Russ Krajec, Author at IP Insurance

What Your Business Needs to Know About Copyright Law (Intellectual Property 101)

Marketers who do not grasp copyright and intellectual property laws face a tarnished image and costly lawsuits. The Internet has become the primary advertising medium for most businesses. Many advertisers don’t realize that just because something is available on the internet, it is *not* available for their use. By copying someone else’s work, they often…

Trademarks and Intellectual Property: What you need to know

Those tiny superscript symbols that appear next to brand names and logos—TM and ®- represent trademarks. The TM mark means that someone considers the wording to be their trademark, but the trademark is unregistered. The ® means that the trademark is registered with the USPTO. A trademark represents the branding of your business, your product,…

Is getting sued by a patent troll worse than getting sued by a competitor?

Patent enforcement lawsuits have been around for a century or more, from the sewing machine patents in 1851, Morse’s patent lawsuits on the telegraph in 1853, the Wright Brothers patent lawsuits around 1910, and on and on. A big moment on the patent scene was the Blackberry patent lawsuit in the early 2000’s. A set…

Will Your Patent Survive the PTAB during an IPR?

The biggest change that happened in the America Invents Act during the Obama administration was the creation of the Inter Partes Review (IPR) process. Your patent will be reviewed by a group of administrative law judges in a slimmed-down version of a court proceeding. (For the uninitiated, the American Invents Act is when the patent…

Who is going to sue you for patent infringement?

RPX is one of the leaders in IP-related insurance, and they publish well-researched articles on IP-related litigation. Their graph on patent infringement is shown below: What does this graph show? NPE (non-practicing entities) are patent owners who are enforcing their patents against an operating company. (Operating companies are the only ones who infringe patents, so…

Patent Litigation Phases

Patent litigation progresses through several distinct phases. We will cover the phases through federal district court, but then the appeals kick in. Patent litigation is a specialized litigation with its own procedures and even its own appeals court (the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit or CAFC). The appeals court works in the same…

Patent Litigation Costs

Patent litigation costs average between $700K and $4M. This is from the AIPLA Economic Survey, assuming $25M at risk. According to Morrison and Forester, over $3B (with a “B”) was spent on IP litigation in 2019. This is a staggering number. In their report, Morrison and Forester say that the number of matters being litigated…

Does your Comprehensive General Liability policy cover you for IP claims?

Intellectual property – be it your branding (trademark) or your technology (patents and trade secrets) – are your biggest competitive advantage. IP is a huge corporate asset, but is it covered under your business’s Comprehensive General Liability insurance policy? (Hint: the answer is no.) CGL Policies Cover “Advertising Injury” Comprehensive General Liability policies typically include…

Intellectual Property is far too under-insured

Aon’s Financial Impact of Intellectual Property and Cyber Assets Report for 2020 shows how dreadfully under-insured companies are for intellectual property related losses. The report shows that PP&E (Property Plant and Equipment) is insured at a rate of 61% for losses, with the remaining losses being self-insured. In contrast, only about 15% of information assets…