Patent and Trademark

On this day in 1777, the stars and stripes were adopted by the Second Continental Congress as the official Flag of the United States. This version of old glory has numerous legends tracing its origins with design credits being attributed to Francis Hopkinson and Betsy Ross. To this day, neither has been corroborated. In honor of Flag Day, we solute the inventors who have incorporate the stars and stripes into their patented designs. #patents #USPTO #flagday #america #oldglory#thestarsandstripes #omnilegalgroup

The search to painlessly generate induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) is heating up, and Cellular Dynamics International, Inc. is on the leading edge. The USPTO recently published Cellular Dynamics’ patent application for “Generation of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells from Small Volumes of Peripheral Blood,” which generally discloses methods for increasing the overall process efficiency of reprogramming peripheral blood cells into iPS cells.In a nutshell, pluripotent stem cells can produce any type of cell, whereas tissue stem cells can only produce cells of that tissue type. Embryonic stem cells are pluripotent cells, but as they generally do not exist in…

Patent trolling has long been on the minds of law makers seeking to put an end to this practice. Reform seems closer today than ever before as the House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte released a discussion draft aimed at preventing abusive patent troll litigation.The Chair has indicated he will hold a hearing and committee vote on this new piece of legislation very soon. The new law sets its sites on adding more hurdles before patent trolls to shield inventors from unscrupulous tactics that may stifle innovation.

The Supreme Court upheld Monsanto Co.’s patent infringement claim against an Indiana farmer who violated the company’s patents on weed killer resistant soybean seeds (Bowman v. Monsanto Co.). The decision came down as a unanimous vote Monday (5.13.2013). In their defense, the farmer’s argued cheap soybeans bought from a grain elevator were not covered by the Monsanto patents. Today, more than 90 percent of American soybean farms use Monsanto’s “Roundup Ready” seeds. Yet another chapter in the ongoing discussion involving gene patents, the Monsanto case was been closely watched by researchers and businesses holding patents on DNA molecules, nanotechnologies and…