The USPTO has announced fee increases and new fees for patents and trademarks to take place on January 18, 2025, for trademarks, and January 19, 2025, for patents. Cantor Colburn's Client Alert summarizes the significant changes, which necessitate careful budget considerations.  If you have questions about these fees and how to adjust your strategy to minimize their impact in the short term, please contact Cantor Colburn. If you are within the filing window for a submission and wish to take advantage of the lower fees in 2024, we would be happy to accommodate those instructions.

Cantor Colburn has been named a Tier 1 firm in Hartford for Patent Law, Trademark Law, Copyright Law, Litigation - Patent, and Litigation - Intellectual Property Practice in the 2025 edition of Best Law Firms®.

Cantor Colburn is proud to announce that the following attorneys are recognized as 2025 Best Lawyers: Christopher C. Boehm, David Bomzer, Alison Caless, Michael A. Cantor, Michelle P. Ciotola, Philmore H. Colburn II, Steven M. Coyle, Nicholas A. Geiger, Charles F. O'Brien, Roberta L. Pelletier, Leah M. Reimer, Ph.D., David E. Rodrigues, Ph.D.,  Michael J. Rye, Bryan D. Zerhusen, Ph.D., Susan M. Zerull. Michael Cantor is a Best Lawyer Lawyer of the Year. 

Cantor Colburn Client Alert

The Federal Circuit recently discarded its long-established test for assessing non-obviousness as it relates to a challenged design patent and to design patent applications under examination at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The court replaced the test with a modified version of the Graham multi-factor analysis currently used for assessing the validity of a utility patent and the non-obviousness of utility applications. Read Cantor Colburn's Client Alert about this issue, including key takeaways.

On March 16, 2023, the United States Copyright Office (USCO) issued a Statement of Policy titled “Copyright Registration Guidance: Works Containing Material Generated by Artificial Intelligence,” which clarifies the USCO’s practices for examining and registering works that contain material generated using Artificial Intelligence technology. Cantor Colburn offers this Client Alert to examine the issues and what this means for you.

After many years of starts and stalls, the Unitary Patent System in Europe is finally happening. The Unitary Patent System will provide the option to obtain a single European Patent which can be enforced against an infringer acting in any member state. This appears to be a game changer for owners of patents that issue under the protocol.

The USPTO has announced the Deferred Subject Matter Eligibility (SME) Response Pilot Program, which launches on February 1, 2022, and provides applicants with a limited waiver with respect to SME rejections applied against an application. The program provides a sequenced approach to handling substantive rejections, where SME rejections are handled after the resolution of all other patentability rejections.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is proposing to implement electronic patent issuance. Under this change, the USPTO would no longer issue patents on paper; instead, it would issue patents electronically through its patent document viewing system. This would mean patents would issue sooner in electronic form, possibly with only two or three days’ notice, and that physical copies would no longer be mailed to the correspondence address as part of the patent issuance process.

On November 19, 2021, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued a final rule that will delay an additional fee for nonprovisional utility patent applications, including any continuing applications, not filed in DOCX format. Through this ruling, the USPTO is delaying the effective date of this fee until January 1, 2023.  

In August 2021, the United States Federal Circuit Court of Appeals held in Omni Medsci vs. Apple Inc. that a university IP policy and employment agreement providing that patents developed by an employee “shall be the property of” the university does not present an automatic assignment of future patent rights, and therefore is not sufficient to effectuate the assignment of legal title to the university. This case is a reminder that proper assignment language in a contract must be utilized to effectuate the desired transfer of intellectual property, and without it, you may not own what you think you own.

The recent U.S. Supreme Court opinion in Minerva Surgical, Inc. v. Hologic, Inc., et al. upholds the centuries-old doctrine of assignor estoppel while simultaneously clarifying the boundaries of the doctrine’s application. Minerva may impact how businesses develop and implement their strategies to perfect ownership of their intellectual property. Cantor Colburn's Client Alert discusses what this means to you.

The Connecticut Intellectual Property Law Association and the Judge Janet Bond Arterton American Inn of the Court present the Distinguished IP Practitioners Dinner 2024 on December 11, 2024 in New Haven, Connecticut, which will honor Judge Arterton and others.

David Bomzer will speak at the panel Trade Secrets and Artificial Intelligence at the Trade Secrets Symposium 2024: Navigating the Law of Trade Secrets and Restrictive Covenants presented by the New York City Bar Association, taking place Monday, December 9, and Tuesday, December 10, 2024. 

David Bomzer speaks at the New York Intellectual Property Law Association (NYIPLA) IP Transactions Bootcamp. This program is a webinar occurring on October 8, 15, and 21, 2024.

The 2024 Intellectual Property Owners (IPO) Annual Meeting takes place September 22-24, 2024, in Chicago. Partners David Bomzer and Chris Boehm will attend. 

David Bomzer is a Patent Clinician at the PLI Patent Fundamentals Bootcamp 2024: An Introduction to Patent Drafting, Prosecution, and Litigation, a virtual program on September 17, 2024. David will speak on Patent Claim Drafting.

Cantor Colburn Partner David Bomzer is a featured speaker at the Joint Patent Practice Continuing Legal Education’s (JPPCLE) annual one-day seminar in New York City. David will be on the High Tech, Legislation, and Policy Panel, speaking on Pitfalls in Claim Drafting for AI Inventions.

Cantor Colburn attorneys are active Connecticut Intellectual Property Law Association (CIPLA) members, and regularly serve as the organization's officers. Joe Romagnano is Vice President and David Bomzer is Treasurer. They will attend the CIPLA Lobster Bake and Annual Meeting 2024.

Cantor Colburn Partner David Bomzer will be a panelist in the live interactive CLE webinar, "Protecting IP in Joint Ventures and Collaborations: Key Considerations, Management of IP, and Structuring Agreements" on April 11, 2024 from 1-2:30 PM. This CLE webinar will guide counsel to IP owners on protecting IP in a joint venture (JV) or collaboration. 

The 102nd Dinner in Honor of the Federal Judiciary will be held on March 22, 2024 in New York City. Cantor Colburn has sponsored the event for more than a decade.

IPOwners Spring Summit will take place on March 7, 2024 in Washington, D.C.  Cantor Colburn David Bomzer, a member of the IPO IP Licensing and Related Issues Committee.

Cantor Colburn Partner David Bomzer speaks on the live Strafford CLE webinar panel, Enforceable Nondisclosure Agreements: Protecting Trade Secrets and Other Confidential Business Information, on January 17, 2024. 

This CLE course will guide business counsel in drafting nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) before engaging in confidential business negotiations. David will be a part of a panel of experts outlining best practices for negotiating and drafting NDAs based on their extensive experiences with these types of agreements. The panel will examine key contract provisions and exclusions, common negotiation challenges, and best practices to minimize the risk of litigation for misappropriation of confidential information.

Cantor Colburn Partner Eric Baron, Chair of the Artificial Intelligence Practice, moderates the discussion, Ethics Check-In! – USPTO Insight and Practical Implications of AI,  presented by the Connecticut Bar Association's the IP Section on December 12, 2023 at Cantor Colburn's Hartford office.

The New York City Bar CLE Programs presents the Trade Secret Symposium 2023, a two-day program, focusing on trade secret law, will examine some of an organization’s most valuable assets, from cutting edge technologies to profit-enhancing improvements and beyond. Cantor Colburn Partner David Bomzer is on the speaking faculty.

BioCT's 10th Annual Holiday Party is on December 11 in New Haven. BioCT supports the needs and serves as the unified voice of the bioscience community in our state.

David Bomzer will speak at PLI's Patent Fundamentals Bootcamp 2023: An Introduction to Patent Drafting, Prosecution, and Litigation via Live Webcast on September 12, 2023. PLI’s Patent Bootcamp offers a comprehensive and interactive environment about the basics of patent application preparation, claims drafting, and prosecution, as well as recent developments in the law. 

The Intellectual Property Owners Association 2023 Annual Meeting takes place September 10-12, 2023 in Boston.

Cantor Colburn attorneys are active Connecticut Intellectual Property Law Association (CIPLA) members, and regularly serve as the organization's officers. Anne Maxwell, Ph.D. is President and David Bomzer is Program Chair. They will attend the CIPLA Lobster Bake and Annual Meeting 2023.

Todd Garabedian, Partner and Vice Chair of the Life Sciences Practice at Cantor Colburn LLP, and other IP lawyers will participate in Diverse Careers in IP, a live panel at Quinnipiac University School of Law presented by the New York Intellectual Property Law Association (NYIPLA) on April 19, 2023. The panel will discuss opportunities for lawyers in today's intellectual property marketplace. 

The Connecticut Intellectual Property Law Association (CIPLA) is hosting a discussion of Jack Daniel’s Properties, Inc. v. VIP Products LLC, led by Susan Kohlmann, Partner at Jenner & Block on April 17, 2023 at the Elm City Club in New Haven, Connecticut.

IPOwners Spring Summit™ will take place on March 16, 2023 in Washington, DC. The conference is designed for IP attorneys, with topics directly relevant to in-house counsel, and information for outside counsel that will enhance relationship building and productivity with their corporate clients.

Trademark Counsel Ali Caless and Patent an IP Transactions Partner David Bomzer will speak at an Ethics CLE roundtable, Ethical Practices for Communications with Clients, Opposing Parties, and the USPTO, a discussion presented by the Connecticut Bar Association's Intellectual Property Section on December 1, 2022. 

The New York Intellectual Property Law Association (NYIPLA) presents a One-Day Patent CLE Seminar. Cantor Colburn Partner David Bomzer will lead an interactive session on ethics. The program will cover significant emerging issues in patent law, maintaining and enforcing trade secrets, negotiating commercial agreements, recent Federal Circuit decisions and more.

The 100th Dinner in Honor of the Federal Judiciary will be held on March 25, 2022 in New York City.

Cantor Colburn attorneys David Bomzer and Sara Colburn will present the basics of intellectual property - patents, trademarks, and copyrights - and transactions relating to the transfer and development of intellectual property rights on February, 24, 2022 at a webinar presented to the Inventors Association of Connecticut.

David Bomzer, an active member of the New York Intellectual Property Law Association (NYIPLA), currently serving as Programs Planning Committee Chair of the Transaction and Patent Practice Committees, is one of the coordinators of the NYIPLA IP Transactions Bootcamp, taking place virtually in October and November 2021. 

David Bomzer will speak at PLI's Patent Fundamentals Bootcamp 2021: An Introduction to Patent Drafting, Prosecution, and Litigation via Live Webcast on June 2-4, 2021.

The New York Intellectual Property Law Association's 99th Annual Dinner in Honor of the Federal Judiciary is virtual on April 22, 2021. 

David Bomzer spoke about patents versus trade secrets at the New York City Bar webinar, “An Introduction to IP Law for the Small Law Firm Practitioner: When Might Your Client Have an IP Issue and How to Start to Think About It,” on April 21, 2021.

Cantor Colburn is proud to sponsor 2019 ScaleUP CT on June 6, 2019 at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut. Presented by the Connecticut Technology Council, ScaleUP CT is designed to support companies that are beyond the startup phase. ScaleUP CT is an event built to educate and invigorate the leaders of Connecticut's growing tech-oriented companies. Now in its third year, the event will support companies in the tech sector at every stage of their growth and development. Co-managing partner Michael Cantor is on the CTC board of directors and will be a part of the program. 

Cantor Colburn's David Bomzer is a speaker at the New York City Bar and MIT Enterprise Forum of NYC program "Blockchain IP: Innovation and the Distributed Ledger Revolution," on November 29, 2018, a program for members and non-members alike. 

Charlie O'Brien and David Bomzer will present "What Non-IP Attorneys and Business Professionals Need to Know About IP Transactions," with West LegalEdcenter, a Thomson Reuters Webinar. This session will provide attorneys and business professionals with an overview of the basic categories of intellectual property and describe the various structures of typical IP transitions.

Quinnipiac University School of Business and People’s United Bank are re-opening the People’s United Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship at a reception on October 24, 2018. Cantor Colburn attorneys Todd Garabedian, Ph.D. and David Bomzer are adjunct professors at Quinnipiac School of Law.

The Connecticut Bar Association is offering a CLE, "A Lawyer's Primer on Blockchain and Smart Contracts," on October 12, 2018. 

David Bomzer will present a professional development workshop on Intellectual Property to the Professional Activities Committees for Engineers (PACE), the grassroots network of Institution of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) volunteers and committees, on November 11, 2017, at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, Connecticut.