Intellectual Property Insights

Analysis and practical guides on intellectual property.

265 articles, checklists, and guides on intellectual property law, written by the attorneys at MC Law. Every piece is general information, not legal advice — for a specific matter, contact the firm.

Intellectual PropertyTrademark

Brand Protection Online: A Strategic Guide for Businesses

This guide explains how businesses can protect their brands across the internet, from federal trademark registration through enforcement against cybersquatters, counterfeiters, and online impersonators. It covers the Lanham Act framework, the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act and the UDRP, keyword advertising and metatag litigation, marketplace anti-counterfeiting programs including Amazon Brand Registry, Tariff Act customs seizures, DMCA notice-and-takedown, gray-market parallel imports under the first-sale doctrine, and the limits of online reputation and defamation remedies. It translates each doctrine into plain language, illustrates the law with worked hypotheticals, and cites the controlling statutes and leading cases. The article closes with a practical, repeatable monitoring-and-enforcement program, a worked multi-threat example, and a short FAQ. It is written so that brand managers, in-house counsel, and litigators can all use it as a working reference.

Casey Scott McKayAugust 8, 202649 min read

Intellectual PropertyTrademark

The Trademark Process: From Search to Registration and Beyond

This guide walks a brand owner through the entire life of a U.S. trademark, from picking a name to keeping the registration alive decades later. It explains the distinctiveness spectrum (the Abercrombie ladder from generic to fanciful), how clearance searches work, the difference between use-based and intent-to-use filing bases, and what happens when a USPTO examining attorney issues a refusal under Section 2(d) for likelihood of confusion or Section 2(e) for descriptiveness. It covers the mechanics of TEAS e-filing, the specimen rules that sink more applications than anything else, publication and opposition before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, the Notice of Allowance and Statement of Use, the certificate of registration, and the post-registration maintenance filings under Sections 8, 15, and 9. It folds in the changes wrought by the Trademark Modernization Act of 2020 and the 2020 e-filing rules. Written for founders, in-house lawyers, and the curious alike, it pairs plain-English explanations with worked hypotheticals and primary authority. The aim is to demystify a process that intimidates many small businesses but follows a surprisingly logical arc. It is general information, not legal advice.

Casey Scott McKayAugust 5, 202645 min read

Intellectual PropertyRight of Publicity

Right of Publicity Basics

The right of publicity is the legal right to control the commercial use of your name, image, likeness, voice, and other recognizable parts of your identity. It is almost entirely a creature of state law, so it varies dramatically from one state to the next, and it grew out of privacy law before courts recognized it as a property right in its own right. This article traces the doctrine from Haelan Laboratories and the Supreme Court's only right-of-publicity decision, Zacchini, through the voice and persona cases (Midler v. Ford, Waits v. Frito-Lay, and White v. Samsung), and explains the First Amendment, transformative-use, and copyright-preemption defenses that frequently defeat these claims. It covers who is protected, the registration and "continuing use" hoops some postmortem statutes impose, how the right differs from defamation, false light, trademark, and copyright, the remedies available, and the new wave of AI, voice-cloning, and deepfake legislation, including Tennessee's ELVIS Act and the proposed federal NO FAKES Act. Worked examples and a FAQ make the concepts concrete for celebrities, businesses, and ordinary people alike. The piece is educational and is not a substitute for advice from qualified counsel.

Casey Scott McKayAugust 2, 202649 min read

Intellectual PropertyPatent Litigation

Global Patent Litigation Strategies: Navigating the Complex Web of International IP Disputes

This in-depth guide explains how to plan, coordinate, and prosecute patent litigation across multiple countries when a single product line infringes parallel patents in many markets. It begins with the bedrock principle of territoriality and the treaty architecture (Paris Convention priority, the PCT, and the European Patent Convention) that lets innovators build a coordinated multinational portfolio, then walks through the major litigation forums: the U.S. district courts and the International Trade Commission, the Unified Patent Court and Germany's bifurcated system, the United Kingdom, China, Japan, and Korea. It analyzes the standard-essential patent (SEP) and FRAND wars in detail, including the Huawei v. ZTE protocol, global rate-setting in Unwired Planet v. Huawei and the InterDigital litigation, the German Sisvel v. Haier line, and the escalating tit-for-tat of anti-suit and anti-anti-suit injunctions. The article also covers cross-border discovery tools (28 U.S.C. 1782, the Hague Evidence Convention, and the Aerospatiale comity analysis), coordination of parallel proceedings and global settlements, and the recognition and enforcement of judgments abroad. Throughout, it offers concrete worked examples and practical guidance for both patent owners and accused infringers operating on a global stage.

Casey Scott McKayJuly 19, 202665 min read

Intellectual PropertyTechnology

Protecting Your Mobile App: A Comprehensive IP Strategy Guide

A mobile app is a single product wrapped in four overlapping legal regimes at once: trademark in the name and icon, copyright in the code and creative assets, patent in any genuinely novel functionality, and trade secret in the algorithms you never reveal. This guide maps each regime onto the parts of an app it actually protects, explains how to secure each one in the right order and at the right cost, and flags the traps that sink solo developers and venture-backed startups alike. It is current through 2026, reflecting Google v. Oracle on API copyrightability, the Alice patent-eligibility landscape, the post-Epic v. Apple app-store world, the 2025 USPTO trademark fee overhaul, the Defend Trade Secrets Act, and the Copyright Office's refusal to register purely AI-generated material. Worked hypotheticals and a lifecycle checklist tie the doctrine to the choices a developer actually faces. Read it before you ship, not after a competitor clones you.

Casey Scott McKayJuly 5, 202661 min read

Intellectual PropertyTrademark

Trademark Overview: The Subject Matter of Trademark Law

This is Part 1 of a four-part overview of United States trademark law, and it answers the most fundamental question in the field: what can actually function as a trademark? It walks through the kinds of things that can serve as marks--words, logos, slogans, trade dress, color, sound, scent, motion, plus the specialized worlds of service marks, certification marks, and collective marks--and explains the distinctiveness spectrum from Abercrombie that decides whether a designation is protectable at all. It covers the special problem of generic terms after the Supreme Court's Booking.com decision, the genericide that has killed once-famous brands, and the functionality bar that keeps useful product features (and the disadvantaging features the courts call "aesthetically functional") out of trademark. It closes with the statutory bars in Section 2 of the Lanham Act as reshaped by Tam, Brunetti, and Elster. Worked hypotheticals and plain-language definitions make the doctrine accessible to lawyers and non-lawyers alike. Read alongside the companion parts on substantive standards, obtaining protection, and infringement.

Casey Scott McKayJune 28, 202648 min read

Intellectual PropertyTrademark

Trade Dress Protection Toolkit: From Product Design and Packaging to Registration, Functionality, and Enforcement

This toolkit is a roadmap to protecting the look and feel of a product or its packaging as trade dress. It explains what trade dress is, the crucial distinction between product packaging (which can be inherently distinctive) and product design or configuration (which always requires secondary meaning after Wal-Mart v. Samara), the functionality bar that defeats protection, how to register trade dress at the USPTO, how trade dress compares to and complements design patents, and how to enforce it. At each stage it links mclaw.io articles and checklists alongside the governing Lanham Act provisions and the Supreme Court's foundational trade dress cases. It is written for product companies, brand counsel, and litigators. Verify current USPTO requirements and fees before filing.

Casey Scott McKayJune 24, 202612 min read

Intellectual PropertyPatent

Artificial Intelligence and Inventorship: Global Perspectives on Machine Contributions to Innovation

Patent systems around the world now agree that an inventor must be a human being, yet they disagree—sharply, and in ways that change real filings—about how much a person must contribute when an AI system does much of the creative work. This article explains the global state of play in plain language, anchored by the DABUS litigation that forced the question and a realistic mid-spectrum example of a scientist inventing with AI assistance. It covers the United States (including the USPTO's November 2025 rescission of its 2024 guidance and its return to the traditional conception test), the European Patent Office, the United Kingdom, and the major Asian patent offices. It also tackles the twin problem of disclosure—written description and enablement for "black box" inventions—and distinguishes the settled formal rule from the unsettled practical question. Throughout, it maps the spectrum of human involvement and offers concrete documentation, drafting, and cross-border strategies, with worked hypotheticals a judge, a patent lawyer, and a curious founder can all follow.

Casey Scott McKayJune 22, 202643 min read

Intellectual PropertyPatent

How to Prepare an Invention Disclosure for Your Patent Attorney

An invention disclosure is the single document from which a patent application is built, and its quality sets the ceiling on the protection an inventor can ever obtain. This guide explains what patent claims actually require, how to describe a technical problem and solution in language that translates into claims, why documenting alternative embodiments matters more than most inventors expect, and how to identify prior art in ways that help rather than harm an application. It works through the legal machinery that the disclosure feeds—conception and reduction to practice, inventorship under the Pannu standard, the duty of candor under 37 C.F.R. § 1.56 and Therasense, the enablement and written-description requirements of 35 U.S.C. § 112, and the on-sale and public-use bars after Helsinn—and explains why lab-notebook discipline and confidentiality protect a patent's foundation. It includes a reusable disclosure-form template and annotated examples contrasting effective and ineffective disclosures. The aim is a disclosure that lets counsel claim the full scope of the invention, support every claim, and survive both examination and later challenge.

Casey Scott McKayJune 17, 202654 min read

Intellectual PropertyPatent

Choosing Between a Design and Utility Patent: A Practical Checklist

Design patents and utility patents share the word "patent" and almost nothing else: a utility patent protects how an invention works under 35 U.S.C. § 101; a design patent protects how an article looks under 35 U.S.C. § 171. They differ in term, claim structure, examination, cost, the infringement test, and—dramatically—damages. This checklist helps an inventor, founder, or counsel decide whether to file a utility patent, a design patent, or both, by working through what the value of the invention really is, how each is examined and enforced, the total-profit damages superpower of § 289 after Samsung v. Apple, the post-LKQ rise in the design obviousness bar, the broken-line drawing strategy that sets design scope, and the international filing deadlines (12 months for utility, 6 months for design). It also flags the overlap with trade dress and copyright.

Casey Scott McKayJune 14, 20269 min read

Intellectual PropertyPatent Litigation

Finding Evidence of Inequitable Conduct in Patent Prosecution: A Comprehensive Guide for Attorneys and Inventors

This litigator's companion guide explains how to find, plead, and prove (or defend against) inequitable conduct in patent prosecution. It walks through the heightened pleading requirements of Exergen Corp. v. Wal-Mart Stores under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 9(b), the demanding Therasense standard of but-for materiality and specific intent to deceive, and the duty of candor codified at 37 C.F.R. Section 1.56. It maps the practical sources of evidence a litigator mines -- file histories, Information Disclosure Statements, foreign counterparts, inventor declarations, and assignment records -- and lays out discovery strategy, crime-fraud and prosecution-bar issues, the use of technical and patent-practice experts, and the clear-and-convincing burden at trial. Worked hypotheticals illustrate how the pieces fit together, and a closing FAQ answers the questions clients ask most. The article is written so a judge, a practicing lawyer, and an inventor can all follow it.

Casey Scott McKayJune 2, 202650 min read

Intellectual PropertyCopyright

Copyright FAQs: Answers to Common Copyright Questions

This hub FAQ answers the questions people most often ask about U.S. copyright law, in plain language for creators, businesses, lawyers, and the merely curious. It explains what copyright is and where it comes from, what it does and does not protect, the exclusive rights bundle, how protection arises automatically on fixation, and how long it lasts under the layered rules for old and new works. It walks through registration and why timing is everything, fair use after Google v. Oracle and Warhol v. Goldsmith, the DMCA takedown system, how infringement is actually proved through access and substantial similarity, the full range of remedies including the small-claims Copyright Claims Board, work made for hire, transfers, and the powerful and deadline-driven right to terminate them. Worked examples and clearly labeled hypotheticals keep the answers concrete. Throughout, the article links to deeper mclaw.io guides on each topic.

Casey Scott McKayMay 30, 202658 min read