Intellectual Property

  • February 06, 2025

    2nd Circ. Clears Up 'Blurry' Trade Dress Standard

    The Second Circuit on Thursday revived a dispute between motorcycle helmet designers as it clarified a key legal standard in trade dress infringement cases.

  • February 06, 2025

    Trump's Federal Worker Buyout Plan Put On Hold

    A Massachusetts federal judge on Thursday put on hold the Trump administration's "deferred resignation" program for federal employees, delaying the deadline for workers to accept the offer until Monday while the court weighs the legality of the move.

  • February 05, 2025

    Dish Gets Nothing After $3.9M Fee Award Axed In IP Appeal

    A Colorado federal judge ruled Wednesday that Dish Network LLC isn't entitled to any fees after it was cleared of infringing patents owned by Realtime Adaptive Streaming LLC, a ruling that comes after the Federal Circuit held that the judge erred by initially awarding Dish $3.9 million in fees.

  • February 05, 2025

    Isaac Hayes' Estate Fights Trump Campaign's Bid To Ax IP Suit

    Isaac Hayes' estate told a Georgia federal judge Wednesday that President Donald Trump and his election campaign have wrongly claimed the legendary musician's heirs don't have rights to the song "Hold On, I'm Comin'" in an effort to escape the heirs' lawsuit alleging unauthorized use of the 1966 Hayes-penned hit.

  • February 05, 2025

    Tillis Takes Over Senate IP Subcommittee Again

    Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., will again lead the U.S. Senate subcommittee overseeing intellectual property, while Sen. Adam Schiff of California will be debuting as the subcommittee's top Democrat.

  • February 05, 2025

    The Wonderful Co. Hits Rival With TM Suit Over Wonderspread

    The Wonderful Co. sued a competitor for trademark infringement in California federal court Wednesday, accusing it of mimicking its "Wonderful" marks and trying to sow consumer confusion by selling nut-based products in packaging that features similar names, "Wonderspread" and "Wondersquare." 

  • February 05, 2025

    Justices Asked If Fact Dispute Bars Patent Eligibility Rulings

    The Federal Circuit has made a habit of taking fact disputes into its own hands in patent cases instead of leaving those questions to a jury, and a company that recently lost its patent suit against Amazon is hoping the U.S. Supreme Court will take up its case.

  • February 05, 2025

    PTAB Judges Ordered Back To The Office, Sparking Outcry

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's roughly 230 administrative law judges dedicated to patent disputes and appeals must start working from an office, according to a directive implementing President Donald Trump's return-to-office order that former board judges said Wednesday threatens to destabilize a largely remote workforce and risks mass resignations and retirements.

  • February 05, 2025

    What Patent Attys Should Know About Trump's Commerce Pick

    The CEO of financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, who has been tapped to lead the Commerce Department, is an inventor on hundreds of patents and has identified the patent application backlog as a key concern. Here's what to know about Commerce secretary nominee Howard Lutnick.

  • February 05, 2025

    Realty Co. Petitions High Court Over Copyright Fee Dispute

    A Florida real estate broker that was sued for copyright infringement has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review whether a defendant can recover attorney fees when a plaintiff voluntarily dismisses an action with prejudice.

  • February 05, 2025

    Dickinson Wright Continues IP Growth With Chicago Hire

    Dickinson Wright PLLC said Wednesday that it had hired a named member of the small Illinois intellectual property firm formerly known as Bishop Diehl & Lee Ltd., marking the latest of the firm's many recent investments into the practice.

  • February 05, 2025

    Tesla, Musk, Warner Bros. Ask To Toss 'Blade Runner' AI Suit

    Tesla, its CEO Elon Musk and Warner Bros. Discovery asked a California federal judge Tuesday to throw out Alcon Entertainment's lawsuit alleging the electric vehicle company used an image created by artificial intelligence that infringes "Blade Runner 2049" to promote an autonomous taxicab, saying a "familiar post-apocalyptic scene" is not protectable.

  • February 05, 2025

    Fake Biggie Photo, Merch At Center Of New Ill. Suit

    The estate of the Notorious B.I.G. hit Target, Home Depot, Nordstrom and others with a lawsuit Tuesday in Illinois federal court, claiming they infringed the late rapper's trademarks by selling art bearing his image and likeness, including canvas prints of an iconic portrait captured three days before his 1997 murder.

  • February 05, 2025

    Injectable Drug Device Maker West Pharma Secures Ban At ITC

    The U.S. International Trade Commission has issued an order banning three companies from importing devices used to move injectable drugs into an IV bag that infringe a West Pharmaceutical patent.

  • February 05, 2025

    Israeli Co. Accused Of Infringing Soap Dispenser Patent

    Bobrick Washroom Equipment Inc. accused Israeli company Y. Stern Engineering (1989) Ltd. of infringing its patent for fluid dispenser technology through the sale of its Lotus Soap Dispenser series in a California federal court Tuesday.

  • February 05, 2025

    NC Technology Co., Purdue University Settle Patent Fight

    North Carolina technology company Wolfspeed and Purdue University have settled a patent fight over a metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor, or MOSFET, according to a text-only order entered on the docket Tuesday.

  • February 05, 2025

    Modelo, Constellation Urge Judge To Block 'Counterfeit' Beer

    Modelo and Constellation Brands have asked a Texas federal court to stop a beer distribution company from importing and selling "counterfeit" beers that have labels similar to those of Modelo, Corona and other beverages.

  • February 05, 2025

    Utah Judge Rules For Arkansas State In 'Red Wolves' TM Case

    A Utah federal judge has dismissed a trademark complaint from a Park City soccer organization seeking declaratory relief against Arkansas State University over its "Red Wolves" mark, saying the court lacked jurisdiction over the matter.

  • February 05, 2025

    Food Slicer Patent Case Ends In Mistrial After 6 Days

    A Missouri federal judge has declared a mistrial on day six of a trial between two companies that accused each other of infringing food slicing patents.

  • February 05, 2025

    NC Software Co. Says DQ Of Rival's Atty Shouldn't Stall Trial

    An attorney being kicked off a bitter copyright case over source code shouldn't delay the fast-approaching trial, a U.S. software company told a North Carolina federal judge, arguing that its Dutch rival is trying to use the loss of its preferred counsel as a stalling tactic.

  • February 05, 2025

    Lawmakers Vote To Advance Commerce Nominee Lutnick

    Senate lawmakers on Wednesday morning voted to advance Wall Street financier Howard Lutnick's nomination as secretary of commerce, moving the Cantor Fitzgerald CEO one step closer to helming the department that oversees international trade, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and other agencies.

  • February 11, 2025

    Inside Fitch Even's Play To Reclaim Patent Litigation Work

    Amid a patent litigation landscape dominated by BigLaw, Chicago-based intellectual property boutique Fitch Even Tabin & Flannery LLP has teamed up with litigation firm MoloLamken LLP to reclaim the litigation work that bigger players have siphoned away.

  • February 04, 2025

    OpenSky Defends Patent Challenge After Verdict Against Intel

    A company found using the patent review process to try to extort money from VLSI Technology LLC and Intel Corp. after a $2.18 billion jury verdict against the chipmaking giant is arguing it shouldn't have to pay legal fees, saying its efforts to revive a meritorious patent challenge is simply part of a "potentially profitable business model."

  • February 04, 2025

    Google Gets OkCaller's 'Incoherent' Antitrust Claims Tossed

    A Florida federal judge on Tuesday tossed for good antitrust claims from the company behind reverse phone number lookup website OkCaller.com, saying the newly amended suit does not rectify the previous problems, or if it does, the court cannot decipher the "incoherent" arguments. 

  • February 04, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Grapples With Extensions On Reissued Patents

    The Federal Circuit is set to decide when a reissued patent actually expires after fielding arguments Tuesday morning from Merck and the generic-drug makers who are trying to break the pharmaceutical giant's hold on a blockbuster drug that counteracts the effects of anesthesia.

Expert Analysis

  • 5 Credibility Lessons Trial Attys Can Learn From Harris' Run

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    In launching a late-stage campaign for president, Vice President Kamala Harris must seize upon fresh attention from voters to establish, or reestablish, credibility — a challenge that parallels and provides takeaways for trial attorneys, says Ken Broda-Bahm at Persuasion Strategies.

  • Patent Owner Estoppel Questions In The Wake Of SoftView

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    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's seldom-litigated Rule 42.73(d)(3) on Patent Trial and Appeal Board estoppel was recently brought to the forefront in the Federal Circuit's SoftView v. Apple decision, highlighting uncertainties in this aspect of patent practice, say David Haars and Richard Crudo at Sterne Kessler.

  • Copyright Termination Opinion Departs From Long-Held Views

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    In Vetter v. Resnik, a federal court recently held for the first time that termination rights under Section 304 of the Copyright Act recapture domestic and foreign rights where the original grant was for "worldwide" rights — misinterpreting a basic principle of international copyright treaties, say Rebecca Benyamin and Eric J. Schwartz at Mitchell Silberberg.

  • 3 Patent Considerations For America's New Quantum Hub

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    Recent developments signal an incredibly bright future for Chicago as the new home of quantum computing, and it is crucial that these innovators — whose technology has the potential to transform many industries — prioritize intellectual property strategy, says Andrew Velzen at McDonnell Boehnen.

  • Fed. Circ. Ruling Creates New Rule For Certification Marks

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    The Federal Circuit's decision last month in Bureau National Interprofessionnel du Cognac v. Cologne & Cognac Entertainment is significant in that it establishes a new standard for assessing evidence of third-party uses of a certification mark in deciding whether the mark is famous, say Samantha Katze and Lisa Rosaya at Manatt.

  • A Preview Of AI Priorities Under The Next President

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    For the first time in a presidential election, both of the leading candidates and their parties have been vocal about artificial intelligence policy, offering clues on the future of regulation as AI continues to advance and congressional action continues to stall, say attorneys at Mintz.

  • 11 Patent Cases To Watch At Fed. Circ. And High Court

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    As we head into fall, there are 11 patent cases to monitor, touching on a range of issues that could affect patent strategy, such as biotech innovation, administrative rulemaking and patent eligibility, say Edward Lanquist and Wesley Barbee at Baker Donelson.

  • Why India May Become A Major Patent Litigation Forum

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    India is reinventing itself with the goal of becoming a global hot spot for patent litigation, with recent developments at the Delhi High Court creating incentives for plaintiffs to assert patent rights in India, say Ranganath Sudarshan at Covington and IP litigator Udit Sood.

  • Opinion

    To Lower Drug Prices, Harris Must Address Patent Thickets

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    If Vice President Kamala Harris is serious about her pledge to address high drug prices, she must begin by closing loopholes that allow pharmaceutical companies to develop patent thickets that can deter generic or biosimilar companies from entering the market, says Tahir Amin at the Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge.

  • How Methods Are Evolving In Textualist Interpretations

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    Textualists at the U.S. Supreme Court are increasingly considering new methods such as corpus linguistics and surveys to evaluate what a statute's text communicates to an ordinary reader, while lower courts even mull large language models like ChatGPT as supplements, says Kevin Tobia at Georgetown Law.

  • 5 Ways To Confront Courtroom Technology Challenges

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    Recent cybersecurity incidents highlight the vulnerabilities of our reliance on digital infrastructure, meaning attorneys must be prepared to navigate technological obstacles inside the courtroom, including those related to data security, presentation hardware, video playback and more, says Adam Bloomberg at IMS Legal Strategies.

  • The Fed. Circ. In August: Secret Sales And Public Disclosures

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    Two recent Federal Circuit rulings — Sanho v. Kaijet and Celanese International v. ITC — highlight that inventors should publicly and promptly disclose their inventions, as a secret sale will not suffice as a disclosure, and file their patent applications within a year of public disclosure, say Sean Murray and Jeremiah Helm at Knobbe Martens.

  • Trending At The PTAB: Obviousness In Director Reviews

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    Three July decisions from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office favoring petitioners indicate a willingness by the director to review substantive issues, such as obviousness, particularly in cases where the director believes the Patent Trial and Appeal Board provided incorrect or inadequate rationale to support its decisions, say attorneys at Finnegan.

  • AI Art Ruling Shows Courts' Training Data Cases Approach

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    A California federal court’s recent ruling in Andersen v. Stability AI, where the judge refused to throw out artists’ copyright infringement claims against four companies that make or distribute software that creates images from text prompts, provides insight into how courts are handling artificial intelligence training data cases, say attorneys at Skadden.

  • FTC Focus: What Access To Patent Settlements Would Mean

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    Settling parties should adopt a series of practice tips, including specifying rationales to support specific terms, as the Federal Trade Commission seeks to expand its access to settlements before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, say Shannon McGowan and David Munkittrick at Proskauer.

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