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Gregory Lars Gunnerson

Lars is a patent attorney with a technical background in Aerospace Engineering (University of Minnesota ’13). Much of Lars’ practice focuses on drafting, prosecuting, and enforcing mechanical, electrical, and design patents. Before coming to MVS, Lars gained valuable experience at the USPTO drafting Office actions as a Summer Extern in USPTO Art Unit 2837, which relates to musical technologies and inductors. He is the Chair of the MVS Design Patent Practice Group.

Lars joined MVS after graduating magna cum laude from the Mitchell Hamline School of Law. While completing his law degree, Lars was awarded Mitchell Hamline’s Patent Law Certificate; served as a Notes & Comments Editor for Cybaris®, an Intellectual Property Law Review; conducted research for Professor R. Carl Moy; was elected Vice President of Mitchell Hamline’s Student Intellectual Property Law Association; and prosecuted patent applications as a certified Student Attorney through Mitchell Hamline’s Intellectual Property Law Clinic.

Lars enjoys competition, as some of his favorite hobbies include numbers, sports, and games. Lars’ favorite course in college was thus unsurprisingly Honors Game Theory. Lars also enjoys travelling to foreign countries with his family, and is a dual citizen of the United States and Ireland.

  • Copyright and Media Law
  • Design Patents
  • Electrical Patents
  • International
  • Mechanical Patents
  • Software & Business Methods Patents
  • Trademarks
  • Academic Research and Technology Transfer
  • Advanced Manufacturing
  • Agritech
  • Construction and Infrastructure
  • Copyright, Media, Entertainment, And Branding
  • Lighting
  • Medical Devices

Professional Associations

LegalCORPS: Inventor Assistance Program, 2019–Present

Iowa State Bar Association, 2019–Present

AUTM, 2018–Present

Iowa Intellectual Property Law Association, 2017–Present

Minnesota Intellectual Property Law Association, 2016–2017, 2023-Present

American Intellectual Property Law Association, 2017-Present

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Lifetime Member

Education

Mitchell Hamline School of Law, J.D., magna cum laude, Certificate in Patent Law, 2017

University of Minnesota, B.S., Aerospace Engineering & Mechanics, Minors in Economic Theory and Astrophysics, 2013

Speaking / Publishing Engagements

Panelist: LEGUS International, May 2023
Young Lawyers Roundtable: Efficiencies, Fixed Fees, & Automation

Series Panelist: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Lincoln, Nebraska and Ames, Iowa
Transitioning From School to the Work Force, Hosted by University of Nebraska (October 2022) and Iowa State University (February 2022)

Speaker: LawPracticeCLE, August 2022
Game Changing Innovations in the Virtual World

Speaker: MyLawCLE & the Federal Bar Association, February 2022
Patents in The Virtual World: Seeking Gaming Patents, Licensing, and Other Legal Issues that Plague Gaming Providers, Small and Large

Speaker: Soft & Patent 2019 Minsk, Belarus
Practical Cases of Software Patent Protection and Litigation

Speaker: 2019 eCommerce & Intellectual Property Law Seminar Des Moines, Iowa
Strategic Considerations for Design Patents in Your IP Portfolio

Contributing Editor at NaGrunciePrawa (2019–Present) Warsaw, Poland
See, e.g., Comparing United States and European Patent Law for Software

Exemplary Patents and Published Patent Applications

U.S. Pat. No. D875,237 “Breathing Device”

U.S. Pat. No. D905,136 “Hammermill Hammer”

U.S. Pat. No. D915,878 “Foldable Packaging with Surface Ornamentation”

U.S. Pat. No. D924,668 “Screw Anchor”

U.S. Pat No. D974,517 “Slide Stop”

U.S. Pat. No. 10,351,050 “Emergency or Work Related Light Bar”

U.S. Pat. No. 10,619,323 “Adjustable Foundation Support System”

U.S. Pat. No. 11,034,422 “Elliptical Powered Watercraft”

U.S. Pat. No. 11,195,010 “Smoke Detection System and Method”

U.S. Pat. No. 11,652,539 “Architecture and Orchestrator of a Communications Subsystem for a Space Based Satellite”

Int’l Pub. No. WO 2019/178375 “Mountable Furrow Closing Assembly”

Int’l Pub. No. WO 2019/204696 “Dispensing a Solid Chemistry Using an Adjustable Turbulent Flow Technology Manifold”

Int’l Pub. No. WO 2020/081111 “Mechanism Combining Articulation and Side-Shift”

Int’l Pub. No. WO 2020/132667 “Device to Couple Members of a Heavy-Duty Machine”

Int’l Pub. No. WO 2021/091812 “Burner Tube”

Int’l Pub. No. WO 2022/170261 “UV-Light Drawing Activity”

Int’l Pub. No. WO 2023/283640 “Reversible Electroadhesion of Hydrogels to Animal Tissues for Sutureless Repair of Cuts or Tears”

Int’l Pub. No. WO 2023/197233 “Chemo-Mechanical Solution for Cleaning Fluidic Tanks and Piping”

Bar & Court Admissions

Iowa, 2018

Minnesota, 2017

United States Patent & Trademark Office, 2014

Awards & Recognition

Mitchell Hamline Merit Scholarship, 2014–2017

MIPLA Cup Finalist/Scholarship Winner, 2017

CALI Award (Patent Prosecution), 2016

USPTO Patent Pro Bono Achievement Certificate, 2020-2022

Improvements in the Brazilian Design Patent Practice

Our esteemed colleagues at Daniel IP report to us that there are exciting new rules that have come into effect for designs in Brazil. They authored the following summary of the new laws. We believe this summary will be extremely useful to many U.S. Applicants considering protection in Brazil in the design space. We highly […]

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USPTO Disables First Office Action Estimator

The USPTO has disabled the widely beloved First Office Action Estimator. The First Office Action Estimator was available to the public. It allowed many of our clients to check the status of their application without needing to communicate with us. The USPTO’s stated reasons for the disabling of the Estimator follow. “In fiscal year 2021, […]

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Debut of New Patent Petitions Webpage

A petition is a request for the USPTO to take certain action in your patent or patent application. They are aimed to allow the Applicant a mechanism to request third party review of almost all procedural matters before the USPTO that are not the subject of Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). The Office of Petitions (OPET) […]

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Integrated Circuit Layout Design Protection Series: Part 3

Title 17 of the U.S. Code concerns copyright laws. Chapter 9 of Title 17 is entirely dedicated to the protection of Mask Works. 17 U.S.C. § 901 defines a mask work as “a series of related images, however fixed or encoded, having or representing the predetermined, three-dimensional pattern of metallic, insulating, or semiconductor material present […]

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Integrated Circuit Layout Design Protection Series: Part 2

A diplomatic conference was held in 1989 in Washington, D.C. The diplomats in attendance were representatives of member states of the United Nations (UN) World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) or representatives of intergovernmental organizations meeting certain criteria. The diplomats were there to consider whether their Member nations were interested in offering additional protections for integrated […]

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Integrated Circuit Layout Design Protection Series: Part 1

Did you know that layout designs (topographies) of integrated circuits are a separate field in the protection of Intellectual Property (“IP”)? Most Americans understand IP to be classified within one of patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets, yet this is not always how all countries choose to classify all IP rights. Another form of protection […]

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National Science Foundation Announces $60 Million Investment in Developing and Strengthening Academic Institutional Infrastructure for Providing Industry-Driven Solutions

The National Science Foundation’s new Accelerating Research Translation (ART) program is a game-changer for universities in the United States. The $60 million program will provide up to $6 million per award over four years to academic institutions to build capacity and infrastructure needed to strengthen and scale the translation of basic research outcomes into impactful […]

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U.S. Copyright, Patent and Trademark Offices to Conduct Publicly Available Roundtable Discussions Regarding NFTs in January 2023

NFTs represent unique and individualized digital identifiers that cannot be copied, substituted, or subdivided, unlike cryptocurrencies. Both technologies are built and reside on blockchain technology. Both NFTs and cryptocurrencies have a complicated relationship with the patent, trademark, and copyright systems. For example, U.S. copyright laws do not automatically give an NFT owner any rights in […]

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Public Service Announcement — USPTO Implements New Deadlines to Respond to Office Actions for Trademark Applications and Registrations

As of  Saturday, December 3, 2022, trademark applicants will have three months (with a possible three-month extension) to respond to an Office action issued during the examination of a trademark application at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) instead of the current six months. A similar timeline for responding is already employed by […]

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Major Overhaul to the USPTO’s Public Patent Searching Tools

On September 30, the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) new Patent Public Search tool (PPUBS) replaced four legacy tools—Public-Examiner’s Automated Search Tool (PubEAST), Public-Web-based Examiner’s Search Tool (PubWEST), Patent Full-Text and Image Database (PatFT), and Patent Application Full-Text and Image Database (AppFT). Patent Public Search provides more convenient, remote, and robust full-text searching of all […]

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Manipulating the Time it Takes to Get a Patent, Legally!

A common question I am commonly asked is: How long will it take for me to get a patent? The answer is it depends. There are a few factors. Some art units are faster to examine patent applications than others. Some Examiners issue more communications, known as Office actions, than others. If an Examiner mails […]

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Gaming Company Patents Digging Holes and Filling Holes with Water

They say in patents the name of the game is the claims. So, can you guess which game this claim likely belongs to? A game controlling method comprising: based on input to a controller, digging in a terrain object disposed in a virtual space, placing an object representing a flowable fluid in a dug portion […]

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Your Friendly Reminder to Avoid the Temptation to Use USOPC Trademarks

The race for the most gold medals during the 2020 Summer Olympics (informally “Tokyo 2020” and more formally “the Games of the XXXII Olympiad”) has now come to a close, and what a spectacle it was! Individuals, news outlets, and official Olympic sponsors are generally free to post and tweet about the games and athletes […]

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Aevum UAV’s Ravn X to Deliver Cargo AND Launch Rockets

The Ravn X (Aevum) unmanned aircraft will be used to both deliver cargo and launch rockets, pending approval from the Federal Aviation Administration. For its intellectual efforts in this space, the company was awarded U.S. Patent No. 10,994,842. The heart of the invention concerns a payload delivery system for an aircraft. Aevum is the first […]

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Pegasus Universal Aerospace’s Patents Vertical Business Jet

Pegasus Universal Aerospace (Pegasus UA) has recently acquired a U.S. patent for a newly developed vertical takeoff and landing business jet. The patent, U.S. Patent No. 10,710,713, names Dr. Mohamed Reza Mia as its sole inventor. Dr. Reza Mia also serves as Pegasus UA’s founder and chairman. The Johannesburg-based South Africa company seemingly hopes to […]

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Federal Circuit Judge Evan Wallach Taking Senior Status

Seat 9 of the Federal Circuit is being vacated by Judge Evan Wallach, who was appointed by President Barack Obama and will take senior status. President Joe Biden will thus be tasked with nominating the seat’s next holder. The seat will be officially vacated on May 31, 2021. The last seat to open up on […]

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Utility Models in China

A utility model is a patent-like intellectual property right to protect inventions. American, Canadian, and British inventors and companies are often unaware that such rights exist, given that their laws do not allow for registration of these rights. Utility models are generally cheaper to obtain and maintain, have a shorter term (generally 6 to 15 […]

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Patent Analytics Provider Tracks “Examiners Who Procrastinate”

Patent Analytics Provider Juristat blogged on May 28, 2020 that Juristat is capable of tracking procrastination habits of examiners at the USPTO. To better understand how examiners procrastinate and why some would choose to or choose to avoid doing so requires some background knowledge of how examiners are internally evaluated by the USPTO. Examiner performance is evaluated […]

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Patents Concerning Coronavirus Treatments

28 U.S.C 1498 allows the government to use or authorize others to use any invention “described in and covered by a patent of the United States.” If such authorization is granted, patent owners can sue the United States, but only for reasonable compensation. Patent owners are not able to seek injunctions against private entities working […]

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Trademarks Filed for OK, Boomer

There are now at least nine pending trademark applications incorporating “OK Boomer.” The applicants notably include Fox Media, who wishes to use the mark for a television series. It appears the applicants are unlikely to receive rights in the mark because the memed-to-death slogan conveys ordinary or familiar concepts or sentiments, as well as social, […]

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T-Mobile Asserts Charitable Startup Lemonade Infringes Magenta Mark

National Public Radio (NPR) reports T-Mobile has sent a cease and desist letter to startup Lemonade. For those unfamiliar with Lemonade, Lemonade is a public benefit corporation quickly growing in popularity, particularly with millennials, because the company donates all unclaimed money to charities of the policyholder’s choice. T-Mobile asserts Lemonade’s use of a color allegedly similar […]

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Trademarks: Property Plus Insurance

Intellectual property is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. It is widely accepted patents, copyrights, and trademarks confer an exclusive right. Unlike patents and copyrights, the constitutional foundation for trademark law is the Commerce Clause, U.S. Const., Art. I, § 8, cl. 3, rather than the Intellectual Property Clause, […]

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A Trademark Is Insurance, Not Property

It is widely accepted patents and copyrights confer a Constitutional exclusive right. See the Intellectual Property Clause, U.S. Const., Art. I. § 8, cl. 8. Unlike patents and copyrights, the constitutional foundation for trademarks is the Commerce Clause, U.S. Const., Art. I, § 8, cl. 3. Thus, the trademark right may conceivably be a property right, while patents and […]

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NASA’s Technology Transfer Process

From July 28 – July 31, 2019, I had the pleasure of attending the Association of Technology Managers (AUTM) 2019 Central Region Meeting. AUTM is a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing research to life by supporting and enhancing the global, academic technology transfer profession through education, professional development, partnering and advocacy. AUTM’s attendance has been […]

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Comparing United States and European Patent Law for Software

Software Eligibility in Europe Programs for computers are partially, albeit explicitly, excluded from patentability under Article 52(2) of the European Patent Convention (EPC). Article 52(3) EPC elaborates, “The provisions of paragraph 2 shall exclude patentability of the subject-matter or activities referred to in that provision only to the extent to which a European patent application […]

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Petitioning the Director: Why? When?

Typically, patent attorneys are privileged to work side by side with examiners who embrace the collaborative relationship that exists between patent applicants and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). It is typical for examiners and patent attorneys to initially disagree on legal and/or technical issues which relate to the claims of a patent […]

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Linn-Mar Student Wins 2019 MVS Agriculture Award at Invent Iowa Competition

On April 15, 2019, I had the pleasure of attending the Invent Iowa 2019 Competition. Invent Iowa is hosted annually by the Belin-Blank Center of the University of Iowa’s College of Education. Invent Iowa is a competition which allows students K-8 to pitch a three-minute presentation about their inventions to volunteer judges and other students, […]

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Additional Update on the Government Shutdown

As you are most likely aware, the United States government was shutdown for a total of 35 days, the longest shutdown in US history. The shutdown led to 380,000 federal workers being furloughed, and an additional 420,000 workers were required to work without any known payment dates during this period, forcing many to find other […]

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Update on the Government Shutdown

In December 2018, the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) reported it would stay open at least for a temporary time in the event of a government shutdown. Thus far, the USPTO closed only on December 24, 2018 (Christmas Eve), as a result of an executive order issued by President Trump. Christmas Eve fell […]

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Autel Robotics Co. Escalates Dispute with Largest Manufacturer of Hobbyist and Commercial Drones, SZ DJI Technology Co. (of China)

SZ DJI Technology Co. could lose access to the U.S. market in a patent-infringement lawsuit with Autel Robotics Co. where Autel asserts SZ DJI infringes U.S. Patent Nos.7,979,174 and 9,260,184, which cover rotor attachment and speed changes, and SZ DJI asserts Autel infringes at least U.S. Patent Nos.9,016,617; 9,284,049; 9,321,530; D691,514;9,284,040 and 9,592,744, which cover […]

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Leftover Pizza? Domino’s Reheats Pizza Hut’s Invalidity Claim Against Ameranth Inc.

Ameranth Inc. asserts it is a leading provider of wireless and Internet based solutions for the hospitality/gaming markets and that it has a very strong intellectual property portfolio including numerous strategic patents in technologies such as Wireless POS, Table Management, Reservations Management, Mobile Concierge, Electronic Menus, Guest Surveys, Inventory Management, Health Care Services and Enrollment […]

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AIAA Presents 2017 Daniel Guggenheim Medal to Inventor Paul M. Bevilaqua

The AIAA chose to honor Paul M. Bevilaqua by presenting him with the 2017 Daniel Guggenheim Medal. The Daniel Guggenheim Medal was established in 1929 for the purpose of honoring persons who make notable achievements in the advancement of aeronautics. The Medal is jointly sponsored by AIAA, ASME, SAE, and AHS. The medal is considered […]

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No Sympathy for Samsung

In May, an eight-member California federal jury awarded Apple a staggering $500+ million verdict as a result of a patent litigation lawsuit that has been ongoing for at least 7 years. The verdict has proved to be particularly puzzling for patent law professors and other patent advocates that disagree over whether an article of manufacture in relation […]

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Design Patents: An Analogy

A recent Webinar moderated by Gene Quinn of IPWatchdog.com titled, “Strategic Use of Design Patents”, analogized a design patent to a tool in a tool box. This analogy is intriguing. For example, a utility patent could be considered a hammer, as it is useful in a wide array of applications and delivers a devastating impact […]

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Amazon Develops Drones that React to Human Gestures

The technology of U.S. Patent No. 9,921,579, which issued on March 20, 2018, may help Amazon grapple with how flying robots might interact with human bystanders and customers waiting on their doorsteps. Apple engineer Frederik Schaffalitzky (formerly an engineer for Amazon) is the sole inventor responsible for these recent technological innovations. While, the parent patent […]

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Japan Invests in Astronautical Start-ups

Michael Sheetz of CNBC reports “Japan is offering $940 million to fund space start-ups in a new push to grow the industry, the government announced Tuesday at an event in Tokyo” and that “funds will be made available through investments and loans over the next five years, as part of a government-led initiative to double […]

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AIAA Honors Inventor Dr. Jay Gundlach

On January 16, 2018, Lawrence Garrett reported The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) chose to honor Senior Member Dr. Jay Gundlach in the AIAA Momentum Member Spotlight for January 2018. With respect to Dr. Gundlach’s intellectual property endeavors, Lawrence notes: For the past two decades, Dr. Jay Gundlach has been a pioneering force behind […]

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