Fredericksburg Patent Attorneys & Lawyers

What is a Patent Troll?

A patent troll is a person or business that buys patents from other companies, files lawsuits against other businesses to blame them for patent infringement, and then profit from the lawsuit instead of producing its own goods or services.

What Do They Do?

Patent trolls typically follow this pattern:

1. Patent trolls send letters to businesses in distress or other targets and offer to buy their patents.

2. After the companies sell their patents, the patent trolls find their victims. Their victims can be businesses that might use a process or design that's like the patents they've just bought.

3. Trolls then threaten to sue those companies for patent infringement.

Patent lawsuits can cost millions of dollars. As a res

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What Is a Patent Citation Search?

A patent citation search is a patent search of the titles that legally protect inventions from infringement and describe in detail how these inventions look and work based on the references they provide. You can search for patent citations on their own or use a patent citation search to enhance a keyword or classification search.

What Is a Citation?

When dealing with citations, there are two primary types: forward and backward, or reverse. While the definition may seem simple, forward citations are actually a derived artifact of reverse citations. The type of citation will depend on the point of view.

In essence, all citations will begin as a backward one. To determine a backward citation requires the processing of forms 1449 and 892 in the United States. Foreign juri

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What Are Patent Drawing Rules?

Patent drawing rules are the requirements set by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for drawings, pictures, flowsheets, and diagrams that go with a patent application. Most patent applications contain drawings. In fact, for a nonprovisional patent, a drawing must be provided to explain better and outline the subject matter associated with the patent request. To increase the likelihood of having a patent request accepted, it's important to follow the patent drawing rules outlined by the USPTO.

When you want to submit a patent to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, it's not as easy as filling out a patent application, paying a fee, and waiting for

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What is Patent Protection?

Patent protection allows the inventor of a new product or design to have exclusive rights to make, sell, use, and/or import the item throughout the United States. No other company or individual can make, sell, use, or important an item that is identical or even very similar. If another company or person does infringe on the patent protection, laws allow the patent holder to sue for infringement.

There are three types of patents:

• Utility
• Design
• Plant

Utility patent protection covers the function and operation of an invention, while design patent protection is on the ornamental design o

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Updated June 24, 2020:

How Do I Get a Patent?

To get a patent, you need to make sure your idea is patentable, which requires that your invention is fully developed and that no one else has already patented it, and then file an application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) which can be a complex process depending on patent type (utility, design, plant, or software patent).

What Is a Patent?

A patent is a property right that the government grants to inventors to forbid others from making or using an invention for a limited period of time (usually 20 years). If someone does steal your invention, the patent grants y

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