Tag: patents

What are the Benefits of Patent Pending Status?

Written by JGPC Business Law on April 24, 2017.

It is well-known that patents can provide useful protection to a California business’s ideas and inventions. Even if you or another business owner are not completely clear on what specific protections and remedies are available to you as the holder of a patent, you generally know that a patent protects you from competitors or others who attempt to steal your ideas or inventions for their own gain. Less known, however, is whether “patent pending” status holds any benefit to a business owner in...

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Is That a Patent, Trademark or Copyright?

Written by JGPC Business Law on February 23, 2017.

Gerald R. Prettyman, J.D., LL.M. If you wouldn’t know a patent if one bit you[1], you are not alone. Most of the public doesn’t know the difference, and there are lawyers who are uncertain of the differences. Today, though, you are lucky enough to have this article in front of you to learn the difference. Bear in mind, however, this is just an overview. If you want to know more, refer to the footnotes. Patents First – a patent provides a patent owner with the exclusive right to exclude...

Patent Ownership is Not Based on The Date of Postmark

Written by JGPC Business Law on January 20, 2017.

The Postmark Is Dead No, this article is not about the Post Office. Rather, this article is about inventors needing to file a patent application to protect an idea. The title refers to the notion that a person could prove inventorship and a date of invention by documenting the idea and sending the document through the Postal Service with the postmark as proof of the date of invention. The Patent Office hasn’t publicized whether a postmark proof ever worked, but between 2000 and 2010, only one...