Publications

If you have invented a product, improved an existing product, or developed a process that solves a real problem, it’s common to wonder whether it qualifies for patent protection. In general, an invention may be eligible for a patent if it fits within patentable subject matter and is new, useful, and non-obvious.

Your company will face intellectual property risks the moment you start using AI tools, often before you have considered ownership, confidentiality, or infringement. The main risks usually involve using protected training or input data, generating outputs that resemble third-party works, weakening trade secret protection, and losing clarity over who owns the generated content or inventions.

Technology is both invasive and pervasive, and it can raise some novel legal questions. In this presentation, I address the impact that technology can have on privacy, privilege, and the practice of law.

Unfair competition laws can help address deceptive intellectual property practices, such as a competitor using confusingly similar branding, making false claims about your patent rights, or passing off goods to divert your customers.

Remote work has transformed modern businesses, granting flexibility, efficiency, and access to wider talent pools. However, for companies that rely on proprietary information to maintain a competitive advantage, remote work environments have created a more complex and urgent challenge: protecting trade secrets outside the traditional confines of the office.

Trademarks often represent years of investment, customer trust, and brand recognition. When another party uses a confusingly similar name, logo, slogan, or other source identifier without permission, that unauthorized use can weaken your brand and create serious legal and commercial problems.

Your business’s brand is one of its most valuable assets. Your business name, logo, slogan, and product identifier are designed to help customers recognize your company’s goods or services and distinguish them from competitors.

To protect your intellectual property during product development, you will need to identify what you are creating, control who has access to it, and establish appropriate protection strategies (such as confidentiality agreements, patents, copyrights, trademarks, or trade secret protection) before your product reaches the market.

Using technology during the invention process, or incorporating AI into your invention, can threaten patentability when it affects who conceived the invention, what was publicly disclosed, or whether your claimed invention is actually eligible for patent protection.

A patent application can be weakened by mistakes that make an invention seem unclear, incomplete, too broad, or not truly new. Promising ideas can often face delays, rejections, or narrower protection if your application does not adequately describe how the invention works, which can be frustrating, especially if you have invested significant time and money into development.