Tocups Law Office LLC

Tocups Law Office LLC Affordable intellectual property legal services

Registration is open at the USPTO for INVENTION-CON, August 10-12 (Virtual). See alert below for details. nmt
07/16/2022

Registration is open at the USPTO for INVENTION-CON, August 10-12 (Virtual). See alert below for details. nmt

Women Entrepreneurs! USPTO is hosting a webinar on Wed. Sep. 29 from noon to 1:30 pm. Focus is Women Athletes. See at...
09/22/2021

Women Entrepreneurs! USPTO is hosting a webinar on Wed. Sep. 29 from noon to 1:30 pm. Focus is Women Athletes. See attachment for details.

USPTO is sponsoring INVENTION-CON 2021.
08/13/2021

USPTO is sponsoring INVENTION-CON 2021.

A trademark case pending before the Supreme Court was brought to my attention by Dennis Crouch's Patently-O Daily Review...
07/31/2021

A trademark case pending before the Supreme Court was brought to my attention by Dennis Crouch's Patently-O Daily Review. In this case, the subject is a PRODUCT DESIGN trademark. Did you know such birds existed? The product design is for the POCKY product marketed by Glico, a Japanese company. The product design is registered as Reg. No. 1,527,208. It describes the product as "an elongated rod comprising biscuit or the like, partially covered with chocolate." Lotte Int'l sells PEPERO original chocolate biscuit sticks. Glico sued Lotte, and lost in U.S. District Court as well as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit. Both courts found POCKY's design to be functional. As noted, the case is pending before the Supreme Court: Ezaki Glico Kabushiki Kaisha v. Lotte International America Corp., Docket No. 20-1817 (Supreme Court 2021). We will see what comes of the battles over chocolate covered bread-sticks.

The 11 millionth U.S. patent issued yesterday, May 11, 2021. It's for a medical device and owned 4C Medical Technologie...
05/12/2021

The 11 millionth U.S. patent issued yesterday, May 11, 2021. It's for a medical device and owned 4C Medical Technologies, Inc. Yes - that's a lot of patents. But I was surprised that an additional 6,560 patents yesterday as well bringing the latest US patent number to be 11,006,561. Wow.

In Australia, anybody can sell UGG boots. That's because it's a generic term for those types of boots. In the United S...
05/11/2021

In Australia, anybody can sell UGG boots. That's because it's a generic term for those types of boots. In the United States, however, you cannot. Deckers Outdoor has registered UGG (in various forms) and for various goods, but especially the UGG boots made famous by Ophrah Winfrey, as trademarks with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Recently, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a ruling made in 2019 by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois that the UGG registered trademark had been infringed by on sales by American Leather using UGG for similar boots. American Leather fought the lawsuit claiming that "ugg" was a generic term for such boots. The District Court said maybe in Australia, but not the United States. For additional information, please see https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/10/business/uggs-lawsuit-australia.html?campaign_id=57&emc=edit_ne_20210510&instance_id=30561&nl=evening-briefing®i_id=81415384&segment_id=57712&te=1&user_id=816156727790f43c6e95f27048af0293

Are you a micro-entity? If so, you may qualify for paying only ¼ as much in patent office fees as a large entity. For...
04/04/2021

Are you a micro-entity? If so, you may qualify for paying only ¼ as much in patent office fees as a large entity. For example, the USPTO filing fee for a Provisional for a "large" entity is $300 as of 4.3.2020, but only $75 for a micro-entity. There are a couple of ways to qualify for micro-entity status, but the one applicable to most people is having an annual income of less than about $180,000 (if you are close, good advice is to look up the exact amount) and NOT have more than 4 patents (or patent applications) (not including Provisionals) on file at the USPTO. Hurray!

Entrepreneurs! USPTO is offering a Trademarks Bootcamp. See attached info.
03/19/2021

Entrepreneurs! USPTO is offering a Trademarks Bootcamp. See attached info.

SQUISHMALLOWS™. Did you know these were a thing? The New York Times in its 3.17.21 email Evening Briefing reports that...
03/18/2021

SQUISHMALLOWS™. Did you know these were a thing? The New York Times in its 3.17.21 email Evening Briefing reports that SQUISHMALLOWS™ have "exploded in popularity...." What do you know of these newest collectibles? nmt

Women's Entrepreneurship Symposium sponsored by the United States Patent and Trademark Office on March 17, 2021. See c...
03/15/2021

Women's Entrepreneurship Symposium sponsored by the United States Patent and Trademark Office on March 17, 2021. See copied post.

10 million patents. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued its 10 millionth patent in June 2018. Today (March 202...
03/04/2021

10 million patents. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued its 10 millionth patent in June 2018. Today (March 2021), we are approaching close to 11 million patents issued. Wow. I don't think the Founding Fathers envisioned this many patents. Back in 1790 with the passage of the first Patent Act, the Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of War Henry Know, and Attorney General Edmund Randolph met regularly to examine patents. Imagine having to argue the patentability of your invention in front of these three?! The US Patent Office was not established until 1810. See https://10millionpatents.uspto.gov/, accessed March 3, 2021.

Today is the second day of Women's History Month, and the birth date of Karen Carpenter. She would have been 71 today. ...
03/02/2021

Today is the second day of Women's History Month, and the birth date of Karen Carpenter. She would have been 71 today. I loved her music and mourned her passing at the young age of 33. This post may seem only tangential to intellectual property, but she was a musician with a beautiful voice. I only attached the photo of Karen after checking that it was in the public domain. But here's the attribution: White House photo by Knudsen, Robert L., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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