Deadlines
After May 31, relief will be available to large entities on a
case by case basis. Deadlines
between
March 27 and July 30,
2020 for restoring priority of certain
applications are extended.
Misc.
September 17, 2020.
Initial examination of applications for trademarks related to
COVID-19 products or services may be advanced in certain
circumstances.
Handwritten signatures no longer required; Patents 4 Partnership
programs has been launched, with a focus on COVID-19 related
technologies; applications for patent term extensions may be
submitted via EFS.
April 14, 2021 – The USPTO
is accepting petitions for expedited resolution of ex parte appeals
for COVID-related inventions at no cost. The program is
limited to 500 appeals and the goal is to issue a decision within
FEDLINK Awards Recognize Federal Library Community Trailblazers Details Written by IVN
Washington, DC - The Federal Library and Information Network (FEDLINK) has announced the winners of its national awards for federal librarianship, which recognize the many innovative ways that federal libraries, librarians and library technicians fulfill the information demands of the government, business and scholarly communities and the American public.
Federal libraries and staff throughout the United States and abroad competed for the awards. The fiscal year 2020 winners are as follows.
2020 Federal Libraries/Information Centers of the Year
Large library/information center (staff of 11 or more federal and/or contract employees):
Legal framework
Anti-counterfeiting enforcement in the United States stems largely from two federal statutes: the Lanham Act (codified at 15 USC Section 1051) and the Trademark Counterfeiting Act 1984 (codified at 18 USC Section 2320). The Lanham Act provides civil remedies for trademark infringement and counterfeiting, while the Trademark Counterfeiting Act criminalises certain violations of the Lanham Act’s anti-counterfeiting provisions, making these offences federal crimes. While there are additional state and federal laws that impose civil and criminal liability for counterfeiting, most anti-counterfeiting enforcement actions are derived from these two statutes.
The Lanham Act defines a counterfeit mark as “a spurious mark which is identical to or substantially indistinguishable from a registered mark” (15 USC Section 1127). Ownership of a valid US trademark registration is therefore a prerequisite to a successful trademark counterfeiting claim under federal law. This de
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//]]>// >By John K. Higgins
May 5, 2021 10:19 AM PT
A legal dispute between Google and Oracle over software copyrights has now been decided, with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in favor of Google. The Court s decision in
Google LLC v. Oracle America Inc. was released on April 5, 2021.
The decision ended 10 years of tortuous litigation. While the Court definitively addressed the dispute between the two high tech giants, it put aside answering one critical infringement factor. Still, the ruling appeared to reduce the legal leverage available to software developers who seek copyright protection.
Oracle contends the decision could have a chilling effect on copyright protection. The Google platform just got bigger and market power greater the barriers to entry higher and the ability to compete lower. They stole Java and spent a decade litigating as only a monopolist can. This behavior is exactly why regulatory authorities around the world and in the United States are examin