https://www.nolapatent.com/blog/Intellectual property and technology insights from Matt Miller.en-ushttps://www.nolapatent.com/there-and-back-again-a-blogs-tale/https://www.nolapatent.com/there-and-back-again-a-blogs-tale/Sun, 18 Oct 2026 08:20:00 -0500From hand-written HTML in Vim to WordPress and back again: how working with Codex changed the tradeoffs of building and maintaining this website.https://www.nolapatent.com/inventors-are-shocked-at-this-one-little-trick-that-patent-examiners-use/https://www.nolapatent.com/inventors-are-shocked-at-this-one-little-trick-that-patent-examiners-use/Wed, 14 May 2025 19:03:04 +0000You’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…https://www.nolapatent.com/why-the-best-patent-strategy-doesnt-stop-at-allowance/https://www.nolapatent.com/why-the-best-patent-strategy-doesnt-stop-at-allowance/Tue, 06 May 2025 16:16:32 +0000The 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…https://www.nolapatent.com/copyright-and-artificial-intelligence/https://www.nolapatent.com/copyright-and-artificial-intelligence/Thu, 20 Mar 2025 20:27:54 +0000A 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…https://www.nolapatent.com/494-2/https://www.nolapatent.com/494-2/Wed, 26 Feb 2025 14:30:00 +0000For 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…https://www.nolapatent.com/ai-and-patent-law-navigating-the-new-frontier/https://www.nolapatent.com/ai-and-patent-law-navigating-the-new-frontier/Fri, 27 Sep 2024 17:02:55 +0000On 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…https://www.nolapatent.com/federal-trade-commission-crackdown-on-non-compete-agreements/https://www.nolapatent.com/federal-trade-commission-crackdown-on-non-compete-agreements/Wed, 24 Apr 2024 16:40:08 +0000The 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…https://www.nolapatent.com/is-chatgpt-fair-use/https://www.nolapatent.com/is-chatgpt-fair-use/Sun, 31 Dec 2023 23:30:28 +0000On 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’…https://www.nolapatent.com/copyright-notice/https://www.nolapatent.com/copyright-notice/Wed, 20 Dec 2023 21:27:13 +0000“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…https://www.nolapatent.com/455-2/https://www.nolapatent.com/455-2/Wed, 20 Dec 2023 17:09:22 +0000Taking 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…https://www.nolapatent.com/continued-software-security-threats/https://www.nolapatent.com/continued-software-security-threats/Mon, 27 May 2019 18:42:04 +0000Back 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…https://www.nolapatent.com/supreme-court-requires-copyright-registration-before-litigation/https://www.nolapatent.com/supreme-court-requires-copyright-registration-before-litigation/Mon, 06 May 2019 16:20:00 +0000Sometimes, 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…https://www.nolapatent.com/aint-dere-no/https://www.nolapatent.com/aint-dere-no/Tue, 29 Aug 2017 16:06:21 +0000New 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…https://www.nolapatent.com/bitcoin-part-2-practical-benefits/https://www.nolapatent.com/bitcoin-part-2-practical-benefits/Wed, 19 Apr 2017 15:50:23 +0000This 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…https://www.nolapatent.com/what-is-bitcoin/https://www.nolapatent.com/what-is-bitcoin/Wed, 28 Sep 2016 17:35:02 +0000Over 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…https://www.nolapatent.com/equation-group-practical-tips/https://www.nolapatent.com/equation-group-practical-tips/Fri, 26 Aug 2016 22:57:58 +0000Last 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…https://www.nolapatent.com/ripoff-report-help-manage-online-reputation/https://www.nolapatent.com/ripoff-report-help-manage-online-reputation/Mon, 12 Oct 2015 20:29:09 +0000The 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…https://www.nolapatent.com/were-attorneys-not-businessmen/https://www.nolapatent.com/were-attorneys-not-businessmen/Sun, 04 Oct 2015 03:16:41 +0000I 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…https://www.nolapatent.com/what-pet-seuss-copyright-term/https://www.nolapatent.com/what-pet-seuss-copyright-term/Thu, 23 Jul 2015 15:00:20 +0000So, 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…https://www.nolapatent.com/pinterests-privacy-policy/https://www.nolapatent.com/pinterests-privacy-policy/Tue, 30 Jun 2015 17:38:52 +0000If 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…https://www.nolapatent.com/american-sniper-discussion/https://www.nolapatent.com/american-sniper-discussion/Wed, 21 Jan 2015 16:16:22 +0000There’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…https://www.nolapatent.com/public-domain-day-2015/https://www.nolapatent.com/public-domain-day-2015/Thu, 01 Jan 2015 00:03:55 +0000Happy 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…https://www.nolapatent.com/cello/https://www.nolapatent.com/cello/Sun, 28 Dec 2014 04:02:05 +0000This 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…https://www.nolapatent.com/turkey-thermometer-patent/https://www.nolapatent.com/turkey-thermometer-patent/Fri, 28 Nov 2014 18:52:24 +0000Given 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…https://www.nolapatent.com/louisiana-state-trademark-registration/https://www.nolapatent.com/louisiana-state-trademark-registration/Sat, 25 Oct 2014 20:17:24 +0000Louisiana 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…https://www.nolapatent.com/copyright-assignments/https://www.nolapatent.com/copyright-assignments/Thu, 16 Oct 2014 03:21:06 +0000In 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…https://www.nolapatent.com/dmca-misconceptions/https://www.nolapatent.com/dmca-misconceptions/Wed, 08 Oct 2014 19:48:40 +0000I’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…https://www.nolapatent.com/southern-food-beverage-museum-open/https://www.nolapatent.com/southern-food-beverage-museum-open/Fri, 03 Oct 2014 19:42:40 +0000The 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…https://www.nolapatent.com/ghostbusters-huey-lewis/https://www.nolapatent.com/ghostbusters-huey-lewis/Fri, 03 Oct 2014 15:40:03 +0000In 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…https://www.nolapatent.com/difference-patents-copyrights-trademarks/https://www.nolapatent.com/difference-patents-copyrights-trademarks/Wed, 01 Oct 2014 21:30:45 +0000What’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…https://www.nolapatent.com/thinking-getting-iphone-6/https://www.nolapatent.com/thinking-getting-iphone-6/Fri, 26 Sep 2014 17:05:24 +0000I 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…https://www.nolapatent.com/dmca-copyright-agent/https://www.nolapatent.com/dmca-copyright-agent/Wed, 24 Sep 2014 18:11:23 +0000Did 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…https://www.nolapatent.com/owns-copyright-work/https://www.nolapatent.com/owns-copyright-work/Mon, 15 Sep 2014 17:26:07 +0000Just 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…https://www.nolapatent.com/brand-important/https://www.nolapatent.com/brand-important/Tue, 09 Sep 2014 17:18:04 +0000I’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…