During my time as a patent professional, I have been able to gain a fair amount of experience conducting patent searches. Although searching through the USPTO database for a specific disclosure can be more of an art than science, I have come up with a relatively easy method that takes advantage of the USPTO’s patent… Continue reading Patent Searching Through the US Patent Classification System
Month: March 2012
How to Accelerate Examination of your Patent Application
The United States Patent Office prioritizes certain application types. The USPTO’s priorities are manifest in its “Petition to Make Special” program, which will be described in this post. The Petition to Make Special is a program that allows patent applicants to get special status and skip ahead of other applications waiting in line–the result being… Continue reading How to Accelerate Examination of your Patent Application
How Strong is Your Brand? (Fanciful Marks)
This is my final blog post in a series discussing the spectrum of distinctiveness and how the spectrum can be used to analyze the relative strength of a trademark. This post is about marks that are fanciful. I discussed the relatively weaker types of trademarks, generic marks, merely descriptive marks, suggestive marks, and arbitrary marks… Continue reading How Strong is Your Brand? (Fanciful Marks)
How Strong is Your Brand? (Arbitrary Marks)
This is my fifth blog entry in my series detailing the spectrum of distinctiveness and how the spectrum can be used to analyze the relative strength of a trademark. This post is about marks that are arbitrary. I discussed the relatively weaker types of trademarks, generic marks, merely descriptive marks, and suggestive marks, in previous… Continue reading How Strong is Your Brand? (Arbitrary Marks)
How Strong is Your Brand? (Suggestive Marks)
In a series of posts, I am discussing the spectrum of distinctiveness, which can be used to evaluate the potential strength of a mark. This post is about marks that are suggestive. I discussed the relatively weaker types of trademarks, generic marks and merely descriptive marks, in previous posts. A suggestive mark is one that… Continue reading How Strong is Your Brand? (Suggestive Marks)
How Strong is Your Brand? (Descriptive Marks)
In a series of posts, I am discussing the spectrum of distinctiveness, which can be used to evaluate the potential strength of a mark. This post is about marks that are merely descriptive. Recently, I discussed the weakest type of trademark, the generic mark. A mark is descriptive if it describes an “ingredient, quality, characteristic,… Continue reading How Strong is Your Brand? (Descriptive Marks)