Trade Secrets
Office Action Panic? A Simple Guide to Respond Without Losing Your Trademark
By Adams Law Office |
You have filed your trademark application, feeling excited and confident, only to receive an intimidating letter ...
Trademark or Bust: Why Delaying Brand Registration Could Cost You Thousands
By Adams Law Office |
Your brand is more than just a logo or a catchy name—it’s your business’s reputation, your ...
Distinctive Trademarks For Online Protection and Visibility
By Adams Law Office |
Understanding Trademark Distinctiveness: Why Some Marks Are Stronger Than Others When it comes to protecting your ...
USPTO Fees Will Increase on Jan 18, 2025
By Adams Law Office |
The United States Patent & Trademark Office has approved an increase in filing fees that becomes ...
Incontestable Trademarks – A Section 15 Declaration of Incontestability Protects TMs from Claims that the Mark is Merely Descriptive.
By Adams Law Office |
After five years a trademark registered with the USPTO must be renewed by filing a Section ...
Trademark Considerations When Creating a Brand Book
By Adams Law Office |
A brand book comes with several layouts and color themes. However, trademarks are specific to one ...
USPTO Rules to File Statement of Use, and When To File an “Insurance” Extension of Time
By Adams Law Office |
A Statement of Use (SOU) is required when a trademark application was originally filed as "intent ...
Identity Verification for Trademark Filings with USPTO
By Adams Law Office |
Click here for video of what is written below. The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office recently ...
Copyright Trolls Update
By Sharon Adams |
A previous article discussed how Getty Images, Inc. and other image licensing companies routinely send out ...
Design Patent for Consumer Products
By Sharon Adams |
In today’s competitive marketplace a successful business product will likely draw competition, and competitors may try ...
Trademark Basics
By Sharon Adams |
Trademarks are an important business asset. Trademarks have different aspects. A trademark can function as a ...
CA Social Purpose Corporations – Annual Shareholder Report
By Sharon Adams |
A California Social Purpose Corporation is formed pursuant to Corporations Code sections 2500 et seq. Social Purpose Corporations are ...
Patent Claim Drafting – Use of “OR”
By Sharon Adams |
It is surprising to read a Federal Circuit case on patent claim construction, delving deeply into ...
Bloggers Beware – Copyright Trolls on the Prowl
By Sharon Adams |
Certain large companies, including Getty Images , routinely send out demand letters claiming copyright infringement based ...
Social Purpose Corporation – May Consider Public Benefit In Addition to Maximizing Profit
By Sharon Adams |
Since 2012, California has created two new corporate structures: (1) the social purpose corporation; and (2) ...
Apple, Inc. and What a Company can do with $231.5 Billion Cash-on-Hand
By Sharon Adams |
People often ask about the extent of patent and trademark applications needed to protect the intellectual property ...
Tips to Selecting Proper Trademark Classification in Trademark Application
By Sharon Adams |
Every trademark application filed with the United States Patent& Trademark Office (PTO) must identify the goods ...
Damages for Infringement of Design Patents – Supreme Court Clarifies Rules in Apple v. Samsung
By Sharon Adams |
Apple Inc. is known for the number of patents it owns. Apple doesn’t just own patents, it ...
Design Patents – Year in Review
By Sharon Adams |
Companies continue to see the value of design patents. Nike, Inc. is ranked 5th in the ...
Trademark Applicants – Beware of Scams After Filing TM App
By Sharon Adams |
A trademark application filed with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office contains required information about the ...
Post America Invents Act — Inside the “On-Sale Bar” of 35 USC §102
By Sharon Adams |
The Constitutional right to obtain a patent is subject to certain limitations, including that an inventor ...
What’s In a Name? Unicorn Latte v. Unicorn Frappuccino
By Sharon Adams |
A rose by any other name is still a rose, but what about a Unicorn Latte? ...
So You Have A Phone App That You Want to Patent — Or Subject Matter Patentability
By Sharon Adams |
Subject matter patentability defines what types of inventions may receive patent protection, and favors physical objects. ...
Federally Registered Trademark Protects Brand Names
By Sharon Adams |
Many entrepreneurs and small businesses start their business by offering goods or services on the internet ...
Cannabis Trademarks In California
By Sharon Adams |
California voters approved Proposition 64, legalizing recreational marijuana use, subject to certain restrictions. It is now ...
Someone Is Using Your Brand Name! What Can Be Done?
By Sharon Adams |
Emerging businesses generally take a close look at expenditures, and may view trademark registration as a ...
Ten Million (10,000,000) Patents
By Sharon Adams |
The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) anticipates that utility patent number 10,000,000 will issue sometime ...
DESIGN PATENTS — The IP Solution for Many Small Businesses
By Sharon Adams |
By: Sharon Adams May 2014 The U. S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) commemorated the issuance ...
Patent a Recipe?
By Adams Law Office |
Recently there have been many inquires about patenting a recipe. Many of these inquires are related ...
Good News for Yoga Practitioners and Speech Advocates — Bikram not entitled to copyright his Sequence
By Sharon Adams |
On October 8, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in California affirmed a previous ruling by a federal ...
Nikola vs. Tesla – Design Patent Litigation – What Would Nikola Tesla Think?
By Sharon Adams |
Design patents can be an effective method of protecting the look of a product or brand. ...
Copyright Protection May Be Available for Professional Engineering Plans
By Sharon Adams |
Professional engineers (PEs) often work as consultants, rather than employees. If a PE is an employee, ...
Trademark Specimen of Use — Is “TM” or ® OK to use in a specimen of use?
By Sharon Adams |
It is the policy of the  U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) that trademarks may not be warehoused, ...
For Profit Corporation Means Just That — Maximizing Profits to Shareholders is Essential
By Sharon Adams |
Corporate law requires corporations to maximize profits to shareholders.  This absolute requirement may expose corporate leadership ...
Trademark Marijuana Products?
By Sharon Adams |
Products that are used to smoke marijuana received U.S. federal trademark registration in November 2018. Yet ...
It’s a Fine Line Between Hate and Love – U.S. Supreme Court on Trademarks
By Sharon Adams |
FIRST AMENDMENT PROTECTS DISPARAGING TRADEMARKS A few years back a rock band tried to trademark its ...
First Amendment Protects Trademarks That Inspire Fear
By Sharon Adams |
Mongols Nation Motorcycle Club Keeps Its Trademark The First Amendment may not come to mind when ...
Scandalous Words Can Be A Registered Trademark
By Sharon Adams |
Three In a Row for First Amendment Protection of Trademarks Trademark law prohibits registration of a scandalous or ...
Trademark Registration — Principal Register and Supplemental Register Compared
By Sharon Adams |
It often happens that a business chooses a descriptive trademark for its brand name or products. ...
Registered Trademark Needed for Benefits of Amazon Brand Registry
By Sharon Adams |
Rush to Register Trademarks Is On! More and more independent merchants are opening businesses and using ...
Bloomberg Uses NDAs – When Should A Business Have an NDA
By Sharon Adams |
Presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg was challenged over his use of Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) with women from ...
Showing Use of Trademark For Clothing
By Sharon Adams |
Every trademark application filed with the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) must show use ...
Trademark a Slogan?
By Sharon Adams |
Businesses often want to trademark a phrase or slogan that is commonly used in their business. ...