Articles

Patents Continue To Gain Visibility, Value In The Lucrative Derivatives, Hedge Fund, And Allied Financial Services Market

John Spaccarotella

In June of this year, the New York Mercantile Exchange (“NYMEX”) and the Philadelphia Mercantile Exchange (“PHLX”) announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office had published their United States utility patent application for a “Method and System for Securitizing Contracts Valued on an Index.” The invention, the brainchild of a joint venture between NYMEX and PHLX, purports to allow investors — for the first time in U.S. markets — to trade securities linked to the value of a commodity index without having actually to participate in the physical market itself. Read More...

Companies Sponsoring Promotional Contests And Sweepstakes Need To Know The Rules Of The Game

Doreen Costa

Sweepstakes, contests, and similar promotions occupy a special place at the heart of modern American advertising tactics. Companies such as Publishers Clearing House, American Family Publishers, and Reader’s Digest inundate our mailboxes — and in turn, our wastebaskets — with their clever marketing ploys that offer opportunities to win fantastic prizes. These promotional games do not come through the mail alone. Companies such as Pepsi and McDonald’s, among others, also develop elaborate retail store-based sweepstakes and contests to promote their products, advertising these promotions on television and in virtually every other media. However one regards them, promotional games are certainly powerful and effective marketing tools and, as effective tools tend to be, are sometimes misused by less-than-reputable entities. Read More...

IP Spotlight

		Doug Kubehl
		Doug Kubehl is a partner in the Dallas office of Baker Botts who handles a full spectrum of intellectual property matters, both in and out of the courtroom. From a litigation perspective, Mr. Kubehl has conducted patent infringement cases involving a wide variety of technologies. He has litigated in numerous jurisdictions and argued before the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Most recently, Mr. Kubehl has litigated cases involving wireless networking, packet routing, Voice Over IP, semiconductor manufacturing, and call center software technologies. His electrical and computer engineering background, and the knowledge he has gained in connection with developing patent portfolios, have been invaluable in dealing with the legal and technical complexities that these cases bring. Outside of the courtroom, Mr. Kubehl’s practice focuses on planning and building valuable patent portfolios, as well as licensing those portfolios to help the firm’s clients realize a return on their R&D investments. Mr. Kubehl’s portfolio development work has involved work with optical networking and device companies, telecommunications equipment and service providers, software companies, and semiconductor manufacturers, to name a few. On the licensing side, Mr. Kubehl has worked on both sides of the table. He has managed programs designed to secure licensees to key patents owned by the firm’s clients, and has extensive experience in evaluating, defending, and negotiating demands by third parties seeking payment of licensing fees by the firm’s clients. Mr. Kubehl earned his degree in electrical and computer engineering, with distinction, from the University of Wisconsin and his law degree, magna cum laude, from the University of Minnesota.

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