CrossPond Law

11/19/2019

Sandeep and I just finished giving a presentation about transatlantic IP developments at the Silicon Valley General Counsel Association's All Hands Meeting. It was well-attended and a lot of fun!

04/17/2019

I've been catching up on the archives of The Dollop podcast, and really enjoyed the one about Carl Akeley. This man invented shotcrete, the portable film camera (which made the newsreel possible), and modern taxidermy, and also convinced Theodore Roosevelt to start the National Park System. Akeley also held 36 issued US patents. He was definitely a man of many interests and talents!

Carl Ethan Akeley (May 19, 1864 – November 17, 1926) was a pioneering American taxidermist, sculptor, biologist, conservationist, inventor, and nature photographer, noted for his contributions to American museums, most notably to the Field Museum of Natural History and the American Museum of Natur...

01/22/2019

The good folks at Harness, Dickey and Pierce put together this fascinating list of US Patent Office trivia. I had no idea there were ever fractional patent numbers, for example. Even if you aren't a patent attorney, there are some fun items in here. The only thing I would have added is the toilet paper patent that shows the correct orientation of the roll on the holder!

For the fifty years between 1940 and 1990, The St. Louis Post Dispatch had a section...

12/27/2018

Happy holidays and a belated merry Christmas to all!

10/15/2018

Sandeep Birdi and I are giving a Life Sciences IP Update for US and Europe at 11 am at the Silicon Valley General Counsel Association annual meeting.

09/13/2018

One of the reasons I like patent practice is that I am always learning something new. Reading Federal Circuit patent opinions is also instructive. If you were ever curious about treatment for he**in addiction, for example, this is an interesting opinion. The Federal Circuit generally does a good job of explaining its pharma/biochemistry opinions in comprehensible language.

07/12/2018

I was a guest on the EarzUp Podcast recently, discussing the patents of Disney and Disneyland. That episode just hit the archives - listen and enjoy!

Patents have been the linchpin for success in the Disney Empire since the days even before Disneyland itself was built. Most of the time, when we talk about Disney patents we are reading news about…