brand owners and new businesses seeking to create valuable brands, Peter Kunin discusses strategies for avoiding trademark disputes, how to use the federal trademark registration system to protect your brand, legal issues to consider when selecting a new brand and how to get the biggest bang for your legal buck.
Originally published in the March 7 edition of Bloomberg Law Reports and reprinted here with permission, “History Sniffing” was written by DRM attorneys Matthew S. Borick and Walter E. Judge Jr. The article reviews recent legal developments related to the practice of displaying hidden JavaScript links to web addresses to track a visitor’s browsing history. Borick and Judge represent business clients in commercial and intellectual property litigation matters, including copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, computer crimes and cyberlaw.
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Comprehensive general liability insurance policies purchased years ago and/or third-party policies may provide coverage not only for liability exposure resulting from intellectual property infringement claims, but also for defense costs.
(BURLINGTON) Four attorneys have joined the northern New England law firm of Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC as associates. Attorneys Cathleen E. Stadecker and Paul A. Smith have joined the Intellectual Property Practice Group and are based in Burlington; Lisa Fearon has joined the Regulated Entities Group and will practice in the firm’s St. Johnsbury, Vt. and Lebanon, N. H. offices; and Drew Kervick has joined the Business Law Group and is based in the firm’s Burlington Office.
