From the monthly archives:

February 2009

Worthless Patents

February 25, 2009

Once you get a patent, it costs a lot to maintain it. For most categories of patentees, the maintenance fees after issuance are $980, $2,480 and $4,110 at 3.5 years, 7.5 and 11.5 years, respectively. If the fee is not paid, the patent is forfeited. Top patent blogger Dennis Crouch has an interesting set of

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The Short and Simple Story of the Credit Crisis

February 25, 2009

As I showed in an earlier post, you don’t need some Ivy League economics professor or former Federal Reserve member to explain the credit crisis. A cartoon will do. The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo. Share This:TwitterFacebookStumbleUponDiggDelicious

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Patent Case Management Judicial Guide

February 18, 2009

A number of private-practice lawyers, along with an extensive Judicial Advisory Board, have published a Patent Case Management Judicial Guide. The document is labeled “draft,” but it appears final in most respects, and is freely available for use. Perhaps the authors are using the term “draft” in the same way that Google uses the term

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The Face of Evil May Be Behind The Judge's Bench

February 13, 2009

Judge: Miss West, are you trying to show contempt for this court?’ Mae West: On the contrary, your Honor, I was doin’ my best to conceal it.’ (During a trial in which she was accused of indecency on stage) “The thing to fear is not the law, but the judge” Russian Proverb “One bad apple

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For the Want of a Nail the Kingdom was Lost – Failure to Get Clear Title to IP, Redux

February 11, 2009

In June 2007 I wrote a post discussing two cases in which clients of our firm had, before they became clients, failed to get written assignments of copyright ownership from independent contractors who wrote software for them. Without a written assignment the contractors were able to claim ownership of the works, and make life very

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How To Protect a Trade Secret (or, calling Ocean's Eleven)

February 11, 2009

Clients often ask what measures they need to take to protect their trade secrets, should it be necessary to enforce them in court and prove that they were treated as secrets. Here’s how Kentucky Fried Chicken does it, according to an AP story published today: The recipe lays out a mix of 11 herbs and

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Dispatches From an Innovation Tour of India

February 5, 2009

If you’re fascinated with India, as I am, there’s an interesting series of articles described as an “innovation tour,” of India by Vinit Nijhawan, Executive-in-Residence in the Boston University School of Management. In a series of “dispatches” Nijhawan “takes readers on a journey, from New Delhi’s teeming cell phone (and cell phone unlocking) marketplace to

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An Oral Agreement is Only as Good as the Paper It's Written On

February 2, 2009

You’ve got to wonder what Steelcraft was thinking when it decided to file a lawsuit against its former employee, James Hensel. It’s hard enough to enforce a written noncompete agreement, much less an oral agreement, but that’s what Steelcraft tried to do in this case. The absence of a written agreement didn’t deter Steelcraft, which

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