Teslas’s New Patent Policy: Long Live the Patent System!

What an innovator @ElonMusk!!!

Truth on the Market

[First posted to the CPIP Blog on June 17, 2014]

Last Thursday, Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of Tesla Motors, issued an announcement on the company’s blog with a catchy title: “All Our Patent Are Belong to You.” Commentary in social media and on blogs, as well as in traditional newspapers, jumped to the conclusion that Tesla is abandoning its patents and making them “freely” available to the public for whomever wants to use them. As with all things involving patented innovation these days, the reality of Tesla’s new patent policy does not match the PR spin or the buzz on the Internet.

The reality is that Tesla is not disclaiming its patent rights, despite Musk’s title to his announcement or his invocation in his announcement of the tread-worn cliché today that patents impede innovation. In fact, Tesla’s new policy is an example of Musk exercising patent rights…

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The Paralegal Society Has More Than 5,000 Members!!!

congrats 9(55)

The Paralegal Society blog began to make some waves and garnered itself a tremendous group of loyal followers and long list of subscribers. We started a LinkedIn group and people began to flock to it, slowly in the beginning, but more steadily over time. And day-by-day and week-by-week, this group became something special for many of us. It’s a place I turn to each day for social interaction, encouragement, career advice, knowledge, sharing, and inspiration. It’s our own little corner of the legal landscape, there to provide us each a brief respite to what is oftentimes, a chaotic career field. It became a place we each can visit to share, mingle, chat with colleagues, share a good laugh (or twelve) and let our hair (neckties and self-sensors) down.

 

Congrats to the Paralegal Society!!!

The Paralegal Profession: 5 Must-Have Qualities for Success

I especially like the most important quality:

“Exceptional reading and writing skills are necessary in the field of law. It is top priority for a paralegal to do their job accurately and communicate clearly. Ninety percent of your day may consist of proofreading court documents, reviewing medical records, and writing pleadings that are filed with the court. The tiniest mistake on a document, or a mistake in document review could cost a client their case, anger a judge, or have your boss screaming at you.”

– See more at: http://theparalegalplace.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-paralegal-profession-5-must-have_7.html?sf29399052=1#sthash.3wYU0KiY.dpuf

USPTO Proposes Trademark Fee Reduction

#patentlaw

VajraSoft Inc.

United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) proposes reducing certain trademark fees, as authorized by the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (“AIA” or “Act”). The proposed reductions will reduce total trademark fee collections and promote efficiency for the USPTO and customers. This proposal, is geared towards achieving the strategic objective of USPTO, which is to increase the end-to-end electronic processing of trademark applications including online filing, electronic file management, with built-in workflow.

patent_ip_stamp

USPTO proposed the following:

  • Reduce the fee for a Trademark application filed using the regular TEAS application form by $50 to $275 per class. A pre-condition for this is that the applicant must authorize for email communication and agree to file all responses and documents electronically during the prosecution of the application. This option will be known as a TEAS Reduced Fee (“TEAS RF”) application.
  • Reduce $50 the fee for a TEAS Plus application to $225 per class
  • Reduce…

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Groundwork Labs to offer housing stipend to get startups to Durham

http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/blog/techflash/2014/07/groundwork-labs-housing-stipend-startups-durham.html

Durham has a new tool to attract startups from across the country: A housing stipend.

Groundwork Labs announced Tuesday that a new housing stipend will “enable companies anywhere to take advantage of the Groundwork Labs program.”

Interesting idea for local businesses!

Legal protection of brands in EU Law

Epthinktank

Branding_wordcloud z_amir / Fotolia

‘Brand’ is not a legal term. It refers to the set of functions and symbols associated with a specific mark, including its cultural, legal, political and social aspects, which contribute to its market value. From a legal point of view, a brand is an exclusive channel of communication connected with the brand exploitation rights, an intangible (investment) asset, as well as a source of sustained competitive advantage. The legal protection of brands is traditionally based on the so-called ‘broadcast model’ of brand creation. It is characterised by the assumption that the trademark owner is the sole creator of the brand. Some scholars criticise this model for neglecting the social dimension of brands and propose the so-called ‘dialogic model’ of brand authorship. In contrast to the ‘broadcast model’, it stresses that a brand image is co-created by the company which legally owns the brand, as well as by…

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