Ideas, examined.
Thoughts on intellectual property, software, and the things people create.
There and Back Again: A Blog's Tale
From hand-written HTML in Vim to WordPress and back again: how working with Codex changed the tradeoffs of building and maintaining this website.
Read the articlePatentsInventors are SHOCKED at this ONE LITTLE TRICK that Patent Examiners use!
You’ve put time, money, and energy into your invention. You filed a patent application. The examiner responded and rejected it. Not because someone already invented the exact same…
Read the articlePatentsWhy the Best Patent Strategy Doesn’t Stop at Allowance
The USPTO recently announced a procedural change: starting May 13, 2025, the time between a patent’s Issue Notification and the official Grant Date will be reduced from approximately…
Read the articleCopyrightCopyright, AI, and How the Laws Might Change
A recent appeals court decision, Thaler v. Perlmutter, reaffirmed that under current U.S. copyright law, only human-created works can receive copyright protection. The court upheld the…
Read the articleTechnologyAI Is Hitting a Compute Wall – Can the Human Brain Show the Way Forward?
For years, the race in artificial intelligence has been defined by one word: scale. Bigger models, more parameters, larger datasets. Every major leap—whether it was OpenAI’s GPT-4…
Read the articleArtificial intelligenceAI and Patent Law: Navigating the New Frontier
On September 23, 2024, I had the opportunity to give a talk titled “Patent Law’s AI Dilemma: Innovation at the Crossroads” at the Louisiana State Bar Association’s “IP Trinity” CLE…
Read the articleBusiness & technologyFederal Trade Commission Crackdown on Non-Compete Agreements
The Federal Trade Commission has fired a major shot across the bow of employers that rely on non-compete agreements. Back in January of 2023, the FTC proposed a new regulation limiting…
Read the articleArtificial intelligenceIs ChatGPT Fair Use?
On December 27, 2023, the New York Times filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft alleging that ChatGPT’s “large language model” neural network algorithms infringe the Times’…
Read the articleCopyrightCopyright Notice
“Copyright 2023 John Smith” – you may have seen something like this on the bottom of a website, at the front of a book, or elsewhere. But, what does it mean and why is it there? A…
Read the articlePatentsOverview of the Patent Process
Taking your invention from an idea to a United States patent can be a complicated process. But, in this blog post, I will break down the steps to help you understand the process. Step…
Read the articleTechnologyContinued Software Security Threats
Back in 2016, I wrote about the U.S. Government losing control of high-level security software (AKA, “hacking tools”). Now, the New York Times is reporting that the City of Baltimore…
Read the articleCopyrightSupreme Court Requires Copyright Registration Before Litigation
Sometimes, Supreme Court opinions make headlines. This is not one of those times. In a decision issued on March 4, 2019, the Supreme Court resolved an ongoing unresolved question that…
Read the articleTrademarksAin’t Dere No More
New Orleans is full of old companies and brand names that simply ain’t dere no more. Can someone besides the original company make the old brand come back? Sometimes, the answer is…
Read the articleTechnologyWhat is Bitcoin – Part 2 – Practical Benefits
This is Part 2 of a Series on Bitcoin. Click to read Part 1 – What is Bitcoin?, where I discuss what Bitcoin is and give a basic overview of how it works. This post assumes some basic…
Read the articleTechnologyWhat is Bitcoin?
Over the past few years, you may have seen one of many news stories about something called Bitcoin (). Here are just a few of them: L.A. hospital forced to pay $17,000 in bitcoin…
Read the articleTechnologyPractical Tips in view of the Equation Group Hack
Last week, in a series of events seemingly a mix between Mr. Robot and Austin Powers, something fairly unusual happened that could potentially cause security problems for many people…
Read the articleTechnologyRipoff Report – Help Manage Online Reputation
The Internet is an amazing tool for communications, literally letting anyone publish information for others to view; and search engines like Google let the world find that information…
Read the articlePatentsWe’re attorneys, not businessmen.
I am an attorney. I’m not actively involved in technology development anymore. I don’t run a technology business, nor a business that develops new technology to run its business. Why…
Read the articleCopyrightCopyright Term of What Pet Should I Get? by Dr. Seuss
So, according to the New York Times, a new, previously unpublished Dr. Seuss book originally called The Pet Shop will be published this year as What Pet Should I Get?. Because I…
Read the articleTechnologyPinterest’s Privacy Policy
If you’re a Pinterest user, you may have recently received an email like this one, by which Pinterest is updating its users about Pinterest’s privacy policy. Why is Pinterest doing…
Read the articleTechnologyAmerican Sniper Discussion
There’s been a lot of talk about Ventura v. Kyle, Captain Freedom’s Jesse Ventura’s lawsuit against Chris Kyle (AKA American Sniper). Certainly, it appears odd that a public figure…
Read the articleCopyrightPublic Domain Day 2015
Happy New Year’s Public Domain Day 2014! The duration of copyright for a work can be very complicated. For many works, it’s the life of the author, plus 70 years. For other works, it’s…
Read the articleTechnologyPatent Medicine
This year, I made homemade Satsuma, Navel Orange, Grapefruit, Lime, and Kumquat “Cello” (liqueur) for Christmas presents for a number of friends and some of my work colleagues. Because…
Read the articlePatentsTurkey Thermometer Patent
Given the Thanksgiving holiday, I thought it appropriate to post about a Thanksgiving-related patent, namely, U.S. Pat. No. 3,759,103 issued to Anthony Volk on September 18, 1973…
Read the articleTrademarksLouisiana State Trademark Registration
Louisiana law permits businesses to register trademarks with the Louisiana Secretary of State; and, in fact, many businesses do so, thinking that a Louisiana trademark registration…
Read the articleCopyrightCopyright Assignments
In a previous post, I discussed who owns copyright to a work in view of Copyright law’s so called “Work Made For Hire” doctrine. As mentioned, the answer is somewhat shocking to people…
Read the articleCopyrightDMCA Misconceptions
I’ve seen some articles published recently, and I thought it might be a good idea to clear up two misconceptions about the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), in particular, the…
Read the articleTechnologyThe Southern Food and Beverage Museum is Open
The Southern Food and Beverage Museum is Open! Here are some pics (and, their library is pretty cool… with a 1918 edition of Fannie Farmer’s Boston Cooking School Cookbook and…
Read the articleCopyrightHuey Lewis v. Ray Parker, Jr.
In view of it being the 30th anniversary of the release of the original Ghostbusters movie, here’s some interesting legal trivia. But first, listen to this. Watch the referenced video…
Read the articleCopyrightWhat is the difference between patents, copyrights, and trademarks?
What’s the difference between a patent, a copyright, and a trademark? Well, there’s the short answer and there’s the long answer. The Short answer is that trademarks protect brand…
Read the articleTechnologyAre you thinking about getting an iPhone 6?
I use an iPhone for work, and I also write legal apps for the iPhone and iPad, including Federal Civil Procedure. However, I have never reviewed new apple products. So, if you’re on…
Read the articleCopyrightHow to comply with the “safe harbor” provisions of the DMCA (17 USC § 512)
Did you know that, for a website operator to take advantage of Section 512(c) of the DMCA, he must designate a Copyright Agent with the United States Copyright Office? This means that…
Read the articleCopyrightWho owns copyright to a work?
Just about any type of creative expression (including software, photography, artwork, books, movies, and many other types of works) can be protected by copyright law. But, a question…
Read the articleTrademarksWhy a Brand is Important
I’m not an audiophile, but this video describes exactly why a good brand is valuable. Despite the fact that other products out there are better, many people aren’t audiophiles and…
Read the articleNo articles found.
Try a different topic or search term.