Intellectual Property Advice

Steel Spines Required


After the Mandalay Massacre* I must salute my friends and clients who produce innovative products that help guns go “bang” faster and better. It’s indisputable that select fire weapons are of great military usefulness, and even if these are effectively banned to the people the Second Amendment should be considered to protect bump-fire stocks, rotary trigger, and binary  [...]

How To Kill A Patent


Unpatented but Legally Potent It all started when I was on Facebook, innocently minding my own business. OK, as usual I was actually minding everyone else’s business on Facebook. Sometimes, when Karmen hears me typing furiously in the next room she calls out: “Honey, is someone wrong on the Internet again?” I have a zillion Facebook friends in the industry, so I  [...]

The Royalty Dream


How to License Your Inventions Even More Fun Than Making Gun Stuff? Before sharing the secrets of licensing inventions and living the dream of strolling to the mailbox to pick up checks, there is a bit of news. The other dream of most gun designers, executives, and business owners is to sell to the Big Boys. For the third time in recent years, another of my clients has  [...]

Snooping Your Competitor’s Secrets


Not a Photo of Donald Trump Every month, I personally search every trademark filing in the firearms industry. Keeping my ear to the ground like that helps me alert my trademark clients to cases of trademark infringement, usually at a very early stage. This helps us to nip conflicts in the bud, before the infringer becomes heavily invested and entrenched in their  [...]

The SHOT Show in the Trump Era


It was the end of an era, and the beginning of a new age. On the final day of the 2017 SHOT Show all the business and gossip came to a halt, and we inaugurated a new President. The fear is gone, and that put the spring in our steps even on the fourth day of the show. But the big topic of conversation during the show was: “What now?” Companies no longer can run the CNC  [...]

Can a Cartridge Design Be Patented?


This is an article written by Kevin Crank for AllOutdoor.com. Crank is a wildcatter, meaning that he makes wildcat cartridges. Wildcat cartridges are customized versions of commercially available cartridges, usually designed to enhance some performance characteristic of the original cartridge. These alterations produce measurable differences in ballistic performance, and he  [...]