One of the primary uses of international intellectual property rights is a license of those rights as part of one of the many types of technology driven business relationships that a company may enter into as it deals with foreign partners. What is a Licensing Agreement? So what exactly is a licensing agreement anyway? In basic terms, a licensing agreement is a contractual … [Read more...]
Registering Your Patent in International Markets. Not Always Easy.
Earlier this week I received a call from a prospective client looking to register his intellectual property in several international markets. His call was prompted by a post I wrote several months ago, How Do I Register My Patent, Trademark or Copyright in a Foreign Country? In the post, I presented a general overview of registering your intellectual property overseas. While … [Read more...]
How Do I Register My Patent, Trademark or Copyright in a Foreign Country?
Earlier this week, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) received its two-millionth international patent application. The filing – from technology corporation Qualcomm – was made under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). The PCT is the WIPO-managed mechanism for filing patents in multiple countries with one set of documents. The PCT is just one of several … [Read more...]
International Trademarks: How to Adopt a Global IP Protection Strategy
A recently published interview with Bacardi IP lawyer François Griesmar offers some useful, strategic advice for in-house trademark counsel. Thanks to World Trademark Review for posting the interview. Griesmar argues that corporate legal departments must continue to make a strong case for the enforcement of intellectual property. He continues by saying: It is difficult … [Read more...]
How to Protect Your Intellectual Property and Avoid Outsourcing Pitfalls
Define. Scrutinize. Monitor. About 11 years ago my firm was retained by a large computer company to file a claim against an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) based in Taiwan for theft of trade secrets. Our client had retained the OEM to manufacture what was then the first “all-in-one” motherboard. I’ll spare you the technical details but this … [Read more...]
Doing Business in Japan Teleconference. $768.8 Billion Reasons to Attend
The International Law Prof Blog has passed along details about an upcoming teleconference, “Doing Business with Japan,” sponsored by the American Bar Association Section of International Law. The conference could not come at a better time. Businessweek’s Daniel Kruger reported this week that Japan has overtaken China as the largest foreign holder of … [Read more...]
Federal Circuit Court Limits International Reach of U.S. Patent Laws
An en banc ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals in the Federal Circuit held recently that a statute used by patent holders to assert patents to products originating in the U.S. and assembled in other countries does not apply to method patents. The court ruled that patents for methods or processes are not subject to patent infringement liability if the products are assembled and … [Read more...]