Regarding where to start, you should contact a qualified patent attorney, who can work with you to prepare a draft application for submission to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The attorney can also help you conduct a search and review of the relevant prior art before doing so, if desired, in... Read more »

You should contact a qualified patent attorney, who can work with you to prepare a draft application for submission to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The attorney can also help you conduct a search and review of the relevant prior art before doing so, if desired, in order to help you assess... Read more »

No one can guarantee you that a company using the term "tabasco" as part of their name won't TRY to create "problems" for you. That said, it would be very difficult for any such company to prevent you from using the phrase "made with tabasco peppers," as... Read more »

You should contact a qualified patent attorney, who can work with you to prepare a draft application for submission to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The attorney can also help you conduct a search and review of the relevant prior art before doing so, if desired. Keep in mind that, if you... Read more »

It is extremely difficult to provide a dollar figure in the abstract. There is the initial cost of preparing and filing an application, which involves drafting time, illustrator expenses, and government filing fees. The cost will depend on the field and complexity of the invention, and a patent... Read more »

Whether something is novel and nonobvious depends on the specific "prior art" that already exists. It is often helpful to conduct a "patentability search" before applying for a patent. This typically will involve a search (by a professional searcher) of what publications (such... Read more »

You are probably at some risk. You could receive a rejection based on the mark you found, but this will depend on how similar the services are (additionally, in this case, the nature of the particular mark you found has several complicating factors). You could also receive a rejection for... Read more »

There are different costs involved, depending on the details. When filing a trademark application, you file in one or more “classes” (these are categories of goods/services), and the more classes, the greater the cost. There are also costs after filing of the application, which can vary... Read more »

If their trademark is registered, you can go to the USPTO’s search page here:

https://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=searchss&state=4805:woa3i2.1.1

After you run a search for the mark, click on the trademark, then click the TSDR button on the upper left. Then scroll down... Read more »

This is a difficult one. It would be tough to establish you have copyright protection in the floral arrangement itself. Theoretically, you could, but temporary articles of nature like this are always tough. You’d face several hurdles: it needs to have a threshold level of creativity (i.e.,... Read more »

This question is really to broad to answer, and depends on a lot of details. But, if you are asking about a patentable innovation, and someone else contributed to this innovation during the hackathon, then that means you likely have at least on co-inventor. In that case, no, the email would... Read more »

If you know the name of the company that you think owns the patent, you will usually be able to find a copy of it. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has a search tool for patents here:

https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/static/pages/landing.html

This tool allows you to easily... Read more »

The timeframes you’re discussing relate to copyrights, not trademarks. For a trademark, as long as the owner continues to use the name and continues to timely submit the proper renewal forms and fees, their protection does not expire.

To obtain an issued, enforceable patent, you would file a “utility” patent application. When you say ”the process 4 a patent,” are you referring to the preparation of this patent application, or the process of ultimately obtaining an issued patent (i.e., the back-and-forth with the patent... Read more »

This will depend on the details of your specific game, and it would require a professional search. When we do these, we hire a specialized searching company that performs a “clearance search” (in this case, they would search for those patents claiming a trading card game that are closest to... Read more »

If the owner of a federal trademark registration fails to submit the required paperwork/fees by a relevant deadline (including the sixth month grace period), it will go abandoned and will be considered a “dead” registration. If the registration is dead, you can file an application and obtain a... Read more »

Generally, no. When you trademark a logo, the coverage is limited to that particular design and designs that are “confusingly similar” to that design. The devil is in the details. Your trademark registration will not provide protection again “every” iteration of the character. But it will... Read more »

The details provided are a little unclear, but if you are asking whether a patent can be assigned before it is granted, the answer is yes. It is very common to assign a pending patent application before it is actually granted.

A lot more information is required to answer this question, including the status of any patents, whether your brother was an employee and the nature of that engagement, and whether there was a will. You should consult a patent attorney about the details of your case.

This will depend, in part, on how close your goods/services are to the goods/services of other companies using this term. You really should details of your case with a trademark attorney.