Dear Rich: Nolo’s Patent, Copyright & Trademark Blog

Dear Rich: Help! A friend of a friend failed to pay his patent maintenance fees timely and his patents have expired. Is there any way to pay a late fee and "revive" the patents? Yes there is. If it's been less than two years since the patent expired, you can revive it if you pay the fee and a surcharge of between $700 and $1640 depending on whether the reason for the failure was 'unavoidable' or 'unintentional.'  You'll need to file a petition and you can learn more about the requirements, here. If it's been more than two years, you can revive the patent only if you can show the failure was unavoidable. This article explains it better than the Dear Rich Staff (and we recommend the blog to all patent fans).

Dear Rich: If I chose to completely assign my copyright in a personally created work of authorship to a sole proprietorship or single-shareholder S-corp -- with either of these businesses being owned exclusively by me -- would the copyrighted product be considered a work made for hire in determining the duration of its legal protection? The short answer to your question is "No." Just because a business acquires a copyright does not make it a work made for hire. The Dear Rich Staff reports that work made for hire status is determined by the original act of authorship -- that is, who is the author and under what conditions the work is created. If it was created by an employee within the course of employment or by an independent contractor (and it fulfills the IC work for hire requirements), it will be a work made for hire forever (or at least for the duration of copyright). In other words, authorship status travels with the copyright no matter who acquires it down the road.

Dear Rich: I wonder if you can help. My great-grandfather patented several steel inventions back in the early 20th century in the U.S. How do I find these and what happened to them after he died in 1941? Do the next of kin have any rights to them? I'm so glad you asked. The short answers to your questions are: (1) you can find out more about the patents at the Google Patents site, (2) anything patented in the early 20th century is in the public domain now, and (3) there are no rights in public domain inventions. The Dear Rich staff recommends Google Patents instead of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office searching site because Google is easier to use and more comprehensive. Try the Advanced Search feature to search by inventor name. Prior to 1995, U.S. patents had a duration of 17 years, after which the invention is free for anyone to use or manufacture. We wonder if your great-grandfather was one of those early 20th Century steel pioneers who gave us stainless steel, modern dry-blasting, or a revolutionary method of making rails. (Digression Dept.: Speaking of steel, the Dear Rich staff learned today that it takes 7 kg (15 lbs.) of steel to manufacture a bicycle and 816 kg (1800 lbs) to manufacture a car. No wonder H. G. Wells said, "When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race.")