Try our Advanced Search for more refined results
Intellectual Property
-
June 04, 2024
Netflix Tells 10th Circ. Warhol Helps Defense In 'Tiger King' Suit
Netflix Inc. has told the Tenth Circuit that the U.S. Supreme Court's decision last year finding that an Andy Warhol silkscreen of pop icon Prince infringed the photo it was based on strengthens its position in a lawsuit that accuses the streaming service of infringing a copyrighted funeral video by using a clip of it in the popular 2020 docuseries "Tiger King."
-
June 04, 2024
Smartflash Says Patent Office Can't Hide Apple Docs
An inventor is arguing against the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's bid to toss a D.C. federal court case challenging the office's redactions in documents regarding Patent Trial and Appeal Board reviews of patents at the center of his battle with Apple Inc.
-
June 04, 2024
Houston IP Firm Settles Trade Secrets Case With Ex-Law Clerk
Houston-based intellectual property law firm Lloyd & Mousilli PLLC and a former law clerk accused of stealing confidential information while working virtually from California reached a settlement in a lawsuit brought by the firm in a Texas federal court.
-
June 04, 2024
Ex-Restoration Co. Execs 'Teeter' On Contempt, Judge Says
The former presidents of a property restoration company have staved off civil contempt after narrowly convincing a North Carolina Business Court judge that they merely misunderstood an injunction curbing their business activities as opposed to flagrantly disregarding it.
-
June 04, 2024
NJ Deer Repellent Co. Can't Get TRO In Trade Secret Fight
A New Jersey deer repellant maker cannot restrain a competitor in Ohio who used to license its trademarks, its formerly patented repellant formula and its secret spraying techniques, a federal judge ruled, because its trade secrets complaint has not alleged any harm that cannot be cured later with damages.
-
June 04, 2024
Fish & Richardson Grows Austin IP Team With Solo Patent Pro
Fish & Richardson PC has strengthened its intellectual property practice with the addition of Gabriel J. González, previously a solo practitioner, as of counsel in Austin.
-
June 03, 2024
Self-Driving Tech Co. Beats Investor Suit Over Chip Pic Gaffe
Autonomous vehicle technology company Luminar Technologies Inc. no longer faces a proposed investor class action alleging it passed off an image of a competitor's technology as its own after a Florida federal judge found that the allegedly stolen image wouldn't actually be relevant to reasonable investors.
-
June 03, 2024
Michaels Stole Paint-By-Number IP, Company Says
A paint-by-number company told a jury Monday during opening arguments in Texas federal court that arts and crafts corporation Michaels Stores Inc. used the company's trademarks to create a competing product, saying it only learned of the phony product after a customer called in praising it.
-
June 03, 2024
Ex-Biopharma Co. Prez Accused Of Defecting With Secrets
Biopharmaceutical firm United Therapeutics Corp. has accused a former executive of violating an employment agreement by taking ideas to a rival company to develop a competing lung treatment.
-
June 03, 2024
Patent Owner Says Facts Have Changed Since It Lost At ITC
A patent licensing company accusing HP of infringing old Panasonic patents is seeking to resume its suit in Texas federal court, arguing that an invalidity ruling it lost last month at the U.S. International Trade Commission doesn't hold up in district court.
-
June 03, 2024
Software Group Says IP Quality, Not Quantity, Is The Goal
Making sure patent standards are up to snuff, using artificial intelligence when looking into whether patents are viable and having the Patent Trial and Appeal Board maintain high standards when reviewing patents are goals federal patent officials should focus on, according to a trade collective of software businesses.
-
June 03, 2024
Google Gets Amicus Boost In Fed. Circ. Battle With Sonos
Google's efforts to prevent the reinstatement of a $32.5 million patent infringement verdict won against it by wireless speaker company Sonos have found support in the Federal Circuit from business trade groups, public interest nonprofits and a former U.S. Patent and Trademark Office official.
-
June 03, 2024
Food Co. Gets Win In 'Digital Checklist' Patent Fight
A Connecticut federal judge has found that claims in a patent owned by the Georgia-based CM Systems LLC are invalid, handing a win to TransAct Technologies Inc. in a suit over restaurant food safety technology.
-
June 03, 2024
Split Fed. Circ. Backs EcoFactor's $20M Trial Win Over Google
The Federal Circuit on Monday affirmed that Google should pay EcoFactor $20 million for infringing its smart thermostat patent, but one judge took issue with allowing the damages to stand, saying her colleagues' ruling "at best muddles our precedent and at worst contradicts it."
-
June 03, 2024
Jane Street Blasts Trading Firm's Defense In Trade Secret Row
Trading firm Jane Street Group LLC has urged a Manhattan federal judge to toss the counterclaims and affirmative defenses of two ex-employees and Millennium Management LLC in a trade secret suit, saying each is either "redundant" or has "little to no alleged facts to support" it.
-
June 03, 2024
Pool Co. Says It Won't Survive $16M Judgment In Bid For Stay
The American arm of a Chinese swimming pool equipment maker told a North Carolina federal judge it faces insolvency if forced to fork over a $16 million false advertising and unfair business practices judgment, asking instead for a stay without bond while it appeals the verdict.
-
June 03, 2024
Design Patents May Be Harder To Get Under New Test
The Federal Circuit's decision discarding long-standing tests for proving that a design patent is invalid as obvious means the world has changed for patent examiners and applicants, attorneys said, and the new standard could lead to more design patent applications being turned down.
-
June 01, 2024
Blockbuster Summer: 10 Big Issues Justices Still Must Decide
As the calendar flips over to June, the U.S. Supreme Court still has heaps of cases to decide on issues ranging from trademark registration rules to judicial deference and presidential immunity. Here, Law360 looks at 10 of the most important topics the court has yet to decide.
-
May 31, 2024
Samsung Strikes First With Smart Ring IP Suit Against Oura
Samsung has yet to announce a release date for its new Galaxy Ring brand of wearable, health-tracking devices, but it has filed an intellectual property suit in California federal court Thursday targeting a Finnish startup that makes its own line of smart rings.
-
May 31, 2024
PTAB Upholds Medtronic Bladder Control Patents On Remand
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board affirmed Medtronic patents covering a sacral stimulation system after Federal Circuit judges ordered the board last year to give the maker of a rival bladder and bowel control device another shot at knocking those patents out.
-
May 31, 2024
Vape Co. Can't Toss Breeze Smoke's Claims In IP Row
An Illinois federal judge has rejected vape pen maker Midwest Goods' bid to throw out counterclaims that it infringed competitor Breeze Smoke's trade dress and a design patent, while also denying a bid from Breeze Smoke for a preliminary injunction.
-
May 31, 2024
DC Judge Takes Dim View Of Proposed 'Surfside' TM Deal
A D.C. federal judge has refused to enforce a scrapped settlement in a trademark dispute between a Mexican restaurant operator and a distilling company over the name "Surfside," saying there wasn't ever an enforceable deal.
-
May 31, 2024
3rd Circ. Preview: Labor Battles Heat Up In June
Several cases are heating up the Third Circuit argument calendar in June, including a home care company's attempt to duck a $7 million payout to thousands of workers who claimed the company violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by not compensating them for travel time.
-
May 31, 2024
NYT Opposes 'Worldle' TM Bid To Protect Its 'Wordle' Game
The New York Times Co. is trying to stop the trademark registration of a game called "Worldle," where players attempt to find landmarks and other things on Google Street View, arguing the name would cause confusion with the newspaper's popular "Wordle" game.
-
May 31, 2024
COVID Test Contract Suit 'Cries Out' For Jury, NC Judge Says
A fight between two companies over a doomed distribution deal for COVID-19 tests has gone from "ships passing in the night" to not even "sailing in the same ocean," a North Carolina Business Court judge said, paring the case for trial.
Expert Analysis
-
How Biotech Cos. Can Utilize Synthetic Royalty Financing
Synthetic royalty transactions have been on the rise as a funding structure for biotechnology companies, but questions have arisen surrounding how such transactions work, and structuring them correctly requires a nuanced understanding, say Todd Trattner and Ryan Murr at Gibson Dunn.
-
Copyright Lessons Following Ruling In Artist AI Suit
The recent California district court ruling in Andersen v. Stability AI — that artists needed to specify how the training of artificial intelligence tools violated their copyrights — shows that lawyers on either side of generative AI matters must carefully navigate copyright issues including temporary copying and data sourcing, says Carlos Araya at Magnolia Abogados.
-
The Legal Industry Needs A Cybersecurity Paradigm Shift
As law firms face ever-increasing risks of cyberattacks and ransomware incidents, the legal industry must implement robust cybersecurity measures and privacy-centric practices to preserve attorney-client privilege, safeguard client trust and uphold the profession’s integrity, says Ryan Paterson at Unplugged.
-
Fed. Circ. In Jan.: One Word Can Affect Claim Construction
The Federal Circuit's recent Pacific Biosciences v. Personal Genomics decision highlights how even construction of a simple term can be dispositive, and thus disputed, in view of the specific context provided by the surrounding claim language, say Jeremiah Helm and Sean Murray at Knobbe.
-
The State Of Play In NIL, Compensation For Student-Athletes
Recent NCAA developments — including name, image, and likeness legislation and a governance and compensation proposal — reflect a shift from the initial hands-off approach to student-athletes' NIL deals and an effort to allow colleges to directly compensate student-athletes without categorizing them as employees, say attorneys at Pillsbury.
-
5 Reasons Associates Shouldn't Take A Job Just For Money
As a number of BigLaw firms increase salary scales for early-career attorneys, law students and lateral associates considering new job offers should weigh several key factors that may matter more than financial compensation, say Albert Tawil at Lateral Hub and Ruvin Levavi at Power Forward.
-
UK Ruling Revitalizes Discussions On Harmonizing AI And IP
The U.K. Supreme Court's decision in Thaler v. Comptroller-General last month has reinvigorated ongoing discussions about how the developments in artificial intelligence fit within the existing intellectual property legislative landscape, illustrating that effective regulation will be critical as the value and influence of this sector grows, say Nick White and Olivia Gray at Charles Russell.
-
Expediting Psychedelics Approvals In The US And Canada
Accelerated regulatory pathways for psychedelics in the U.S. and Canada play a pivotal role in the progression of drugs, devices and novel therapies toward commercialization, say Kimberly Chew at Husch Blackwell, and Ana Dukic and Sabrina Ramkellawan at AxialBridge.
-
Series
Playing Competitive Tennis Makes Me A Better Lawyer
My experience playing competitive tennis has highlighted why prioritizing exercise and stress relief, maintaining perspective under pressure, and supporting colleagues in pursuit of a common goal are all key aspects of championing a successful legal career, says Madhumita Datta at Lowenstein Sandler.
-
Series
The Pop Culture Docket: Judge Djerassi On Super Bowl 52
Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Ramy Djerassi discusses how Super Bowl 52, in which the Philadelphia Eagles prevailed over the New England Patriots, provides an apt metaphor for alternative dispute resolution processes in commercial business cases.
-
AI Takes Transformers Beyond Robots In Disguise
At the intersection of artificial intelligence and copyright law, the shape-shifting models known as transformers raise the question of whether using copyrighted materials to train such models constitutes a transformative use, says Sean Li at Benesch.
-
AI Inventorship Patent Options After UK Supreme Court Ruling
The U.K. Supreme Court's recent ruling in Thaler v. Comptroller-General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks that an AI system cannot be an inventor raises questions about alternative approaches to patent protection for AI-generated inventions and how the decision might affect infringement and validity disputes around such patents, says David Knight at Brown Rudnick.
-
Considerations For Lawyer Witnesses After FTX Trial
Sam Bankman-Fried's recent trial testimony about his lawyers' involvement in FTX's business highlights the need for attorney-witnesses to understand privilege issues in order to avoid costly discovery disputes and, potentially, uncover critical evidence an adversary might seek to conceal, says Lawrence Bluestone at Genova Burns.
-
Del. Ruling Features Valuable Analysis For IPR Estoppel Args
Last month, the District Court of Delaware held in Prolitec v. ScentAir Technologies that IPR estoppel does not apply to device art, and the analysis in the case provides welcome illumination for how IPR estoppel arguments should be decided, says Chris Ponder at Sheppard Mullin.
-
Taking A Closer Look At Fed. Circ. Claim Construction Split
An empirical analysis of a year's worth of claim construction decisions from the Federal Circuit and four key district court jurisdictions shows that these constructions vary in material ways depending on the analysis' source, and this body of case law would benefit from clarification by the Federal Circuit itself, say attorneys at WilmerHale.