There are two ways to protect recipes: Patents and Trade Secrets.

Recipes can be patented, and the strength of the patent will depend on the novelty of the invention. I don't have a lot of info about your recipes, but my general inclination is that patenting is not the best means for... View More

There are many options for selling and licensing patents. Although I do not have much information about your patent or the related product, it sounds as though this is an area of technology in which I would approach potential companies directly to work out a purchase or licensing agreement. The... View More

There are many important facts to this case that are not included in the question that a patent lawyer would want to ask, for example:

What patent specifically (patent number and expiration?)

Facts specific to your design and disclosure of said design, like did you ever market or... View More

Trademarks are specific to the type of goods being sold. If your company would not produce competing products with the existing mark, then you probably would not infringe their mark, and registration of your trademark may be possible. I would suggest contacting a trademark lawyer for a free initial... View More

There are absolutely legal steps you can take. Filing for patent if you are not the true inventor is generally a wasted effort. It is not difficult to render such a patent unenforceable. There are many possible courses of action. One example would be to attempt to convince your ex-husband that it... View More

This would be a copyright issue. The case is also fact-specific, meaning that without more information, it will be tough to speculate about whether infringement is likely. If you would like to assert a copyright, you will need to register it. Copyright registration is straightforward, and can... View More

Trademarks are specific to product/service type and location. You establish the type of product/service by sales or by choosing the type during registration. You establish location either by sales or by registering in a given state or country. You would infringe Apple's trademark by using the... View More

Trademark infringement is determined by the "likelihood of confusion" test. This test inquires whether a reasonable consumer is likely to be confused about the provenance of a given product or service. It seems there is a good chance that consumers would be confused about whether the... View More

There are two areas of IP that are relevant: trademark and patent. Trademark would apply if you are attempting to "pass off" the product as Apple's. The question is whether a reasonable consumer would be likely to be confused about the provenance of the product. If the source of the... View More

Unless you choose to handle this yourself, you will need a lawyer to handle the prosecution of your trademark application. Application prosecution is the process of responding to objections and rejections by the trademark office. A non-final action means that there is something about the... View More

There are two important relevant pieces of law here. First, you are able to patent an improvement on an existing patent. There is no need to ask permission of the underlying patent-holder to file for that patent. Second, a patent merely grants the right to exclude others from making, using,... View More

The test for infringement under Trademark Law looks at the likelihood of confusion for an ordinary consumer. You would ask whether an ordinary consumer is likely to be confused over the provenance of a product or service. Trademarks are product-specific, which is why there can be a Klein Honda as... View More

The key question in trademark law is whether there is a likelihood that a consumer would be confused about the source of the jersey. There are a bunch of parts of a jersey that might indicate its provenance, including the design, the team name, any logos, team colors, etcetera that could all be... View More

A land patent is the highest proof of title over land. It is extremely authoritative. With that said, the laws of the jurisdiction will dictate your ability to use and develop the property. Ownership is only a piece of the puzzle. Your rights to improve the property are still subject to Oregon law.

Original code is protectable by copyright. The protection would be extremely limited, however. Copyright would not protect the function of the code, only the actual written expression. It is unlikely it would be worth pursuing.

The platform itself might be patentable. This is a question... View More

I agree with Peter's answer to this one. I would like to add one important element that is often overlooked when considering the first-to-file question. Patents may or may not claim exactly the same thing. There is a huge amount of case law that informs patent lawyers on whether two inventions... View More

The answer depends on your level of risk aversion. The safest route will be to have an attorney render a Freedom to Operate Opinion. A lawyer would do a thorough patent search to determine whether your method or end product infringe on any patents. Another approach would be to begin using your... View More

The quick answer is that a bread maker that makes loaves of bread in the shape of the US is patentable subject matter. Unfortunately, the short answer is not very informative because what you really need to know is whether the invention is also both novel and nonobvious. This is where a patent... View More

Unfortunately, your intellectual property rights vest when the patent issues. Filing an application establishes the date from which you own intellectual property if it eventually vests, but unless the patent issues, you will never establish ownership over the invention. The invention is now in the... View More