When entrepreneur Dan O’Toole scribbled on a napkin an idea for what he considered to be the next great American invention, he rushed to file for a patent in less than a week. Telling his attorney he didn’t have time to waste, O’Toole ended up leaving a large competitor in the dust.

The long-awaited final rules implementing the Trademark Modernization Act of 2020 (TMA) were published on Nov. 17, 2021. The rules implementing new procedures will go into effect on Dec. 18, 2021, and the rules relating to shortened trademark response periods will take effect on Dec. 1, 2022.

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California recently determined that the owner of the iconic Dr. Martens trade dress—a famous design that has been used for more than three decades—was entitled to a permanent injunction against ITX USA for its use of footwear designs that are similar to the overall visual impression of the Dr. Martens trade dress.

The ABA is hosting a 90-minute ethics CLE webinar on USPTO practitioner rules on Dec. 14 from 1-2 p.m. EST. It is free for ABA members and $100 for non-members.

The rate of U.S. trademark application filings appears to be slowing slightly, although the USPTO’s backlog is still significant and continues to cause delays and expenses for filers.

On October 28, 2021, the Librarian of Congress added new exemptions to Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which prohibits circumventing certain technological measures used to prevent unauthorized access to copyrighted computer software. The exemptions provide broad protection for any consumer devices that rely on software to function, as well as land and sea vehicles and medical devices that are not consumer-focused.

The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board has significantly lowered the bar for proof of fraud. In a precedential decision, the Board held that "reckless disregard" for the truth is sufficient for a finding of fraud on the USPTO.

While the overall number of issued designs continues to increase each decade, one particular article of manufacture has seen the largest uptick in popularity among design patents issued over the last ten years: graphical user interfaces.

In a recent decision, the Review Board of the United States Copyright Office reversed an examiner’s prior refusal to register a copyright in the artistic elements present in the bed shown above, paving the way for the applicant to obtain a copyright registration in this work.

Did you know that Google copied Java code for use in the Android phones and as a result has been in litigation with Oracle (the owner of the Java code) for the past 11 years? In one of the more consequential recent copyright Supreme Court decisions, the court held that Google’s copying of certain portions of the Java code was a fair use of the code, and, as a result, Oracle could not recover on their copyright claim.