Attorney and Mediator Steve Costello

02/07/2025

This week on IPWatchdog Unleashed I speak with my long-time friend, John White. Many in the patent community no doubt already know John quite well. Over 30 years ago he created the PLI Patent Bar Review Course that upwards of 40,000 patent practitioners have successfully used to study for the Patent...

05/15/2023

There is little doubt that the way patent rights are viewed and protected has transformed over the last 15 to 17 years. The patent system our government has enabled over that timeframe incentivizes stealing patent rights rather than engaging in an arm’s length negotiation.

05/15/2023

The time frame of a person's death determines what law we need to apply. Your father died in the 1970's either without a Will or no action w

05/15/2023

Partition is a statutory process under the Texas Property Code which facilitates the division or sale of real property among joint owners. The situation commonly arises when two or more people inherit undivided interests in real property. Under Texas law, joint owners will not be forced to maintain common ownership of real property unless by agreement. Any owner of an undivided interest in real property may compel a partition in kind or a partition by sale.

"Partition" is the legal term referring to division of real property among joint owners. It may be voluntary, by agreement or partition deed, but that is easy to accomplish

10/19/2022

The CDC is voting to make experimental mRNA vaccines for COVID-19 mandatory for children to attend public school. You can submit your comments on this proposal to https://www.regulations.gov. Written comments must be received on or before October 20, 2022. Comments must refer to Docket No. CDC-2022-0111.

I believe that attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr., son of the late Senator Robert Kennedy and the nephew of President John F. Kennedy, explains the situation well:

"If you want to know why [there is] such a strong, fierce drive to vaccinate children, you have to understand how the law works. Under the CARES Act and the PREP Act, emergency use authorization vaccines are protected from liability. So as long as it’s an EUA vaccine, you can’t sue them, no matter how reckless their conduct, no matter how grievous your injury, no matter how negligent they are, you cannot sue them.

"Once it becomes an approved vaccine, that shield – that freedom from immunity disappears, and we will be able to sue them — unless it’s a recommended vaccine for children. Because under the childhood vaccine act, any vaccine that is recommended for children automatically receives immunity from liability even when that vaccine is given to an adult.

"So [drug companies] know that [they] cannot afford to give an approved vaccine to any American because attorneys like me will sue them and bankrupt them overnight. We will make them pay for the entire pandemic. But if they can get it approved for children, then they’ll get immunity from liability, and they will not have to deal with the consequences of their behavior."

07/31/2021

This is happening all over Texas. Have an attorney review your real estate contract before you sign. Many builders do not use TREC forms. Don’t sign a contract that makes it easy for a builder to “terminate for convenience.”

Central Texas homebuyers are warning others after their dream home contracts were abruptly canceled. KXAN investigated and found home builders can have a termination clause in their contracts that …

05/10/2021

“Stand by the things you believe in. Even if you stand there alone.” Sophie Scholl, 1921-1943.

Heute hätte die Widerstandskämpferin Sophie Scholl ihren 100. Geburtstag gefeiert. Wer mehr über sie wissen möchte: Auf dem Instagram-Kanal "" werden ihre letzten Lebensmonate erzählt.

02/11/2021

Last year I assisted a professional photographer based in Milwaukee whose work had been infringed by another photographer in Houston. The infringing photographer (in Houston) had literally downloaded a photograph from our client's website, uploaded it to her own website, and passed it off as her own, representing to potential clients that it was her own work. Fortunately, our client had already registered this photograph with the Copyright Office at https://www.copyright.gov. There are several legal benefits to copyright registration. Registration creates a public record and prima facie evidence that you are the copyright owner, whether your works are photographs, art, music, or literary works (cookbooks, user manuals, etc.). Registration creates a legal presumption of ownership. Probably the most valuable benefit to copyright registration is that when a copyright is registered prior to infringement, a copyright owner becomes eligible for statutory damages, attorney's fees, and costs of court. In our client's case, we sent a demand letter to the Houston photographer, advising her that if she did not remove our client's photograph from her website, we would seek an injunction (forcing her to remove the photograph) and an award for both statutory damages and our client's attorney's fees. Statutory damages can be a powerful disincentive to copyright infringement, because a court can award statutory damages of up to $150,000 per work if the Court finds the infringement to be done willfully.

Thanks to Markus Winkler at Unsplash for the photo below.

02/11/2021

Photographers: The Copyright Office has a great DIY tutorial for registering up to 750 unpublished photographs for the same fee: https://stream-media.loc.gov/copyright/gruph.mp4. There are similar DIY tutorials for registration of music, literary works (e.g., fiction, cookbooks, manuals, etc.), art, computer programs, websites, etc. at http://copyright.gov.

Copyright Office Homepage

01/03/2021

Everyone should have a medical power of attorney and an advanced directive to physicians.

Proper legal advance directives are the key to controlling your medical destiny. Texas law still outlaws death with dignity (which nine othe

12/21/2020

There are three types of U.S. patents--utility, design, and plant patents. (When most people talk about patents, they're referring to utility patents). Design patents cover "the new, original and ornamental design for an article of manufacture." If a building, lamp, or clock has a truly unique shape or appearance, its design could potentially be patented. The design must be different from an object in its natural state. Therefore, as author and attorney David Pressman points out, the image of a man would not be patentable; but, if the man is in an unnatural position, this could be the subject of a design patent. See, for example, U.S. Patent No. D440,263 below.