Not to speak with an IP attorney, and for at least the reasons stated below, most attorneys won't sign a "confidentiality agreement" with a prospective client as it's unnecessary and not required and would be highly unusual.

IP attorneys, like all attorneys, are... View More

In the near term, a provisional or utility patent application might be worth considering, keeping in mind that the U.S. is now a "first inventor to file" system (time is not on the inventor's side like it once was). Whether the device, the drug, or a combination of the device and... View More

No, a "4 million series" patent would be from the 1980s and probably expired years ago. Setting aside continuation applications and other theoretical considerations, U.S. Pat. No. 4728812 likely expired in the early to mid 2000's, assuming that its "maintenance fees" were... View More

A federal trademark application will be rejected for a business name standing alone (see TMEP 1202.01). A federal trademark/service mark registration must be directed to a mark that is used with some underlying goods/services (or is intended to be used with goods/services). It sounds as if a... View More

Nothing HAS to be patented. But any "new, useful, and nonobvious" machine, article of manufacture, process, composition of matter, or improvement on those things may be eligible for a "utility patent." While a utility patent protects the way an article is used and works (35... View More

The questions are very fact specific, so an IP attorney should be consulted for legal advice.

Generally speaking, it's not uncommon to confuse or conflate copyright "Fair Use" and trademark "Fair Use" and to misunderstand the role and limits of "Fair... View More

A trademark might still be in use under "common law" even if the associate federal registration has been abandoned and listed as dead. It's even possible that the registration was unintentionally abandoned and if not too much time has passed, the owner could petition to revive the... View More

Usually, unless an employee (of an employer) or a contractor (of a client) invents something or creates a copyrightable work FOR the employer/client as an express part or condition of the person's employment or as a "work for hire," the invention/work would belong to the... View More

Yes, possibly. If there's likelihood of confusion (LoC); i.e., trademark infringement, then the mark owner has various options to stop the infringement. Options might range from a demand letter to a Domain Dispute action to a federal lawsuit.

But there are a number of factors that... View More

Depending on whether it is an application or registration, different petitions to revive might be an option, particularly if the abandonment was related in some way to the COVID-19 pandemic.

No, standing alone "naturally occurring phenomena" are not patent eligible.

35 USC 101 dictates that Processes, Machines, Articles of Manufacture, or Compositions of Matter are eligible for patenting (ultimately, the subject matter also has to be new, useful, and not obvious to... View More

I agree with my colleagues Mr. Billick and Ms. Suero. I would only add - because you state that you "want to print shirts with a certain word on it" - that if the "word" is "common," is being used in a decorative or ornamental sense and not in a trademark sense, then... View More

Probably a relative of the inventor.

USPTO records don't appear to show that the inventor assigned the patent to anyone, so presumably it remained the inventor's property and passed to his estate upon death. Assuming that the inventor left a will, the patent - like other property... View More

Your question doesn't mention a patent number, but U.S. patents typically show "Attorney, Agent, or Firm" on the front page of each patent. Depending on how the attorney or firm fills out the issue fee paperwork, a U.S. patent might list only the firm name, or only the attorney, or... View More

As my colleague Mr. Vondran notes, filing a U.S. copyright application is a relatively inexpensive way to protect your music. More particularly, YouTube's internal strike/take down procedures are only applicable to other YouTube channels. To assert your copyright against infringers on other... View More

The claims of the patent are the key - if someone contributed to an inventive concept in even one claim (typically there are about 20 claims per patent) that person is likely an inventor. Typically, contributing to an inventive concept means that the person helped solved a problem or added... View More

"Can a nondescript item be trademarked?" Trade dress is a bit different than its more common cousins, word marks (e.g., "Apple") and stylized (special form) marks (like the Nike "swoosh"), which are usually tagged or stamped on their associated products. Trade dress... View More

A petition to revive an abandoned registration might be an option, but there are time limits involved. A revival petition must be filed no later than 2 mos. after the expiration notice (so that seems to have been September based on your July date). But if the registrant didn't receive the... View More

Reverse engineering isn't unlawful per se if the subject matter in question isn't protected by copyright or a patent, or isn't trade secret theft.

To be copyright infringement, the IV/file must be copyrightable; i.e., it must be an "original work of authorship"... View More

Generally speaking, using "limited" parts of a copyrighted work is OK for criticism, commentary, teaching, etc. See 17 U.S. Code § 107. This is called "Fair Use." But Fair Use is just a defense to infringement; it can't prevent a suit. In other words, if a copyright... View More