We’re talking about the 2025 case of Lululemon Athletica v. Costco, filed just this past June. It’s a real showdown between the boutique yoga brand that made $120 leggings cool, and America’s favorite big-box wholesaler—where you can walk out with a treadmill, a rotisserie chicken, and apparently, some suspiciously familiar activewear. Lululemon is going all in here: alleging design patent infringement, trade dress infringement, trademark infringement, and unfair competitio

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Today we're diving into a juicy and often misunderstood question in intellectual property law, Can you get a patent on something that’s illegal, and can you get a trademark registration for an illegal product or business. Believe it or not, the answer is yes for one, and a big no for the other. Patents and Illegality – Do They Mix? Let’s start with patents. You might think the USPTO would automatically reject any invention that seems unlawful, immoral, or shady. But sur

Can AI Be an Inventor? Today, we’re diving into a question that’s not only timely but also a little weird: can artificial intelligence be considered an inventor? Spoiler alert: the answer is still no. AI may be doing some pretty impressive things, but the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office—just like the courts—has made it clear that it won’t be handing out inventorship credit to AI systems anytime soon. But that’s only part of the story. While AI can’t be listed as an invento

Lights, Camera, Patent! 10 Celebrities You Didn't Know Were Patent Holders.

The Spotlight on an Unexpected Star: A Metal Leg In the glamorous world of intellectual property law—where patents, trademarks, and...

Patent Claims Overview I’ve had lots of episodes on how to write patent claims. If you’re new to the podcast, you’ll want to go back and...

Why Obviousness Matters As I’ve mentioned before, the bane of almost every patent attorney’s existence is understanding what obviousness...

(This episode is with costs related to 2025 patent fees. These fees may have changed by the time you read this.) Fee Increases Coming in...

What Is a Post-Grant Supplemental Examination? Okay, so today we’re going to talk about something we don’t usually associate with...

The Basics of Patent Office Deadlines There are some tricky situations that come up with patent office deadlines, and they have to do...

Introduction to Public Disclosure and the On-Sale Bar I usually don’t talk too much about individual cases on this podcast, but that’s...

Introduction to SEPs and FRAND Today, we’re talking about Standard Essential Patents , and something called FRAND . Don’t let those terms...

What Does It Mean to Patent Traditional Knowledge or Genetic Resources? First, let me clarify what this topic doesn’t mean. You can’t...

Background and the Rosen-Durling Standard About two months ago, I did a podcast episode about the possibility that the test for...

Introduction to the Printed Matter Doctrine In this episode, I’m talking about a doctrine in patent law called the printed matter...

Why This Topic? This might seem like a strange topic, but I decided to include it because I recently saw a call come through from a 571...

What Is Analogous Art? We’re continuing our legal adventure into the world of patents, specifically focusing in this episode on a concept...

Design Patent Basics I’m going to talk about an interesting case that has come up in design patent law . I’ve done several other episodes...

Patent Center and Now Trademarks A few episodes ago, I talked about how the government created a new website for searching patents,...

A New Chapter Begins “New Beginnings” is the name of this podcast episode. If you got my newsletter—which I just sent out today—you know...

Recap of Public PAIR If you listened to Episode 129—as I’m sure you have—that episode was about Public PAIR. PAIR stands for Patent...