Patent rights are property rights and pass under state laws just as any other type of rights, such as ownership of a house or a car.

You can contact a trust & estate attorney in Maryland for how the relevant laws would apply in this situation.

I hope that this helps.

Kevin E Flynn

This is a mess and will need to be sorted out by attorneys that become familiar with the actual facts. But here are some issues that you need to think about.

1) You say that you are the inventor but you listed several people on the patent as inventors. Were they co-inventors? US patent... View More

You can start looking at these but I did not see one that matched this date... View More

Your situation is serious and not one for freebie answers on a service like Justia. My only advice is that you need to consult with an attorney with relevant skills ASAP. As food for thought to help you get ready for that meeting, here are some things to think about. My suggestions are not... View More

I will defer to trademark attorneys on possible issues under trade dress.

However, if Apple has a design patent on the ornamental appearance of these earbuds, then you may be subject to suit for patent infringement.

For an introduction to patent searching --... View More

Your question did not include the patent number.

But here are some basic pointers.

1) Make sure that the patent of potential interest is still in force. It may have expired at the end of its full term. It may have lapsed early for failure to pay a maintenance fee.

2) Look... View More

I am not in favor of creating chaos in the society or endangering the existence of humanity. I hope that your description is hyperbole.

I am not clear why you would want to patent a method to create chaos or endanger the existence of humanity. Patents are used to limit use of the... View More

PATENT TERM

Patent term is more confusing than it should be. The one part that is simple, is that patent term is not a function of the technology. There is not a way for the applicant to apply to extend the patent term (unlike trademarks or copyrights). (but as noted below, there are... View More

You are going to like this answer. The patent number you provided -- 20090074331 is not an issued patent. It is a published patent application -- it shows what they hoped to patent. Per Google, this particular patent application did not result in a patent and was abandoned.... View More

As a person with curiosity, you should develop your skills using the free patent search tools. Some useful tips are in my slide set on patent searching that I provide to entrepreneurs. http://bit.ly/Patent_Searching. I hope this helps.

Kevin E Flynn

If the urinal screens are patented with a current patent, then the product should be marked with a patent number. If they did not mark the item, they may have placed the patent number on the box or shipping container. You may want to do some searching using tips in this slide set.... View More

My guess is no. However, as I do not know the details and I hate to guess about something important, I suggest that you check for issued patents for something analogous. You may find useful tips in my slide set on patent searching that will help. http://bit.ly/Patent_Searching

Remember... View More

The question as presented to the attorneys did not include a specific patent number. I am going to answer your question generally.

You can use Public PAIR to find an address for each of the inventors. https://portal.uspto.gov/pair/PublicPair The address may be a business address and... View More

Take a look at https://patents.google.com/patent/US1788410A/en?oq=US1788410A

There may be other patents in this family but this should get you started. It is hard searching back that far as many of the tools focus on just the last few decades.

I hope this helps.

Kevin E Flynn

https://patents.google.com/?q=corn&assignee=sygenta&country=US

That should narrow down the pool and ideally has what you are looking for. If not you can take a look at all assets assigned to Syngenta via the assignment database --... View More

The USPTO search tool allows you to search text in patents back to 1976. The USPTO assignment database goes back to 1980. I do not know a free tool that goes back to the 1930s.

You may want to contact a reference librarian at a college near you. You may want to start by calling the... View More

A agree that copyrights and trademarks are important but depending on the game, you may be able to obtain patent protection. See for example US Patent No. 9908033 which issued in 2018 for a variation to UNO. You can do an initial search using tools set forth in http://bit.ly/Patent_Searching.... View More

WIth respect to expiration dates for patents...

PATENT TERM

Patent term is more confusing than it should be. The one part that is simple, is that patent term is not a function of the technology. There is not a way for the applicant to apply to extend the patent term (unlike... View More

First, I believe that you mean non-expired. Valid goes to the issue of whether the USPTO made a mistake in granting the patent as one can challenge the validity of a patent even after it was issued.

WIth respect to expiration dates for patents...

PATENT TERM

Patent term is... View More

According to Wikipedia, UNO came out in 1971 and became a Mattel property in 1992. Thus, the core aspects of the game have been around for a long time and are no longer patented. (they may be subject to copyright or trademark protection).

Taking a quick look at the patent that you cite,... View More