By his signature on September 19, 2011, President Obama enacted the most sweeping changes to U.S. patent Law in over fifty years.  The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (“the Act”) changes many aspects of U.S. Patent law that will impact inventors, patent owners and patent attorneys.  A brief summary of some of the most important [...]

MKG was chosen to be profiled in the July 27th edition of the Hartford Advocate’s “Best of 2011” profile series.  Check out the link or pick up your copy of the Hartford Advocate on newsstands now!   http://www.proactiveresources.com/Media/BestofHartford_072711.htm  

Last fall, the USPTO announced a goal of reducing the amount of patent applications awaiting a first office action.  The goal was to reduce the backlog to less than 700,000 applications.  Last week, USPTO Commissioner for Patents, Bob Stoll, the USPTO has hit a “major milestone” by dropping the backlog of patent applications awaiting first office action [...]

According to reports in IPLaw 360, Women’s Wear Daily and The Washington Post, a New York Federal court has awarded Tory Burch LLC, the high end fashion designer, the largest judgment for fashion counterfeiting: $164 million.  According to IPLaw 360, the damages were awarded “after finding that operators of hundreds of websites sold knock-off versions [...]

Last month, the USPTO announced it would be studying the impact that the decision of Therasense v. Becton, Dickinson would have on the agency and its practices and procedures. You can find the press release here. The Therasense v. Becton, Dickinson Decision concerns the duty of disclosure and the standards for inequitable conduct. The decision [...]

Coach Inc., the famous maker of high end handbags and accessories has recently filed a lawsuit in Federal Court against Handbags Unlimited, Inc., for trademark infringement and related causes of action.  Coach Inc. has over 50 U.S. trademark and copyright registrations.  In the Complaint, Coach alleges that Handbags Unlimited is engaged in designing, manufacturing, advertising [...]

In what appears to be the neverending saga of the Winklevoss twins vs. Facebook, Fox News is reporting that the twins will be asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their case against the popular social networking website.  Since the twins lost their latest appeal, the Supreme Court is their last legal option and last hope in succeeding [...]

As you may recall a number of years ago Mattel sued MGA Entertainment claiming MGA stole its trade secrets when it entered into an agreement with Carter Bryant, the designer of the Bratz doll.  If you are not familiar with the Bratz, they are dolls who are portrayed as teenagers and are distinguished by large [...]

The Director of the USPTO announced last week that the budget for fiscal year 2011 will result in the postponement of several newly announced USPTO initiatives.  The first initiative to be postponsed, effective immediately, is the opening of the satellite office in Detroit.  The second initiative to be postponed is Track One of the Three-Track program.  Track [...]

As reported in our blog of April 12th the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss’s claim that Mark Zuckerburg stole their idea for Facebook® and then misrepresented the value of the Facebook stock during negotiations for a settlement agreement between the parties.  In the case the Appeals Court ruled [...]