Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I’ve heard of the nagging-wife, but this is ridiculous!  In the recent case of Korinsky v. Dudas (07-1029), the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reviewed a Patent and Trademark Office denial of a petition to reinstate a patent that had become abandoned for failure to pay maintenance fees. The inventor filed the petition twelve years after abandonment.  The inventor did not pay the maintenance fee because he did not receive the notice of abandonment and “his wife...refused to permit him to pay the fees.”  The inventor sued the Patent and Trademark Office because the patent system had “tricks and traps that duped him into disclosing his invention and paying substantial sums only to have his invention later confiscated.”  The Court of Appeals upheld the lower court`s decision noting specifically that the Patent and Trademark Office’s denial of his petition was not arbitrary or capricious.

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James Lindon, Ph.D. Patent Attorney
Lindon & Lindon, LLC
Cleveland, Ohio
Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights, Pharmacy Law, Litigation
[this is not legal advice - provided for discussion only]
Intellectual Property for the Individual and Small Business: Identify, Protect, Enforce, Defend.
"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."
http://www.LindonLaw.com

I could see the wife suing a next-door neighbor`s wife because she also was nagging her husband. She`d claim it was an infringement on her personal process. :-)