Author Archives: Admin
Trade Secrets Done Right
A recent San Mateo County case, Altavion v. Konica Minolta Systems Laboratory, Inc. , shows how a plaintiff can identify trade secrets with reasonable particularity on the way to winning a $4.8 million trade secret misappropriation case.
“Who Gave You Permission to Make That?” The Intellectual Property Implications of 3D Printing.
Although 3D printing has been around since the early 1980s, recent improvements and price decreases of 3D printing technology has made it available to an increasing number of businesses and consumers. Advances in the technology have allowed designers to 3D print designs virtually impossible to make just a few years ago, from an assortment of materials ranging from plastic to living cells. The price barrier to 3D printing has finally lowered to a point where regular consumers have begun entering the marketplace and companies such as Stratasys and 3D Systems have begun making relatively inexpensive lines of 3D “desktop” printers targeted at consumers. 3D printing, much like the PC in the early 1980s, is poised to make the leap from the domain of big businesses, researchers, and hobbyists to everyday consumers and small businesses.
Where Exceptional Becomes Normal
by: Andrew K Jacobson Garrison Keillor’s fictional Lake Wobegon is famous as the place “where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.” Exceptional gets defined down when it applies to everyone. Last month, the US Supreme Court has defined down the term exceptional regarding patent […]
Unclassy Action
By Andrew Jacobson The class action lawsuit that engineers brought against seven of the biggest Silicon Valley companies has been tentatively settled for about $324 million. Divided equally among the 64,000 class members after paying attorneys’ fees, each engineer would get about $3,500 – about one paycheck per engineer, hardly the mother lode some were […]
Forming a Business Entity… Which Entity is Right for Your Small Business or Start-up?
By Daniel Richardson One of the most common questions I am asked by owners of small businesses and start-ups is whether they should form a business entity, such as a corporation or limited liability company (LLC), and, if so, which is best for them. This is a vital question for any business. Limited liability is […]
Copyright Trolls? Or an Innovative Business Model by Getty Images?
By Sharon Adams Certain large companies, including Getty Images, routinely send out demand letters claiming copyright infringement. However, the actual validity of alleged infringement is rarely, if ever, tested in court. Getty Images seems to have perfected the “price point” for extracting money based on weak claims of copyright infringement. Getty Images is a private […]
Shallow Pockets
By Andrew Jacobson The first question plaintiff lawyers ask when a new lawsuit comes their way is “where are the deep pockets?” Suing the villain is fine, but winning only gets a piece of paper called a judgment. You need to sue and beat someone with money to pay for a judgment – deep pockets. […]
Scam Alert — Court “Notice of Appearance”
by Andrew Jacobson If you receive a “court notice” via email, don’t open it — it is a scam designed to add to your computer malware designed to get you to give over control of your computer to somebody else. We started receiving these a few weeks ago, but it may only just have started getting […]
Star-Struck, or Struck Dumb?
by Andrew Jacobson Comedian Nathan Fielder has been revealed as the brains behind the “Dumb Starbucks” shop that popped up without fanfare (or a health permit) on a Friday afternoon. It disappeared the next Monday. While the joke seemed to be on the people who waited in line for three hours for bad coffee and Vons-bought […]
Obama’s One Sentence on Patent Reform –
By Sharon Adams After Passing the Most Sweeping Patent Law Reform in Decades, President Obama’s State Of the Union speech briefly mentioned patent law. “And let’s pass a patent reform bill that allows our businesses to stay focused on innovation, not costly and needless litigation.” This single sentence appeared to be dropped into the middle […]
