Blog

Act now to ensure your company’s sensitive information never gets compromised.

By Kurt Leyendecker

In the world of intellectual property law, trade secrets have always been the issue that gets stacked behind patents, copyrights and trademarks. Transactional intellectual property lawyers don’t know quite what to make of trade secrets or, perhaps more precisely, don’t know how to […]

Consider the case of PepsiCo and #GetNaked

By Peter Lemire

I recently read an article regarding the rise in trademark filings for hashtags. According to the article, 1,398 were filed worldwide last year; the figure for the U.S. was around 500 — a drop in the bucket among millions of trademarks filed worldwide every year.

However, the increase […]

Nobody expects it — until it’s too late

By Kurt Leyendecker

“Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!” If you’re old enough, this phrase invokes a classic Monty Python skit starring a trio of bumbling 15th century cardinals who burst onto the scene. Perhaps you’re wondering why the Spanish Inquisition is making an appearance in a column about intellectual […]

Well, it’s kinda like removing your own appendix

By Kurt Leyendecker

We often receive inquiries at our firm from people wondering whether they can prepare and file either a trademark application or patent application themselves without an attorney. Of course, for purely selfish reasons as an attorney, I am not thrilled about losing potential revenue, but […]

Things have changed recently

By Kurt Leyendecker

Over the years, I have written a significant amount concerning patent strategy and patent procedure aimed at entrepreneurial companies and individuals, and most of the information was available on my firm’s website.  The firm recently unveiled a new modern and streamlined website.   Much of the old content was removed with […]

What businesses need to know before sending takedown notices

By Peter Lemire

A while back, the 9^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision in what has come to be known as the “Dancing Baby Case”. Every business needs to know about it before sending Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notices to Web hosts and other […]

Where would Amazon be if it had been called “An Online Bookstore”?

By Kurt Leyendecker

Driving into the office recently, I heard a commercial for a local small business broadcast over the radio.  A well-known local radio personality and pitchman explained the business was changing its name to one that better reflected the fact that the business […]