Property, intangible

a blog about ownership of intellectual property rights and its licensing


Ethicon

  • IP Rights and NDAs

    You have someone sign an NDA that says this: If you can’t read it, it says 4. Beverly Johnson shall not directly or indirectly acquire any interest in, or design, create, manufacture, sell or otherwise deal with any item or product, containing, based upon or derived from the information, except as may be expressly agreed… Continue reading

  • What Went Wrong?

    Recently I’ve been thinking about the US rules of contract interpretation versus the approach used in other countries, UK law in particular. As I understand it, under UK law the courts have more latitude in interpreting the language of the agreement to derive what the parties intended than what we allow under US law. Which… Continue reading

  • The Missing Schedule

    The Patent Prospector summarizes a decision from the Federal Circuit where the ownership of patents hinged on whether they were “related to” pending litigation at the time of an earlier intra-company assignment agreement. If the patents were related, they weren’t assigned and U.S. Surgical Corporation, not plaintiff Tyco Healthcare, remained the owner of the patents.… Continue reading