Harness Dickey

Harness Dickey’s team of trademark and patent attorneys serve clients in all areas of intellectual property law, including patents, trademarks, IP litigation, PTAB Proceedings, trade secrets, due diligence investigations, and global IP management.

In response to Detroit’s growing automotive industry, J. King Harness established Harness Dickey in 1921. Serving as the head of the patent department for the Ford Motor Company, Harness understood the value of expertise in intellectual property and set out to open a firm that would focus exclusively on intellectual property law.

Today, we are one of the top IP law firms in the U.S. measured by both the number of attorneys and by objective rankings of results. Our trademark and patent attorneys represent world leaders in business and technology, and our collective experience spans practically every practice area and niche specialty within intellectual property law.

Website: https://www.hdp.com/
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Harness Dickey Blogs

Harness Dickey Blog

Blog Authors

Douglas A. Robinson
Bryan K. Wheelock
Bryan Wheelock

Latest from Harness Dickey

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Takeaway Even a business with a relatively simple product can create value by making its product distinctive and  then protecting that distinctiveness. The key is to develop unique, non-functional features that customers can rely upon to identify the business and its products, and protect those features, for example with a federal trademark registration Backstory Nothing Bundt Cakes has built a business around Bundt cakes. Since anyone with a Bundt pan, the right ingredients, and an…
Peloton Interactive is the latest company in the exercise equipment and fitness space to become aggressive in its assertion of patent rights. The well-publicized battles with Echelon Fitness are one example. In late 2020, Peloton also took on former litigation champ Icon Health and Fitness in a lawsuit filed in the District of Delaware. On April 13, 2021, however, Peloton found itself on the receiving end of a patent infringement complaint filed by Dish Technologies…
The Supreme Court finally resolved the dispute between Google and Oracle over Google’s copying of 11,500 lines of declaring code from nearly 3 million lines of code from Sun Java API was copyright infringement. Dodging the question of whether such code is even copyrightable, the Supreme Court found that the copying of the code, for the purpose of making Android programming similar to other Java programming, was a fair use. The Supreme Court found that…
The Supreme Court finally resolved the dispute between Google and Oracle over Google’s copying of 11,500 lines of declaring code from nearly 3 million lines of code from Sun Java API was copyright infringement. Dodging the question of whether such code is even copyrightable, the Supreme Court found that the copying of the code, for the purpose of making Android programming similar to other Java programming, was a fair use. The Supreme Court found that…
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In a St. Patrick’s Day blog post, we explored how the common shape of the shamrock is used as a descriptive term in patent descriptions and claims. In this Easter post, we turn to the use of another common shape: the egg. There are multiple ways of describing a product as being egg-shaped, the most obvious of which is the straightforward “egg-shaped.” There are, however, three other popular options to choose from: Ovoid Ovate Oviform…
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Another holiday celebrated though the records of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Happy Easter to all who celebrate it (or just like candy). U.S. Patent No. 3,848,564 covers a Rotating Egg Coloring Device U.S. Patent No. 5,878,698 covers an Ornamental Pet Collar Cover. U.S. Patent No. 2,102,329 covers a Package. U.S. Patent No. D349,470 covers an Easter Greenhouse. U.S. Patent No. 4,124,135 covers a Hinged Plastic Easter Egg. U.S. Patent No. D338,139 covers Bunny…
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In a St. Patrick’s Day blog post, we explored how the common shape of the shamrock is used as a descriptive term in patent descriptions and claims. In this Easter post, we turn to the use of another common shape: the egg. There are multiple ways of describing a product as being egg-shaped, the most obvious of which is the straightforward “egg-shaped.” There are, however, three other popular options to choose from: Ovoid Ovate Oviform…
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It’s St. Patrick’s Day, and a good time to review how it is celebrated in the records of U.S. Patent Office. U.S. D505846 Covers a Shamrock Shaped Bottle Opener U.S. Patent No. D460716 covers a Shamrock Decoration U.S. Patent No. D529549 covers a Shamrock Bingo Dobber U.S. Patent No. D445315 covers a Shamrock Cookie Die U.S. Patent No. 7,393,113 covers an Illuminating Necklace with shamrock lights U.S. Patent No. 10092020 covers Non-Contact Printed Comestible Products…
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Shamrock-shaped is an apt descriptor for the decoration of the day, but it is also a useful descriptor of a multi-lobed configuration. For example, in U.S. Patent No. 7,784,624, it was an apt descriptor for the shape of opening of the slot 35 which was designed to hold three bats: It was also used to describe the cross section of the front part 15 of a bone nail in U.S. Patent No. 9,375,241: U.S. Patent…
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One of the first requirements of patentability is the utility requirement of 35 USC 101: Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title. Since something that doesn’t work is not useful, the short (and correct) answer is “No, you cannot patent something that does not work.” While…