In Brief:  The first sale of a patent is determined by contract law.

In Brief:   A work that is created for commercial purposes is not protected by the Visual Artists’ Rights Act.

In Brief:  David’s beer brand wins over Goliath’s beer brand.

In Brief:   The type of trade secret drives reasonable measures of secrecy.

In Brief:  Oral agreements with independent contractors fuel copyright infringement litigation.

In Brief:  Adopting a portion of someone else’s trademark can lead to a likelihood of confusion.

In Brief: Too many words in a contract term plus course of dealing can cause a bad breakup.

In Brief:   Hoping your team makes it to World Series isn’t enough for trademark use.

In Brief: Obtaining a trade secret by mistake isn’t always misappropriation.

In Brief:   An application for a certification mark was dealt a fatal blow by genericide.

In Brief:  Messing up on a copyright application can be excused.

In Brief:  An agreement stipulating the rights in a patent is not a present assignment of a patent.

In Brief: A generic top level domain name needs something more to be a trademark.

In Brief:   It takes some work to prove up a missing copyright assignment.

In Brief:  Don’t use a trademark that would cause confusion with a certification mark.

In Brief: Design patents have to stay in their lane.

In Brief:  Identifying a trade secret with specificity is the key to protection.

In Brief:  The First Sale Doctrine doesn’t always apply to gray market goods.

In Brief:  Each year, a new crop of creative works go into the public domain.

In Brief:  It’s time to acknowledge those who achieved infamy by committing Intellectual Property crimes during 2021.

In Brief:  Decisions by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board don’t always have a preclusive effect on further litigation.

In Brief: Generally, a patent has to disclose all enabling features of the invention. However, an invention can be partially protected by a patent and partially protected by trade secrets.

In Brief:  If you intend to get your trademarks back after a transfer, be sure that’s what your documents say.

In Brief:  Pay attention and act fast or you may blow the statute of limitations.

In Brief: Doing no investigation before signing a USPTO document is considered fraud and can result in cancellation of a trademark registration.