Patent Baristas

Lighting up the law web pages these days is the lawsuit by the law firm Jones Day against BlockShopper LLC and two individuals associated with the website, for allegedly using Jones Day’s service marks and linking to its website in at least two articles discussing Chicago real estate transactions of Jones Day associates.  Jones Day […]

The Starbucks Coffee Company has apparently decided not to protest the logo of the Rat City Rollergirls, a Seattle-based roller derby league.  According to Starbucks, the company had concerns about a “very similar look and feel of the logo.” Under trademark law, Starbucks had asked for an extension to file an official objection to the […]

R.I.P. Heller The San Francisco law firm Heller Ehrman will formally vote today to dissolve, chloroforming a law firm that survived earthquakes, a depression, wars and social upheavals but was unable to compete in a new global economy. An overview of “What have we learned from this collapse of a century old, over $500-million in […]

We don’t usually plug movies around here but not too many movies have patent infringement as the major plot line.  Universal Pictures’ upcoming film titled Flash of Genius, starring Greg Kinnear, Lauren Graham, Dermot Mulroney and Alan Alda, tells the story of the landmark patent case of inventor Robert Kearns. Billed as educational while also […]

In a bit of shameless self-promotion, we find that the Patent Baristas were ranked (once again!) in the 2008 Edition of Chambers and Partners, a guide to the legal profession that rates attorneys and their practices based upon peer and client review. Chambers USA touts the Intellectual Property Department as known for their “exceptional” attention […]

Well, we wrapped up the Patent Baristas iBarista contest after two lucky winners were picked to receive iBarista iPods. Winner #1. Elliot Mendelson, a patent attorney at Marshall, Gerstein & Borun in Chicago, was randomly selected as the winner of an Apple iPod shuffle 1 GB for submitting a new comment on the PatentBaristas.com website […]

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) sent out a gentle reminder in the Federal Register to all patent applicants and registered patent practitioners that the export of subject matter (transfer of information) abroad under a foreign filing license is limited to purposes related to the filing of foreign patent applications. The Notice states: Applicants […]

Well, it looks like Margaret Peterlin, Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Deputy Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), has announced that she will be leaving the USPTO in August with plans to pursue employment opportunities in the private sector.  It was probably going to happen some time […]