The good news just keeps coming! Please congratulate Ivan on his eleventh patent, this one for a 4 in 1 combination hairstyling comb and ruler. Here is a photo of Ivan and Susan proudly holding their patent and their TheOneComb(R) – shared with their permission. Susana received her first patent, for a decorative lip tint bottle. We saw new trademarks issue for Michael B, Michael S, Samantha, Chris, Annie, Katie and Andrew. Those are a lot of small companies investing in and strengthening their brand identity. These new registrations make it that much easier to ward off would-be infringers.

Speaking of infringement, the firm continues to zealously defend clients accused of patent, trademark and copyright infringement. Cease and desist letters do not scare us. Serial litigants do not scare us. We scrupulously investigate these claims, quickly identify their strengths and weaknesses, and confidently respond. In so doing, we free our clients from the burden of having to handle these negotiations themselves.

The Patent & Trademark Office continues to operate its First Time Filer Pilot initiative. Up to 1,000 qualified applicants can request expedited examination for free. As of last week, only 342 applicants have taken advantage of this. One of these was client Ted V. We hope new client E.R. will also qualify. There are 658 more slots available. If you are filing your first patent application, call me to see whether you, too, can get on the fast track to inventorship.

Thank you to all of the people who work behind the scenes to make the law firm run smoothly and seamlessly. That would be Cliff Rohde of Goat Cloud Communications, Jim Pritchard of Straight Line Services, the team at Global Patent Solutions, Renee Diederichs and the team at Everactive Solutions, to name but a few.

Happy New Year and happy inventing!