Florida Intellectual Property Law Blog

In the movie Any Given Sunday, Al Pacino played a football coach tony D'Amato in a wonderful locker-room motivational speech telling his players to keep playing even when everything seems stacked against them and fight for every inch.  Watch the short 3-4 minute video below first and then lets look into how this is relevant to drafting the claims of a patent.

"An inch can mean the difference between victory and defeat", he said, and if you want to win in football or in life, you have to give it all you have for those inches. 

The Claims of a Patent Represent Intellectual Real Estate

Like a deed in real estate, a patents claims stake out the scope of property protected by a patent.  Claim an invention too broadly and your patent is likely to be rejected.  Draft claims that are too narrow and you are leaving money on the table.  Precision is important but so is aggressive prosection.  A good patent attorney will FIGHT for the absolute broadest protection possible for his clients. 

As aptly stated above in the quote from Al Pacino playing Coach Tony D'Amato, "an inch can mean the difference between victory and defeat".

 As a Fort Lauderdale Patent Attorney, I have been fortunate enough to have attended all of the past several FIME medical expositions.   

If you are a medical or dental device innovator, this is one tradeshow you DO NOT want to miss.  It will take place from August 12 - 15, 2009, at the Miami Beach Convention Center.  With over 20,000 professionals from the industry in attendance, you will be in very good company.

If you do attend, please join me on Thursday, August 13, 2009, at the Florida International Medical Exposition where I will deliver a presentation entitled:

                    Preservation of Legal Rights in Medical Innovations

Thursday, August 13, 2009, 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Miami Beach Convention Center

More information about FIME 2009 is available at www.fimeshow.com with a full schedule of seminars and educational presentations at www.edufime.com.

As a Fort Lauderdale Patent Attorney, I closely follow patent litigation trends and news stories that are relevant to readers of this blog.  In this regard, a recent patent lawsuit brought against Petco by Applica Consumer Products, Inc. of Miramar, Florida is of interest.

The Miramar Florida Patentee alleges that Petco Stores import and sell various pet productts under the brand names "ScoopFree" and "SmartScoop" that infringe their rights to a patented automatic self-cleaning cat litter box that they sell under the Littermaid mark.  For more information on this recently filed case, go here.

Singer? Check

Entertainer? Check

Patent Holder? --Huh? 

Yes, few people realize that Michael Jackson helped invent special shoes that worked in conjunction with a support hidden in the stage that allowed the dancers in the "Smooth Criminal" music video to lean forward at an angle otherwise impossible without the patented device.

Michael Jackson's patent, U.S. Patent No. 5,255,452, was issued on June 29, 1992.

Orlando patents issued to inventors in Central Florida were listed in yesterday's Orlando Sentinel  and are presented below:

Delwood Nelson, Crescent City; Thomas R. Dean, DeLand; David A. Monk, DeLand; and William Bartow Mercer, Crescent City. A tree securing device and associated methods. Assigned to Pierson Supply Company Inc., Pierson. (7,533,489)

Michael Twerdochlib, Oviedo. A high bandwidth fiber optic vibration sensor. Assigned to Siemens Energy Inc., Orlando. (7,533,572)

Stefan Mazzola, Sanford; Douglas A. Keller, Oviedo; Anthony L. Schiavo, Oviedo; and David C. Radonovich, Winter Park. A multilayer ring seal. Assigned to Siemens Energy Inc., Orlando. (7,534,086 )

Beverly A. Rzigalinski, Winter Springs; Sudipta Seal, Oviedo; David Bailey, Palm Bay; and Swanand Patil, Orlando. Cerium oxide nanoparticles and use in enhancing cell survivability. Assigned to University of Central Florida Research Foundation Inc., Orlando. (7,534,453)

Gernot Fattinger, Ocoee; Klaus Diefenbeck, Germany; Peter Mueller, Germany; and Winfried Nessler, Germany. A piezoelectric resonator structure and method for manufacturing a coupled resonator device. Assigned to Avago Technologies Wireless IP, Pte. Ltd., Singapore. (7,535,324)

Gerard A. Barone, Orlando. A method and apparatus to detect event signatures. Assigned to L-3 Communications Security and Detection Systems Inc., Woburn, Mass. (7,535,355)

John W. Lerch, Indialantic; Joshua M. Girvin, Indialantic; and John P. Norair, Indialantic. An identification band using a conductive fastening for enhanced security and functionality. Assigned to Bartronics America Inc., Santa Clara, Calif. (7,535,356)

Walter A. Kuhn, Orlando. Apparatus and methods for detection of multiple targets within radar resolution cell. Assigned to Lockheed Martin Corp., Bethesda, Md. (7,535,408)

Jeffery A. Dean, Clermont; and William S. McKinley, Clermont. Universal antenna polarization selectivity via variable dielectric control. Assigned to Lockheed Martin Corp., Bethesda, Md. (7,535,432).

Fro the complete article, visit the Orlando Sentinel article entitled Patents in Central Florida.

 Ft. Lauderdale Patent Attorney John Rizvi was selected to join the inaugural class of Florida Board Certified Patent Attorneys approved by the Florida Bar. The Florida Bar is the first state bar in the country to certify attorneys for their expertise in intellectual property law. Board certification evaluates attorneys' special knowledge, skills and proficiency in various areas of law and professionalism and ethics in practice. John Rizvi was approved as a Fort Lauderdale Patent Attorney for his expertise in the area of patent prosecution. John Rizvi co-founded Gold & Rizvi, P.A., The Idea Attorneys®, South Florida patent attorneys with offices in the Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach County, and satellite office locations in Tampa and Orlando. 

"Board certification is a valuable credential that is becoming a significant trend in the legal profession," said Florida Bar President Francisco Angones. "Specialization recognizes lawyers' expertise and professionalism, and is a natural progression for lawyers who can demonstrate high skill levels in particular areas of law."

Certified attorneys are the only Florida lawyers allowed to identify or advertise themselves as specialists or experts. Certification is the highest level of evaluation by The Florida Bar of the competency and experience of attorneys in areas of law approved for certification by the Supreme Court of Florida.

Florida currently offers 22 specialty areas of practice for which board certification is available – the greatest number of state-approved certification areas in the nation.

Intellectual property lawyers practice primarily in the areas of patent application prosecution, patent infringement litigation, trademark law and copyright law. Attorney James A. Gale of Feldman Gale P.A. in Miami chairs The Florida Bar's intellectual property certification committee.

"There are a host of new problems out there for companies and individuals trying to protect customer lists, proprietary data, Web site content, trademarks and slogans because of the complexity of this area of law," said Gale. "As the practice area has grown, so has the public's need to identify legal experts in the field."

Background. The Florida Supreme Court in July 2006 amended Florida Bar rules to add intellectual property law to the existing certification program. The opinion states that standards "identify those lawyers who practice intellectual property law and have the special knowledge, skills, and proficiency, as well as the character, ethics, and reputation for professionalism, to be properly identified to the public as certified intellectual property lawyers."

Minimum requirements for intellectual property law board certification include:
- At least five years of law practice immediately preceding application. Practicing patent application prosecution before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office qualifies if the lawyer is a registered patent attorney or registered patent agent.
- At least 30 percent of practice in matters related to intellectual property law during the three years immediately preceding application.
- Experience requirements during the five years immediately preceding application for at least one of the following categories: patent application prosecution, patent infringement litigation, trademark law and copyright law.
- Satisfactory peer review assessment of competence in the intellectual property law field as well as character, ethics and professionalism in the practice of law.
- At least 45 hours of continuing legal education within the three years preceding application; and
- Passage of a written examination demonstrating knowledge, skills and proficiency in the field.

Board certification is valid for five years, during which time the attorney must continue to practice law and attend Florida Bar-approved continuing legal education courses. To be recertified, requirements similar to those for initial certification must be met. Not all qualified lawyers are certified, but those who are board certified have taken the extra step to have their competence and experience recognized.

Intellectual property board certification standards are available on The Florida Bar Web site at www.FloridaBar.org/certification . More information on the 22 legal specialty areas also is available by contacting The Florida Bar's Legal Specialization & Education Department at 850/561-5842.

On October 16^th, 2009 South Florida patent attorney, John Rizvi, will be giving a presentation entitled “Patent Pitfalls for the General Practitioner” at the 2009 Broward County Bench-Bar Convention held at the Broward County Convention Center in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Although many inventors do approach Florida patent attorneys for legal assistance, others initially go to one of Florida’s many excellent general practitice lawyers for preliminary assistance. Even if these general practitioners ultimately refer the matter to a patent attorney, John believes there is still a need for such non-specialists to be aware of certain statutory deadlines and other pitfalls of practice in the specialized area of patent law.

The Broward County Bench-Bar Association has been working diligently to ensure that this year’s convention surpasses even the great successes of previous years. The convention is designed for all attorneys, regardless of their field of practice. There will be a total of 114 different seminars and breakout sessions covering a wide variety of legal subjects. The theme for 2009 convention is “Practicing Law in the 21st Century.” The Bench-Bar Convention is intended to give judges and lawyers an opportunity to discuss 21st century technology and the problems facing the legal system today. Featured speakers include Bar president Jesse Diner and Bar Foundation president Adele Stone.

 

Two dozen exhibitors will also be displaying their products and services, and will be available in the conference area from 7:30 AM until the convention ends at 6:30 PM.

John Rizvi is a founding partner of Gold and Rizvi, P.A. In addition to practicing patent law in Florida for almost a decade, John spent several years as a patent attorney at the internationally renowned intellectual property law firm of Fish & Neave in New York City. With over 200 intellectual property attorneys, Fish & Neave (now merged with Ropes & Gray) is recognized as one of the top patent firms in the world and was retained by Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, the Wright Brothers, and Alexander Graham Bell when they desired protection for their ideas. John has written a number of articles on intellectual property and regularly cited in patenting journals and legal newspapers on the subject. 

He regularly speaks to authors, inventors, and business groups as a Miami patent attorney and is knowledgeable in implementing international patenting strategy.  

John is AV Rated by the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory, the highest rating possible, and focuses his practice on the preparation and prosecution of U.S. and international patent and trademark applications, patent and trademark validity and infringement opinions, licensing, transactional support, and all aspects of intellectual property litigation.