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

Trademark Maintenance and Renewal Checklist: A Practical Checklist

A checklist for keeping a federal trademark registration alive and strong, organized around the Lanham Act maintenance calendar: the Section 8 declaration of continued use between the fifth and sixth years and at each renewal, the combined Section 8 plus Section 9 renewal every ten years, the Section 71 path for Madrid registrations, and the optional Section 15 declaration of incontestability. It covers specimens, grace periods, the USPTO proof-of-use audit program, and the substantive threats no calendar can stop: abandonment through nonuse, genericide, and naked licensing. WHY notes, trap warnings, a common-mistakes list, and primary authority are included. Educational, not legal advice; confirm current fees and deadlines at USPTO.gov.

Casey Scott McKayMarch 16, 20267 min read

Intellectual PropertyPatent

Patent Prosecution Toolkit: A Roadmap and Research Guide

This toolkit is a high-level roadmap and curated library guide to U.S. patent prosecution, from capturing an invention through issuance and maintenance. It walks each stage: invention disclosure, patentability and freedom-to-operate searching, choosing between provisional and nonprovisional filings, drafting claims and specification, filing through Patent Center, examination and office-action responses, overcoming obviousness and eligibility rejections, allowance and issuance, paying maintenance fees, and honoring the duty of candor. At each stage it links to mclaw.io checklists and articles plus primary and official authorities including the MPEP, 35 U.S.C. Sections 101/102/103/112, and leading cases. This is general information, not legal advice; verify current USPTO fees and rules before filing.

Casey Scott McKayMarch 6, 202617 min read

Intellectual PropertyPatent

Patent License Term Sheet: A Practical Checklist

This checklist walks a patent owner and counsel through building a license term sheet—from the threshold question of whether to license at all, through valuation and the structure of the grant, to the royalty architecture and protective machinery, to the doctrinal landmines every licensor must avoid. It covers exclusive versus non-exclusive grants and the field-of-use and territorial hybrids in between; upfronts, running royalties, minimums, and milestones; audit rights, representations, warranties, and indemnity; and the Supreme Court rules that silently make royalty streams uncollectible—the Brulotte/Kimble bar on post-expiration royalties, the Lear right of a licensee to challenge validity, patent exhaustion, and patent misuse. It flags university licensing under Bayh-Dole and standard-essential patents under FRAND. Use it to turn the right to exclude into a revenue stream without giving away the crown jewels. Educational, not legal advice.

Casey Scott McKayFebruary 28, 20269 min read

Intellectual PropertyCopyright

Copyright Enforcement and DMCA Toolkit: A Roadmap and Research Guide

This toolkit is a high-level roadmap and curated library guide for enforcing copyrights and operating within the DMCA's notice-and-takedown system. It walks the process from detecting infringement, through filing and responding to DMCA takedown notices and counter-notices, qualifying for and maintaining Section 512 safe harbor as an online service provider, satisfying the registration prerequisite to suit, litigating infringement, evaluating fair use, and navigating the fast-moving generative-AI copyright disputes. At each stage it links to mclaw.io checklists and articles plus primary and official authorities including 17 U.S.C. Section 512, copyright.gov, and leading cases. This is general information, not legal advice; verify current procedures and law before acting.

Casey Scott McKayFebruary 27, 202615 min read

Intellectual PropertyTrademark

How to File a Trademark Application with the USPTO

A complete, current guide to registering a trademark or service mark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, written for entrepreneurs, in-house teams, and the attorneys who advise them. It walks through every decision that shapes an application—Principal versus Supplemental Register, filing basis under Sections 1(a), 1(b), 44, and 66(a), goods-and-services identification and Nice classification, standard-character versus special-form drawings, and specimens that actually survive examination. It explains the USPTO's January 18, 2025 fee overhaul, which retired the TEAS Plus and TEAS Standard tiers in favor of a single base application plus surcharges, and walks through examination, the three-month office-action deadline, publication and opposition, the statement of use, registration, and post-registration maintenance under Sections 8, 9, and 15. A running hypothetical—Northbound Coffee Roasters—keeps the doctrine concrete. Educational, not legal advice; confirm current fees at USPTO.gov.

Casey Scott McKayFebruary 23, 202642 min read

Intellectual PropertyTechnology Transfer

Technology Transfer Toolkit: Invention Reporting, License Terms, and Sponsored Research

This toolkit collects the documents a technology transfer practice runs on, from the invention disclosure form that starts every statutory clock through the utilization report request that keeps an institution compliant. It includes a deadline tracker keyed to the Bayh-Dole obligations, present assignment language, a license term sheet with the provisions that actually get negotiated, a net sales definition with combination-product allocation, sponsored research and material transfer terms, inter-institutional agreement structure, and startup-specific accommodations. Each template is annotated with its purpose, its owner, and the failure it prevents. Each template carries drafting notes on the federal obligations that cannot be negotiated away. Adapt everything to the institution's policies and the funding agency's terms.

Casey Scott McKayFebruary 20, 202613 min read

Intellectual PropertyTechnology Transfer

Bayh-Dole Compliance Checklist: A Practical Checklist

Bayh-Dole compliance is a system of deadlines and records, and institutions lose rights for administrative reasons rather than substantive ones. This checklist runs the full sequence: identifying subject inventions when funding is mixed, meeting the disclosure and election deadlines, including the government support statement, flowing the statutory conditions through to licensees, collecting the utilization data that only licensees possess, and maintaining the title records that determine whether a patent is enforceable at all. It includes sections for licensees receiving Bayh-Dole flow-through terms, for sponsored research negotiation, and for audit readiness. It runs from invention disclosure through election of title, filing, and utilization reporting. Every item is written so that a "no" tells you what to do next.

Casey Scott McKayFebruary 19, 20267 min read

Intellectual PropertyTechnology Transfer

Licensing University Technology: A Practical Guide for Companies and Inventors

Licensing technology out of a university is a negotiation between parties with genuinely different constraints, and most of the friction comes from each side not understanding the other's. This guide explains both. For companies, it covers what a technology transfer office can and cannot agree to, how to run diligence on a university patent, and which terms are movable. For inventors and founders, it covers disclosure timing, the publication decisions that destroy value, conflict of interest management, and what a startup license should look like. It includes a term sheet, a negotiation sequence, budget expectations, and the errors that reliably cost money on both sides.

Casey Scott McKayFebruary 18, 202628 min read

Intellectual PropertyTechnology Transfer

University Technology Transfer and Bayh-Dole: Who Owns Federally Funded Inventions

The Bayh-Dole Act let universities and small businesses keep title to inventions made with federal money, and it reshaped American research commercialization more than any other statute of its era. This article explains how it works: what makes an invention a subject invention, the disclosure and election deadlines that forfeit rights when missed, the government's retained license and march-in rights, and the domestic manufacturing preference. It covers the assignment problem the Supreme Court identified in Stanford v. Roche and how institutions fixed it, the mechanics of university licensing from disclosure through startup formation, and the recurring negotiation points between institutions and companies over sponsored research, background rights, and publication.

Casey Scott McKayFebruary 17, 202628 min read

Intellectual PropertyTrade and Customs

Border Enforcement Toolkit: Recordations, Seizure Responses, and Gray Market Programs

This toolkit collects the working documents of a border enforcement and anti-diversion program, from the material differences matrix that makes every other tool possible through the metrics dashboard that shows whether the program is working. It includes the Lever-rule petition structure, a product identification guide outline written for customs officers rather than lawyers, test purchase and forensic protocols, a code tracing log, channel audit and termination materials, marketplace complaint language, and the distribution agreement clauses that give diversion consequences. Each template is annotated with its purpose, its owner, and the failure it prevents. Each template carries drafting notes on what CBP is looking for and what it ignores. Adapt everything to the mark, the product, and the import channel.

Casey Scott McKayFebruary 12, 202611 min read

Intellectual PropertyCopyright

Registering a Copyright in Software: A Practical Checklist

Software is protected by copyright the instant it is written, but registration is the gateway to federal court, statutory damages, and attorney's fees. This checklist walks a developer, founder, or counsel through registering a computer program: confirming ownership and clearing contractor and open-source issues, choosing the application, completing the limitation-of-claim field, and preparing a source-code deposit using the first-25-and-last-25 rule and the special trade-secret redaction options that let you register without surrendering your crown jewels. It covers derivative versions, screen displays, the Rule of Doubt for object code, and special relief when the source is gone. It cites the deposit mechanics in the Compendium and the timing rules of Section 412. Verify current fees and deposit options at copyright.gov before filing.

Casey Scott McKayFebruary 11, 20268 min read

Intellectual PropertyPatent

Patent Cases to Watch in the Second Half of 2024: Implications for IP Strategy

This long-form analysis surveys the patent decisions and pending issues that reshaped patent law around 2024 and into 2025, and explains what each means for portfolio owners. It covers the Federal Circuit's en banc LKQ v. GM decision overhauling design-patent obviousness, the design-patent damages framework that makes those patents so valuable, the enablement fallout from Amgen v. Sanofi, the persistent uncertainty of Section 101 eligibility after Alice and Mayo, the Supreme Court's history-and-tradition turn in Vidal v. Elster, the USPTO's evolving examination guidance, developments at the PTAB including the long-running Fintiv discretionary-denial saga, and trends in patent damages and apportionment. For each area the article states the issue, its status and known aftermath, and the concrete IP-strategy implication for prosecution, portfolio management, and litigation. It is written as durable strategic guidance, candidly flagging where outcomes have continued to evolve since 2024. The goal is to help inventors, in-house counsel, and litigators position their portfolios against a moving body of law.

Casey Scott McKayFebruary 11, 202662 min read