Trademarks and reality TV collide yet again

The Hollywood Reporter reported (what else?) Friday that Paris Hilton and Hallmark have agreed to a settlement an alleged TM infringement involving Hilton's catch phrase "That's Hot."

I would recommend, however, that non-heiress trademark applicants do a little research about choosing a strong trademark so that there won't be any questions about the validity of a mark in the future.  Here are some tips via the International Trademark Association: http://www.inta.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2008&Itemid=59&getcontent=1.

Patent Visualization Center

Whoa!  Check out the new "dashboard" site that USPTO just put up: http://www.uspto.gov/dashboards/patents/main.dashxml

The series of gauges offers a visual interpretation of patent prosecution data, things like how long it's taking to get to a first office action, how many examiners there are, and the backlog number.  My guess is that the dashboard has been initiated in the hopes that we can watch the backlog and pendency time numbers go down because of new efficiency initiatives.

Can I do this at home?

NC State Libraries' excellent patent and trademark pages include one page addressing a question that I often field at SFPL's reference desk -- do I have to come in to the library, or can I do this at home?

It's a good question, and one that I have a really hard time answering. We do have access to a lot of materials that you cannot find online -- CASSIS, PubWEST, indexes, Official Gazettes, etc. Then again, the amount of patent information available on the web is increasing every day, and lots of PTDLs, not to mention the central PTDLP Office, have published fantastic search guides demonstrating search procedures that can be used on the freely available PatFT, AppFT and TESS databases with great results. Combine that with the increase in quality in free online patent and trademark (mostly patent, really) databases, and you've got an environment where the self-learner can do a pretty thorough patent search from any computer.

That said, I'd like to add to the list offered by NC State a couple of reasons why I invite people to come into the library for patent and trademark information:

• Computer access -- of course you can't do it at home if you don't have a computer, broadband, and software that meets various databases' requirements.
  
• PubWEST and CASSIS -- depending on the person's willingness to learn a new skill, each of these PTDL-only tools offers advantages over web-based databases.
• Commercially published books -- from Nolo, Sphinx, Oceana, etc. These are the books that fill in the lawyer-shaped holes in the help that a librarian can offer.
• Librarians -- It's very helpful(for some people) to be able to ask a person questions face-to-face. I'm not saying that your search will be a piece of cake after talking to us, but we can usually offer some insight into the skills you need to do this kind of research.
  

As for a garden variety patentability search, I would say that most people can do a fairly thorough search at home (rather than a very thorough search at a PTDL, rather than a "thorough-as-you're-going-to-get" search at the USPTO Search Facility in Alexandria).

So there you go. You can't do everything you can do at a PTDL at home, but you can do a lot at home.

If only The Situation had made a trip to the library...

CBS News reported yesterday that "The Situation," of Jersey Shore fame, had about as much luck with his trademark application as co-star "Snooki" did with hers. Both marks were rejected because they were found to be already in use.

I think the lesson here is that both "The Situtation" and "Snooki" would probably have benefited from visiting a PTDL to learn how to do a proper trademark search. In their case, the nearest PTDL by mileage from Seaside Heights is at Rutgers, though, for my money, the Philly Free Library might be an easier drive in end-of-summer traffic.

The dark side of patent litigation: crummy hot tub controls

Andrew Leonard, a great writer at Salon.com who normally covers politics, law, and economics, has shifted his gaze to a very serious subject this weekend -- hot tubs.

More specifically, he writes about how a newcomer on the hot tub control design scene is pushing against an alleged giant in the field, and how the latter party's water-tight control of their patent portfolio is an essential part of their dominance in the market.

An interesting reflection on how patent laws can have an effect on, well, some of our daily lives.