United States Intellectual Property Attorney

Law Office of Andrew P. Lahser, PLC

16824 East Avenue of the Fountains
Suite 14
Fountain Hills, Arizona 85268
USA

(480) 816-9383

(480) 837-5378

www.lahserpatent.com

Contact Andrew P. Lahser, Patent Attorney

Law Firm Overview

The Law Office of Andrew P. Lahser, PLC provides intellectual property law services to mostly small businesses, tech start-ups and entrepreneurs. Our clients are located across the United States and abroad. Andrew P. Lahser, patent attorney, is licensed to practice in Arizona and before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. His practice is limited exclusively to intellectual property law. Our firm is committed to providing superior legal services at reasonable fixed-fee rates. Mr. Lahser educates clients to spot issues before they become legal problems. He aspires to creative, cost-effective solutions.

Prior to practicing law, Mr. Lahser worked as an engineer and entrepreneur for over 12 years: designing labor-allocation systems for assembly lines at Ford Motor Company; expanding the drug manufacturing systems at Merck’s flagship plant; improving the “radio-ratings” process for Arbitron; growing a niche software consulting practice; coordinating Korean and US engineering teams on a warehousing and logistics project for Nike; participating in the management of a family-owned, 25 location, retail business; working pre-sales and writing governmental RFP for Compuware; and co-authoring a custom ticketing and online seat assignment system for the NHL’s Hartford Whalers (now the Carolina Hurricanes).

Year this Office was Established: 2005

Practice Areas

Additional Practice Areas: IP Infringement; Trade Dress.

Practice Areas Description

The Law Office of Andrew P. Lahser, PLC provides intellectual property law services for patents, trademarks, copyrights and software law.

- Patent Searching

You can determine how your invention is different from earlier inventions by conducting a “prior art search.” Inventions that come before your invention are referred to as “prior art” by patent attorneys. The differences between your invention and the prior art can be estimated by comparing the invention and the prior art to find their differences. A “prior art search” finds similar inventions. You and your patent attorney can analyze these inventions to determine the potentially new parts, functions, steps or combinations. The search can guide how, or if, the invention differs from the other, early inventions. These differences can show how the patent is new. The new portions of your invention are the portions that you may prevent your competition from doing after the patent issues. This is important, so here it is again. The new portions of your invention are the portions that you will eventually be able to prevent your competition from doing.

- Patent Applications

To encourage inventors to quickly file patents, many foreign governments require that the inventor file a patent application prior to any of these events: the first public use of the invention; the date of publication of any description of the invention; the date of any sale, or offer for sale, the invention. In one case, a secret invention was “stolen” by competitor through corporate espionage. Then, the competitor described the stolen, previously secret, invention in a trade magazine. The inventor filed a patent application more than a year after the trade magazine published. The inventor first learned about the theft and espionage when the Patent Office rejected the patent application using the trade magazine publication.

Practically speaking, this prevents meaningful market testing prior to filing a patent application. If patent protection is necessary, you should file a patent application should before marketing, offering for sale, or even disclosing information about the new invention to anyone but trusted individuals and advisors who have been sworn to secrecy.

- Trademarks

The US trademark registration form is deceptively simple. The online form can be completed in about 30 minutes. The form uses legal “terms of art” that can mislead first time users. These traps for the unwary can prevent registration or lie dormant until much later to prevent broad assertion of the trademark registration rights. Just being aware of these issues can help avoid them. When responding to a trademark office action, you need to consider:

• any statements you submit to the Trademark Office may be later used against you;
• the statements of the trademark examining attorney might be used against you if you do not present argument or evidence to clarify or rebut the examiner’s position;
• if there is a “likelihood of confusion” with another trademark;
• if the trademark may be “descriptive” or generic term for the stuff in your goods and services;
• any other grounds for refusal, for example, formalities, trademark samples, ornamentation, geographic significance, deceptiveness, false connections, etc.;
• what kind of evidence was presented by the trademark examiner;
• what types of evidence are available to you to support your trademark;
• what will be the impact of limiting or clarifying your trademark;
• what relationship you have to any third-party who’s trademark may be mentioned in the office action and;
• whether and how you should interview the trademark examiner.