By: Benjamin D. Bucinell In 1718 Black Beard’s ship, Queen Ann’s Revenge, ran aground and sank about a mile of the shore of North Carolina. Black Beard’s ship belonged to North Carolina, but the videos and images of its recovery efforts were the intellectual property of Frederick Allen, who registered copyrights in all his works….
By: Lloyd J. Wilson There are many reasons you may choose to start your own business, with one of those reasons being that you believe the businesses will be financially successful. Patents may be key to helping you achieve your financial goals, but understanding whether to get a patent, how to get a patent, and…
By: Benjamin D. Bucinell Google v. Oracle, currently pending before the US Supreme Court, has the potential to provide one of the most significant copyright decisions from SCOTUS involving the tech industry. Application Programing Interfaces (APIs) are an important tool, widely utilized in interoperability between platforms. The tech and software industry has assumed that APIs…
By: Stephen P. Scuderi Jack Daniel’s iconic bottle design is an example of a famous trade dress, which is registered as a trademark. In order to maintain the value of its trademark, Jack Daniel’s has aggressively and successfully policed its trade dress design against several competitive distilleries. However, Jack Daniel’s may have bitten off more…
By: Alana M. Fuierer, Esq. A trademark (or service mark) is a business asset akin to other forms of intellectual property (e.g. patents, copyrights) and tangible business assets. And, yes, it is true that, just like other tangible or intangible business assets, trademarks frequently are bought, sold, transferred, licensed, and even used as security interest. …
Albany, NY: Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti is proud to announce Partner David P. Miranda is a winner of the Fastcase 50 Award honoring innovators, visionaries, and leaders in law. Fastcase, a legal publisher, recognizes the most fascinating trailblazers and architects of the future of law and legal technology. The award recognizes pioneering people who…
This year Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti P.C. celebrates its 50th Anniversary. The firm, based in Albany and Rochester, is proud to have earned the confidence of our clients over five decades by providing knowledgeable legal advice and exceptional service. Having grown to nearly 30 attorneys and patent agents and more than 70 employees, the…
By: Kristian E. Ziegler A patent confers the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale or selling an invention, as recited in the claims of the patent, within the jurisdiction or from importing the invention into the jurisdiction in which the patent is obtained. When most people think of patent protection, they…
By: Thomas L. Sica On June 30, 2020, the Supreme Court issued an opinion in the case of USPTO v. Booking.com B.V. The Court held that trademarks that combine a generic word or phrase with “.com” are not automatically considered to be generic. This decision will open the doors for many website owners to register…
By: Amanda Keys The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has made provisions and extended deadlines for responding to certain matters in light of the hardships created by the COVID–19 outbreak and has also created programs intended to spur innovation in the fight against COVID–19. Under section 12004 of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and…