At the press conference of the Customs Protection of IPR on April 28, the Customs General Administration of China releases its top 10 cases of IPR protection in 2007.

The top 10 cases include:

1.    Huangpu Customs District ferreting out 300,000 units of counterfeit “CLOSE UP” brand toothpaste;

2.    Xiamen Customs District ferreting out nine species of exporting sports suits that imitate famous brands including “LI-NING” brand;

3.    Shanghai Customs District ferreting out more than 1 million exporting counterfeit “SOYO” brand batteries;

4.    Wuhan Customs District ferreting out 170,000 exporting counterfeit “Lui” brand tinned food;

5.    Hangzhou Customs District successively ferreting out counterfeit “TIFFANY” brand head ornaments in postal delivery;

6.    Beijing Customs District ferreting out importing T-shirts that infringe the Olympic exclusive rights of “Beijing 2008″ in express delivery;

7.    Guangzhou Customs District ferreting out Fuwa molds that infringe Olympic exclusive rights brought by passengers while entering China;

8.    Shenzhen Customs District ferreting out more than 40,000 cartons of exporting counterfeit “Marlboro” brand cigarettes;

9.    Qingdao Customs District ferreting out many species of exporting commodities that imitate several dozens of trademarks; and

10.  Fuzhou Customs District ferreting out 100,000 exporting counterfeit goods that infringe the trademark of “ADIDAS.”

Paparella & Associates is a law firm which specializes in intellectual Property:  Namely, Patents, Trademarks, & Copyrights.  With offices in Atlanta, Georgia and Grand Rapids, Michigan, Paparella & Associates is uniquely situated to deliver the highest quality representation. Handling all Intellectual Property matters including, Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights, Infringement Matters, Clearance Opinions, Freedom to Operate Opinions, and Litigation.  Paparella & Associates serves the business community throughout the world.

For more information visit us on the web at www.Qlver.com

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has implemented a two-word verification code to improve data access for Public PAIR users. Public PAIR users are now required to manually enter a two-word verification code into the reCAPTCHA validation screen before accessing Public PAIR data.

The USPTO takes seriously its responsibility to promote the progress of science by providing free access to patent data via Private and Public PAIR. The USPTO implemented a CAPTCHA security response.

CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart) is an industry-accepted security feature to ensure that humans, and not bots, are accessing computer programs. The version of CAPTCHA that the USPTO implemented is named reCAPTCHA (for additional details http://recaptcha.net/), a project of the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. The reCAPTCHA deployment was an immediate response to a system outage problem caused by bots. The USPTO continues to explore long-term solutions to address the need for open access to the data by the Intellectual Property community.

The USPTO has not implemented reCAPTCHA in Private PAIR. Unlike Public PAIR where inquirers can be anonymous to the USPTO and thus unidentifiable when causing system problems, applicants and other users of Private PAIR are registered and receive a digital certificate from the USPTO. (For information on becoming a Registered User, see “Register Now” at http://www.uspto.gov/ebc/efs_help.html.)

We are committed to providing access to all available patent data to the public whenever required, and we are continuing to explore all alternatives to meet that goal.

For more information regarding reCAPTCHA please contact the Patent Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free) or 571-272-4100 from 6 a.m. to 12 Midnight Eastern Time, Monday – Friday.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is now going after Personal Use:

It was bound to happen.  When any industry rightfully attacks, and the number of law suits which are filed are in the tens of thousands, overreaching is a real possibility.  In the case of the RIAA, overreaching has come to pass.

Laying the ground work early on, and after winning the much publicized case against a 30 year old single mother (Jammie Thomas) in Federal Court to the tune of $220,000, or $9,250 for each of 24 songs she was accused of sharing online, record companies have filed against Jeffrey Howell, a Scottsdale, Arizona recipient of an RIAA letter who has decided to fight the RIAA in court. 

In legal documents that were filed by the RIAA, the Industries lawyers have asserted that when the consuming public copies a legally purchased CD to their own personal computer (i.e. for playback on the PC), even when the file is not shared with anyone else, the copy is illegal.

According to The Washington Post:

“The Howell case was not the first time the industry has argued that making a personal copy from a legally purchased CD is illegal. At the Thomas trial in Minnesota, Sony BMG’s chief of litigation, Jennifer Pariser, testified that “when an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song.” Copying a song you bought is “a nice way of saying ’steals just one copy.”

The Washington Post, Marc Fisher, Dec. 30, 2007, Pg. M05. 

However, this is in contrast to the RIAA website, which states:

• It’s okay to copy music onto an analog cassette, but not for commercial purposes.
• It’s also okay to copy music onto special Audio CD-R’s, mini-discs, and digital tapes (because royalties have been paid on them) – but, again, not for commercial purposes.
• Beyond that, there’s no legal “right” to copy the copyrighted music on a CD onto a CD-R. However, burning a copy of a CD onto a CD-R, or transferring a copy onto your computer hard drive or your portable music player, won’t usually raise concerns so long as:
  • The copy is made from an authorized original CD that you legitimately own
  • The copy is just for your personal use. It’s not a personal use – in fact, it’s illegal to give away the copy or lend it to others for copying.

Source: http://www.riaa.com 

Even further supporting there charitable position is the FAQ  statement that:

Record companies have never objected to someone making a copy of a CD for their own personal use. We want fans to enjoy the music they bought legally. But both copying CDs to give to friends and downloading music illegally rob the people who created that music of compensation for their work. When record companies are deprived of critical revenue, they are forced to lay off employees, drop artists from their rosters, and sign fewer bands. That’s bad news for the music industry, but ultimately bad news for fans as well. We all benefit from a vibrant music industry committed to nurturing the next generation of talent.

Source:  http://www.riaa.com/faq.php  

While these statements make the RIAA and associated record companies sound magnanimous,  it would appear that, in fact, they are really red herrings as these contentions cannot be reconciled with their actions.  

As mentioned earlier, the Howell case is not the RIAA’s first assertion that making a personal copy from a legally purchased CD is illegal.  “At the Thomas trial in Minnesota, Sony BMG’s chief of litigation, Jennifer Pariser, testified that “when an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song.” Copying a song you bought is “a nice way of saying ’steals just one copy.” The Washington Post, Marc Fisher, Dec. 30, 2007, Pg. M05.

Whether or not the RIAA’s position is tenable has yet to be decided.  The problem is that if the RIAA decides to pursue these contentions, as it did previously, in a litigious manner, it could be “pandemonium.”

Joseph A. Paparella, Esq., B.S.M.E., J.D.

Principal, Paparella & Associates PC

Mr. Paparella is Principal and founder of Paparella & Associates, a law firm specializing in intellectual property matters.  Mr. Paparella has extensive experience in all phases of IP practice including patent and trademark prosecution, as well as infringement analysis.  Additionally, Mr. Paparella has broad experience in the corporate environment.  Before practicing law, Mr. Paparella worked for 3M as an engineer, progressed into project management, and culminated his corporate career as a Key Account Representative, overseeing the entire eastern half of the United States. Mr. Paparella has garnered numerous corporate awards, and was himself patented twice for inventions relating to fiber optic connectors.  After his corporate career, and before founding Paparella & Associates, Mr. Paparella worked in one of the mid-west’s largest IP boutique law firms.

Paparella & Associates is a law firm which specializes in intellectual Property:  Namely, Patents, Trademarks, & Copyrights.  With offices in Atlanta, Georgia and Grand Rapids, Michigan, Paparella & Associates is uniquely situated to deliver the highest quality representation. Handling all Intellectual Property matters including, Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights, Infringement Matters, Clearance Opinions, Freedom to Operate Opinions, and Litigation.  Paparella & Associates serves a worldwide clientele.

For more information visit us on the web at www.Qlver.com

Google continues to provide relevant information, and does so for free.  Googles next step has just been realized and now provides free patent search tools:

http://www.google.com/patents 

http://www.google.com/googlepatents/about.html 

About Google Patent SearchAs part of Google’s mission to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful, we’re constantly working to expand the diversity of content we make available to our users. With Google Patent Search, you can now search the full text of the U.S. patent corpus and find patents that interest you. You can view images of original patents online, or save and print them for offline use. Frequently Asked Questions Q. Where does this patent data come from? A. All patents available through Google Patent Search come from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).Patents issued in the United States are public domain government information, and images of the entire database of U.S. patents are readily available online via the USPTO website. Q. What types of patents are available? A. Google Patent Search covers the entire collection of patents made available by the USPTO—from patents issued in the 1790s through those issued in the middle of 2006. We don’t currently include patent applications, international patents, or U.S. patents issued over the last few months, but we look forward to expanding our coverage in the future. Q. How many U.S. patents are there? A. To date, the USPTO has issued approximately 7 million patents.

Patenting, branding, and marketing

When it comes to product or service development, these activities should be thought of as mutually beneficial, not necessarily mutually exclusive.

Patenting involves securing ones intellectual property rights by obtaining a grant of a patent, thus protecting the novel features of the invention from being made, used, offered for sale, or sold by someone other than the inventor.  Branding on the other hand, is the process of developing a products identity within the minds of the consumer.  Patenting is accomplished by securing a patent, and branding is accomplished, typically, through marketing efforts.  However, these development efforts need not, and should not occur in a vacuum.

Unless the product, method or process in question is truly a commodity and incapable of patent protection, branding alone will probably not provide the outcome the owner is seeking.  Yes, branding alone may make a product successful.  Unfortunately, if the product is not protected, it will likely not be the original owner who enjoys that success.  For example, small and medium sized business owners who concentrate solely on branding in order to secure the market place will invariably be thwarted in their efforts by large corporations having better access to marketing and distribution channels. 

Normally, what happens in these cases is that as the product becomes a commercialized success, competition enters.  If this competition has access to cheaper manufacturing, a larger distribution network, and sufficient initial capitalization, the competition will be able to capitalize on and then take over or redevelop the brand, leaving the original owner in their wake.  This can be accomplished by, among things, locking them out of major distribution channels, and creating lower cost products.  Without some form of protection there is little the smaller business owner can do.  For example, when the worlds largest company is a retail store, and is China’s eighth largest trading partner, you have very little chance of out-sourcing, out-marketing, or out-selling them.  So what’s a business to do?  Simple, protect yourself!

By securing a patent on the product, process, method, or article of manufacture, the business “arms” itself by protecting the intellectual property.  As such, if your product is “novel,” that is to say new or improved over existing products, then your product may be capable of patent protection.  If so, and if you acquire for example a U.S. patent, you will have twenty years wherein you can stop all others from making, using, offering for sale, selling, or importing the invention into this country.  However, patents are only for non-commodity products.  One caveat is required:  in obtaining patent protection, it is imperative that the inventor seek a qualified patent attorney.  All patents are not created equal, and there are many ways to pay for and obtain a patent that will have little to no commercial value.  Yes, the process and fees are expensive.  Frankly, the system is designed to be that way in order to discourage people from patenting products that have no hope of commercialization. 

One of the biggest reasons I hear for not obtaining patent protection is the false belief that even if achieved, a smaller business would not be able to enforce it against a larger entity.  This is simply not true.  In fact, the opposite is true.  There are numerous law firms that actively seek smaller business clients in patent infringement matters and will represent them at little to no cost to the client.  In these cases, the larger the infringing entity, the more infringement typically takes place.  Consequently, it is exactly these patent infringement cases that firms seek and will represent clients on a contingency basis. 

Of course, there are also many reasons to not patent something.  In the end, it is a business decision that only you can make, and it should be treated as any other business decision.  In this manner, simply forgoing patent protection because of preconceived ideas about the market, costs, and enforcement, without looking into what amount of protection is available, is akin to sticking your head in the sand.  The days when one could rely on these preconceived notions are gone, and in today’s competitive economic environment, we need to ascertain, strive for, and obtain all of the commercial advantages that are available to us.  At the very least, you should investigate what you may be giving up.

For representation by highly qualified Patent Attorneys, call or visit Paparella & Associates.

Atlanta, Georgia (PRWEB) June 9, 2006 –Paparella & Associates a law firm which is uniquely situated to deliver the highest quality representation, while charging fees that are more in line with business expectations, is now serving Atlanta, Georgia.   

Mr. Paparella, the Firms Principal states “We already have numerous clients from the Atlanta area, and frankly, our Atlanta clients have been absolutely wonderful to work with.  They have introduced us to Atlanta and shown us what a wonderful place it is to live and work.”  As such, Paparella & Associates is now able to provide Atlanta businesses the same exceptional representation that its mid-west clients have come to expect.  

“Our clients do not settle for less.  And, simply put, we give them more than they expect.  It a whole new ball game out there … the larger law firms don’t yet see it, but we repeatedly hear from our clients that these large firms are slow, unresponsive, and frankly charge too much for the level of quality they offer.”  Paparella & Associates, on the other hand, can now give businesses in Atlanta the absolute best representation in Patents and Trademarks, at costs that are more in line with small and medium business expectations … and we are now in a position to do just that.” 

For more information visit us on the web at www.USPatPend.com or call us toll free at 888-US-PAT-PEND (888-877-2873).

After checking my account status on FindLaw this weekend, I noticed that it appears that the site has been hacked.  For example, when you type in any of the following:

Lansing patent attorney;

Grand Rapids patent attorney; or

Detroit patent attorney;

the site redirects you, in every instance, to attorneys in Melbourne, Florida. 

What is really profound is that Findlaw has not noticed this error for, at least, 3 days.  Thats not saying much for the quality of Findlaw.

Posted from www.paparellalaw.com

Paparella & Associates, A law firm specializing in Patent, Trademark, & Copyright matters now offers the small and medium sized business clients in Austin, Texas something they have not had before … a choice.

(PRWEB) May 7, 2006 — Paparella & Associates a law firm which is uniquely situated to deliver the highest quality representation, while charging fees that are more in line with business expectations, is now serving Austin Texas.

Mr. Paparella, the Firms Principal states “After spending 10 years in Austin when working for 3M (Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing-fiber optics laboratory), I developed a deep respect for Austin; and Texas in general, and while building the Firm, it was always on my mind to return here. As such, Paparella & Associates is now able to provide Austin businesses the same exceptional representation that its mid-west clients have come to expect.

Our clients do not settle for less. And, simply put, we give them more than they expect. It a whole new ball game out there … the larger law firms don’t yet see it, but we repeatedly hear from our clients that these large firms are slow, unresponsive, and frankly charge too much for the level of quality they offer. Paparella & Associates, on the other hand, can now give the business clients in Austin the absolute best representation in Patents and Trademarks at costs that are more in line with small and medium business expectations … and we are now in a position to do just that.”

For more information visit us on the web at www.USPatPend.com or call us toll free at 888-US-PAT-PEND (888-877-2873).

Let me start by introducing myself.  I am Joseph A. Paparella, Principal (founding partner) of Paparella & Associates.  We are a mid-west based law firm that specializes in intellectual property law.  Namely, Patent, Trademark, & Copyright matters and we represent small and medium sized business throughout the U.S., as well as  Internationally in all patent and trademark matters.