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MORE PILLOW TALK?

How My Quick Action on an Anti-Gunner’s Trademark Blunder Made Me the Lead of the Story in Newsweek Remember when Newsweek used to be important?  Well, it became important again to me after last month.  I had spent a family day on a Sunday with the phone off, full attention on the kids.  Late in the afternoon, I turned the phone on, and saw a Google Alert email. I have it set to search for anything in the news with “firearms patent”. This was more interesting than the usual stuff. Newsweek had written an article about me, and about what I wrote last month (I  [...]

By Ben Langlotz | May 1, 2021 | Firearms | 0 Comments Read More »

PILLOW FIGHT!

How I Taught a Harvard Boy A Lesson About Trademarks It was a Tuesday night. I was surfing Twitter one evening in February when I ran across a story about David Hogg’s new scheme. He’s the Parkland High School student who turned anti-gun activist after his school was attacked and many of his classmates murdered. Doubts have been raised about his truthfulness about his presence and exploitation of the evil act and its tragic result, and I don’t have anything to add to the accusations that he Hogged the limelight for personal gain. It did work out well, because  [...]

By Ben Langlotz | April 5, 2021 | Firearms | 0 Comments Read More »

THE JOURNALIST’S GUIDE TO GUNS

(How Not to Look Like an Idiot When Writing About Guns) Journalists. Bless their hearts. As a rule of thumb, any time we read a news story about a subject or incident we already know a lot about, it turns out that about 25% of what’s reported is simply wrong. This is why knowledgeable gun owners distrust many news stories involving guns: because too many “journalists” display an ignorance of firearms that would be laughable if it weren’t so appalling. If they can’t get their facts straight about gun technology and the facts about shooting, then we don’t  [...]

By Ben Langlotz | March 3, 2021 | Firearms | 0 Comments Read More »

UNPRECEDENTED UNCERTAINTY

Most of the advice I give seems to revolve around helping my clients manage uncertainty. When things are certain, you probably don’t need anyone’s advice. Now, after many months not talking about the political scene in our nation, there’s a new world to discuss. But my advice remains the same: don’t trust anyone who is certain of anything. Not even me. What makes these uncertain times even more alarming is that the circumstances are unprecedented. And the unprecedented factors are piling up. Fast. WHICH Amendment? I’m even more worried about the first  [...]

By Ben Langlotz | February 3, 2021 | Firearms | 0 Comments Read More »

How to Be a Smart Patent Investor

The True Cost of Patent Protection, and an Ideal Tool to Make Smarter Patent Decisions Your favorite patent attorney would love to write about all the news of the season, but by the time this old-fashioned printed news reaches you, it would be laughably out of date. My quick summary is that about 5-10% of my top client contacts (owner, CEO) have contracted and recovered from COVID in the past few months, and most of my clients report a number of their own employees have been out with it, all recovering. It’s going around middle America, and I suspect it will burn  [...]

By Ben Langlotz | January 7, 2021 | Firearms | 0 Comments Read More »

HOW TO KILL A BAD PATENT BEFORE IT KILLS YOU

As I’ve written before, sometimes the Patent Office grants a patent that simply shouldn’t have been granted. (Even government employees make a mistake now and then, after all). The important question is what do you do when you’re accused of infringing a patent you think should never have been granted? One famous but harmless example of a bad patent was the “Method of Swinging” involving pulling on the swing set ropes alternately to swing side to side, like every child has done. Oops! Fortunately, no playground moppets received cease-and-desist letters. The  [...]

By Ben Langlotz | December 3, 2020 | Patent | 0 Comments Read More »