Weekly IP Buzz for the Week Ending November 7, 2020
In this week's post, we see with the increased focus and necessity of effective health care, new rules passed by the federal government have hospitals claiming that pricing information qualifies as trade secrets.
Plus, understanding trademarks, the registration process, proper use, and how to maintain and enforce trademark rights is important for companies seeking to grow brand recognition.
Can the Healthcare Industry Claim Pricing as Trade Secret Information to Avoid Disclosure?
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc across the globe, increased scrutiny has fallen on the national healthcare system. In the United States, the federal government has passed a number of new policies aimed at making the healthcare system more transparent about its pricing, but such initiatives have hospitals and healthcare providers balking at the possibility of having to share pricing information, as they consider pricing as a trade secret.
In the United States, it is common practice for patients seeking treatment or undergoing surgery to rarely know the cost of the treatment provided by medical staff until after the services are provided. From ambulance rides to major surgery, the prices from hospital or healthcare provider often vary from city to city and hospital to hospital. With these new initiatives, the federal government has been looking to change that.
Touting new initiatives as much-needed efforts to make the healthcare system more transparent, the federal government has asked healthcare providers and hospitals to publish the prices of their services. These new measures, the government argues, could help erase the gap between prices that vary widely. For example, according to some studies, common preliminary screenings may cost approximately $11 in one area while reaching a price of over $1,000 in others. Similarly, studies have noted that coronavirus tests have also varied from prices set at $27 in one area to costing $2,315 in others. As such, experts argue that publication of pricing would not only lead to more predictable prices in an industry that has become more vital than ever, but such publication would likely lead to a more uniform pricing model across the country.
Read more here.
Trademark FAQ | A Primer on TM Basics
This article covers common questions with answers to important trademark inquiries about use, registration, maintaining protection, and enforcement, to help trademark owners make the most of their valuable intellectual property rights.
View the full article here for all the details.
Click to read the previous Weekly IP Buzz on Thriving Attorney.
For more posts, see our Intellectual Property Law Blog.
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In addition to publishing Thriving Attorney, Darin M. Klemchuk is founder of Klemchuk LLP, a litigation, intellectual property, and transactional law firm located in Dallas, Texas. Click to read more about Darin Klemchuk's practice as an intellectual property lawyer as well as IP mediation services. For more on the latest developments in IP law, see Ideate blog and IP Questions Answered blog.