Benson & Case, LLP, lawyers in Denver, CO, Colorado

Internet Domain Names

Copyright law does not protect domain names. Generally, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has tried to apply traditional trademark law to the examination of domain name service mark applications. A domain name qualifies as a mark when it is used in connection with the sale or advertising of goods or services. This includes all sites conducting e-commerce and also sites that provide web-related services. Unlike a trademark, which is restricted by country and class of goods, domain names can be global and not limited by goods or service. More...

Fragrances as Trademark Subject Matter

Distinctive fragrances are eligible for federal trademark registration. The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, in a landmark decision, reversed the Examining Attorney and held that there was no reason why a fragrance was not capable of identifying and distinguishing certain types of products. Thus, the Board allowed registration of an arbitrary, nonfunctional scent for sewing thread and embroidery yarn. More...

Patents

After a patent is issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the patent owner may mark the patented articles with the word "Patent" or the abbreviation "Pat." along with the patent number assigned by the USPTO. This marking of the patent number on the product constitutes notification of the patent, which is essential to a monetary recovery in a patent action. Although that patent statute states that a patent owner "may give notice" of the patent by marking the patented article, monetary damages for the infringement of an unmarked item can only be recovered from the time that the alleged infringer has been notified of the infringement by a cease and desist letter, by service of a summons and a copy of the complaint, or by other means. In such a case, if the alleged infringer ceases the infringing activity immediately upon notification, a monetary recovery could not be had at all in an infringement suit. More...

Display Rights

The Copyright Act confers upon copyright owners the right to publicly display certain types of works. This right may be claimed in literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works and in pantomimes, pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works as well as in the individual images of motion pictures and other audiovisual works. More...

Patentability of Business Methods

In the latter part of the 20th century, there was a slow realization that the basis for rejecting business method patent applications was not because the invention to be patented was a business method but because the subject matter of the application did not meet the fundamental requirements for patents such as novelty and non-obviousness. With the widespread use of computers and the development of business methods involving computers, courts were forced to reexamine the question of whether a business method could be patented or, as they had been treated by the USPTO, were inherently unpatentable. In 1998, the federal court that hears all appeals of patent decisions ruled once and for all that business methods could be patented if they produce a "useful, tangible, and concrete result." The court concluded that a system that used a computer to calculate a mutual fund share price from a complex set of parameters was not an abstract idea but rather a machine--embodied by the computer--that produced a useful result--the share price. More...