Founded in 2004, Miele Law Group PC is an intellectual property boutique firm that handles trials, disputes, and varied intellectual property matters on behalf of media and technology businesses.
Effective August 1, 2012 Anthony Miele, Larry DeMeo, and Jaime Burke have joined Cooley Manion Jones LLP. For more information regarding Miele Law Group please contact Mr. Miele at AMiele@cmjlaw.com or call 617-670-8571.
Crafting an identification of goods and services for a new trademark application can be a trying task. In this world of better mousetraps and winsome widgets, you can tinker and toy with possible IDs until smoke comes out of your… Read the rest
In a move to seemingly stem the tide of questionable inequitable conduct litigation, the Federal Circuit, in an opinion authored by Chief Judge Rader, has attempted to tighten up the standards in Therasense, Inc. v. Becton, Dickinson and Company (Fed.… Read the rest
Imagine a competitor has been selling products that you believe infringe your patent. Now imagine you have learned that the competitor has filed a patent application with the USPTO for a patent you believe should be invalid in light of… Read the rest
Voltaire once said, “What a heavy burden is a name that has become too famous.” For those whose personal names have ended up as unauthorized domain names, that sentiment is all too true. However, the law provides recourse for this type of injury.
The World Intellectual Property Office (“WIPO”), through its Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (the “UDRP”) arbitration process, provides the necessary legal help. The UDRP handles domain name disputes between complainants (for example, Jim Carrey, Beyoncé Knowles, and Julia Roberts) and the registrants of the unauthorized domain names.
Here’s WIPO’s current consensus view on the protection of personal names appropriated as domain names: “Personal names that have been registered as trademarks are generally protected under the UDRP. While the UDRP does not specifically protect personal names as such, in situations where a personal name unregistered as a trademark is being used for trade or commerce, the complainant may be able to establish common law or unregistered trademark rights in that name.” See WIPO Overview of WIPO Panel Views on Selected UDRP Questions, Second Edition, Para 1.6, available at http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/search/overview/
The most important point to keep in mind is that “The name in question needs to be actually used in trade or commerce as an identifier of goods or services to establish unregistered trademark rights for the purpose of the UDRP.” Id. For more information on the UDRP process, and relevant decisions, please go to: http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/ or contact a MLG attorney.
In the wake of the recent tsunami in Japan, the United States Patent and Trademark Office has provided relief for patent and trademark applicants and owners whose prosecutions may have been adversely affected by the disaster. Such relief may include… Read the rest
Miele Law Group PC and Cooley Manion Jones LLP, on behalf of their client Bear Creek Technologies, Inc., filed a lawsuit on February 22, 2011, in the Eastern District of Virginia against twenty-three defendants, including RCN Corporation, Verizon Communications, Vonage,… Read the rest
Patent lawsuits show that patent owners use their patents to exclude competitors, to generate revenue, or both. These same lawsuits show that patents are useful, but not so tidy. Companies must fight tooth and nail to get the patent protection… Read the rest
In the US, federal trademark registrations are available only for marks used in interstate commerce.* However, a quirk in the registration process has allowed some applicants to obtain trademark and service mark registrations for goods and services which may never… Read the rest
NEW YORK, U.S.A – Tecnimed srl, international pioneer of non-contact temperature measurement technologies, announced today that efforts by Kidz-Med, Inc. and American Scientific Resources, Inc. (“Kidz-Med”) to prevent issuance of an injunction against Kidz-Med by the United States District Court… Read the rest