News

Baker Botts Houston Office To Host INTA Meeting

The Baker Botts Houston office will serve as one of the distance learning sites for The International Trademark Association course on ethics.  INTA, in collaboration with the University of Akron School of Law, is pleased to offer a unique and easy way for trademark attorneys to earn ethics credits. Acquire two hours of ethics credits by attending Ethical Issues For Trademark Practitioners -- a two-hour distance learning session taking place at various U.S. locations on December 10, 2004.

For more information, or to register, visit http://www.inta.org/forums/2004/ethics/index.html

IP Spotlight

		Priscilla Dunckel
		Priscilla Dunckel heads up the Trademark Group in Baker Botts' Dallas Office, which includes four attorneys and four legal assistants. Don’t let the name “Trademark Group” fool you. This group handles a much broader range of transactional and litigation issues including copyrights, trade secrets, domain name issues, internet law, cybersquatting, advertising, sweepstakes, marketing and distribution relationships, anti-counterfeiting actions, computer game licensing, and some entertainment law. Some of Priscilla’s clients include Haggar Clothing Co., Pier 1 Imports, Computer Associates, Trinity Industries, and Stewart Title. One of her clients, MGW Group, Inc. is the franchisor for the Cookies by Design® and Cookie Bouquet® franchise shoppes. During her eleven years of representation of the company, she has successfully handled over 300 controversies for MGW based on trademark infringement, copyright infringement, domain name disputes, and misappropriation of trade secrets. She was also instrumental in obtaining a Disney license for MGW, which was the springboard for licenses for the Garfield® characters and Trading Spaces®. Priscilla came to the field of law after teaching for a few years, spending several years in management of a franchise company, and later, owning two small businesses. Her practice includes both transactional and litigation matters, as well as opposition and cancellation proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. She counsels clients on building brand identities and intellectual property portfolios, as well as on overall strategies for the protection and enforcement of their intellectual property assets. Due to the broad range of her practice, from day-to-day she can be found huddled over cookies or candles or clothing or table placemats or children’s toys or purses, or even reviewing one of her client’s children’s television programs. She has been practicing law for 11 years and is currently on the Board of Directors of the Sports and Entertainment Law Section of the Dallas Bar.

Articles

Understanding The Benefits (And Limitations)
Of Provisional Patent Applications

Thomas A. Beaton

In last month’s Baker Botts IP Report, we presented an article discussing the role of scientific presentations as prior art printed publications under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b). The article discussed the problems caused by the fact that “[s]cientific researchers and academics are often under a great deal of pressure to publish or present their findings soon after making their discoveries.” After discussing the recent decision of the Federal Circuit in In re Klopfenstein,1 in which early scientific presentations of a discovery served as publications that established a time bar against the patentability of an invention, the article noted that “a researcher, in order to safeguard his patent rights, could file for a patent application as soon as the concept and the details for implementing his invention are clearly within his mental or experimental grasp . . . .” A provisional patent application is a typical vehicle by which researchers and academics can seek to protect their ideas in the period immediately after conception and reduction to practice, but before publication or any other possible bar-creating events. This article presents a brief discussion of provisional patent applications, their benefits in preserving priority of invention, and the limitations or possible pitfalls of relying on provisional patent applications.Read More...

Competitive Intelligence Through Patent Analysis:

A Promising But Potentially Risky Proposition

Carey Jordan

A means to gain competitive intelligence that has recently come into vogue involves analyzing U.S. patents in order to forecast industry technological trends, analyze competitor technical capabilities, unearth competitor patenting strategies, and discover competitor research interests (“patent analysis”). One type of patent analysis involves “patent mapping,” which is a technique that uses issued patents to create a graphical or physical representation of the relevant art pertaining to a particular technology area, which can be used to illustrate a competitor's relative patent strength therein. Intelligence such as this may allow a corporation to plan research efforts strategically, evaluate the strength of its patent portfolio relative to its competitors, and identify potential licensing opportunities. Read More...