Intellectual Property

  • May 14, 2026

    Authors' Attys Call Anthropic's $1.5B IP Deal Their 'Creation'

    Asked to justify a massive $187.5 million attorney fee request in litigation accusing Anthropic of copyright infringement, counsel for the plaintiff class of authors told a California federal judge Thursday that the resulting $1.5 billion settlement was "the creation of class counsel."

  • May 14, 2026

    Squires Lays Out Principles For Patent Review Discretion

    U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John A. Squires issued a precedential decision Thursday outlining the principles underlying his discretion in instituting America Invents Act reviews, emphasizing that Congress intended such reviews to be an alternative to costly and lengthy litigation.

  • May 14, 2026

    IP Atty Gets $4.5M Over Fake Child Abuse Allegations

    A California state jury has hit the CEO of a sobriety app with a $4.5 million verdict over claims he made a false child abuse report against the mother of his child, a Los Angeles intellectual property attorney, in a bid to secure child support and full custody, according to the counsel for the mother.

  • May 14, 2026

    Squires Walks Back 5 More IPR Grants Over Inconsistent Args

    U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires has reversed earlier decisions granting five petitions for patent review, citing what he called the challengers' inconsistent positions in parallel proceedings and explaining that four petitions he denied in previous bulk orders were also rejected for the same reasons. 

  • May 14, 2026

    Squires Ends IPR After Railway Co. Surrenders Patent Claim

    U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires has de-instituted a Patent Trial and Appeal Board review after National Steel Car Ltd. disclaimed the only parts of its patent the board thought could be invalid, saying they should "be treated as though they never existed."

  • May 14, 2026

    GoDaddy Overcomes Willfulness Finding From $170M Verdict

    A Delaware federal judge on Thursday found that GoDaddy had not willfully infringed two website patents held by Express Mobile Inc., thus sparing the company a verdict greater than the $170 million a jury found but still assessing prejudgment and postjudgment interest.

  • May 14, 2026

    Apple Drops Bid To Transfer Fintiv Suit Due To Albright Exit

    Apple Inc. has abandoned its request to transfer Fintiv Inc.'s trade secret theft and racketeering lawsuit from Georgia to Texas, citing U.S. District Judge Alan Albright's decision to leave the bench in the Western District of Texas.

  • May 14, 2026

    House Panel Backs Bill To Recast Copyright Office Oversight

    A U.S. House committee Thursday unanimously advanced a bill that would change how the Copyright Office chief is selected, requiring congressional leaders to recommend candidates while allowing the president to make the final selection — a shift that would give both branches of government a more direct role in choosing the agency's leadership.

  • May 14, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Won't Review Columbia's Axed $600M Patent Win

    The Federal Circuit said Thursday it won't take up Columbia University's request for it to reconsider a district court decision that discarded a nine-figure patent judgment against the maker of Norton antivirus software.

  • May 14, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Upholds Mercedes, VW Headlight Patent Wins

    The Federal Circuit on Thursday rejected an Israeli inventor's attempts to revive claims in a trio of patents covering adaptive headlights, handing wins to German automakers Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen and Porsche.

  • May 14, 2026

    OpenAI Seeks To Overturn Injunction In 'IO' TM Fight

    OpenAI is urging a California federal judge to overturn a preliminary injunction barring the company from using "IO" as a trademark for AI hardware, arguing it has abandoned all federal applications for the mark and has no plans to use it.

  • May 14, 2026

    United Rentals, Ex-Worker Strike Deal In Noncompete Suit

    United Rentals Inc. on Thursday asked a Connecticut federal judge to approve a permanent injunction blocking a former North Carolina salesperson from working for a competitor within 100 miles of United's Raleigh branch office through mid-January 2027, ending a 4-month-old noncompete suit.

  • May 14, 2026

    Takeda Cashed In From Delay Of Generic IBS Drug, Jury Told

    Drug buyers urged a Massachusetts federal jury on Thursday to find that Takeda Pharmaceuticals conspired with another drugmaker to keep a generic version of anticonstipation drug Amitiza off the market in order to boost its own profits. 

  • May 14, 2026

    Squires Ends AMD Challenges At PTAB Over Sotera Issues

    U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires has terminated reviews of three data processing patents challenged by Advanced Micro Devices Inc. after finding AMD violated a stipulation to limit its invalidity arguments in court.

  • May 14, 2026

    BeiGene Must Face AbbVie's Chemical Trade Secret Claims

    An Illinois federal judge has denied oncological research company BeiGene's request to escape claims from AbbVie Inc. that it poached a retired scientist to obtain trade secrets related to a certain chemical compound, saying BeiGene failed to back up its arguments.

  • May 14, 2026

    Sterne Kessler, Reuters Launch Patent Eligibility AI Tool

    Intellectual property boutique Sterne Kessler Goldstein & Fox PLLC announced it has partnered with Thomson Reuters Corp. to develop an artificial intelligence workflow within CoCounsel Legal to analyze patent eligibility under Section 101.

  • May 13, 2026

    Toyota Foundation Accused Of 'Ugly Injustice' In IP Theft Suit

    A Toyota mobility systems foundation stole trade secrets from a small Zimbabwean social enterprise by inducing the enterprise to share its proprietary mobility solutions through a joint venture agreement before excluding the enterprise from a "Smart Village" program they collaborated on, the enterprise has alleged in California federal court.

  • May 13, 2026

    Judge Says LegalForce Must Pay $93K After Losing TM Suit

    A California federal judge on Wednesday ordered LegalForce RAPC Worldwide PC to pay nearly $93,000 in fees and costs to the company that operates LawFirms.com, finding the case to be exceptional because LegalForce alleged facts it knew were false and took steps to obscure other facts that showed its case was meritless.

  • May 13, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Won't Save Actelion's Suit Over Hypertension Drug

    The Federal Circuit on Wednesday upheld a lower court's rejection of Actelion Pharmaceuticals' patent case against Viatris Inc. over its planned generic version of Actelion's hypertension drug, finding no issues with the court's approach to pH measurement in the patent.

  • May 13, 2026

    Squires Hits Pause On Unpopular Examiner Sign-Off Policy

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office director has paused a policy requiring that supervisory patent examiners sign off on some first actions by examiners who have signatory authority, a policy that's been unpopular with examination staff since its rollout in the fall, Law360 has learned.

  • May 13, 2026

    Big Fish Games Buyer Evading Royalty Duties, Studio Claims

    The new owner of Seattle-based desktop game publisher Big Fish Games has been accused of attempting to illegally rewrite deals with a studio that helped develop many of its titles to avoid paying royalties and revoke mobile distribution rights, according to a fresh lawsuit in Washington state court.

  • May 13, 2026

    Nvidia, SK Hynix, Kioxia Face Memory Patent Litigation

    A Texas-based technology company has launched new patent infringement suits at district courts in the Lone Star State and Delaware as well as at the U.S. International Trade Commission, targeting companies such as Nvidia Corp., Corsair Gaming and Western Digital.

  • May 13, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Backs Google PTAB Wins That Moot $12M Verdict

    The Patent Trial and Appeal Board properly invalidated all claims of the five Flypsi Inc. telecom patents Google LLC was found to infringe, the Federal Circuit said Wednesday.

  • May 13, 2026

    Event Company Says NFL's Lions Can't Block TM Suit

    A Michigan events management company on Wednesday pushed back on the Detroit Lions' request for a Michigan federal judge to toss their trademark infringement suit, arguing the NFL team did nothing to disprove U.S. Events' claim that the Lions used their protected "Motor City Muscle" slogan to promote their team jerseys without their permission.

  • May 13, 2026

    Shutterstock Inks $35M Deal In FTC's Autorenewal Suit

    Shutterstock Inc. will pay $35 million to resolve the Federal Trade Commission's lawsuit alleging it knowingly deceived customers about its subscription plans' autorenewal policies, with one executive noting in internal communications they could "hopefully get away with it" when they saw competitor Adobe Inc. sued over its subscription practices in 2024.

Expert Analysis

  • Framing AI Risk Management In The Art World

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    With gallery professionals indicating a widening gap between operational adoption of artificial intelligence and cultural acceptance of AI as an art medium, certain intellectual property, privacy and governance considerations are becoming critical for art industry stakeholders, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

  • Series

    Playing Basketball Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My grandfather used to say "I wear your jersey" as shorthand for wholly committing to support someone with loyalty and integrity — ideals that have shaped my life on the basketball court and in legal practice, says Tracy Schimelfenig at Schimelfenig Legal.

  • Salt-N-Pepa Suit May Shake Up Music Copyright Issue

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    James v. UMG Recordings is a copyright termination rights case that provides an opportunity for the Second Circuit to make concrete choices about grant language, authorship, work-for-hire status and survival of derivative works, says attorney Abdul Abdullahi.

  • Series

    The Biz Court Digest: Georgia Court Has Business On Its Mind

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    Thanks to recent legislation, the Georgia State-wide Business Court will soon offer business litigants greater access to the court than ever before, further enhancing the court's emphasis on efficiency, predictability and accessibility for sophisticated commercial disputes, says former GSBC judge Walt Davis at Jones Day.

  • Opinion

    USPTO Must Address The Right Question In Sanofi Case

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    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Appeals Review Panel's questions in Ex parte Baurin indicate recognition of broader doctrinal issues, but rather than approaching from separate angles, the panel should concentrate on a single fundamental question about obviousness-type double patenting, says Jeremy Lowe at Spencer Fane.

  • 4 Emerging Approaches To AI Protective Order Language

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    Over the last year, at least five federal district courts have issued or analyzed specific protective order provisions restricting the use of generative artificial intelligence platforms with protected materials, establishing that proactive AI-specific provisions are now standard practice and demonstrating that no single model works for every case, says Joel Bush at Kilpatrick.

  • What Justices Are Focusing On In 'Skinny Label' Patent Case

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    Though Hikma v. Amarin appears to be a patent dispute that could reshape inducement doctrine in the pharmaceutical context, oral argument suggests the U.S. Supreme Court may treat this as primarily a pleading-stage dispute, with important unresolved questions lurking beneath the surface, says Shashank Upadhye at Upadhye Tang.

  • Heppner Ruling Left AI Privilege Risk For Lawyers Unresolved

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    While a New York federal judge’s recent ruling in U.S. v. Heppner resolved a privilege question surrounding client-side artificial intelligence use, it did not address how to mitigate the risks that can arise when confidential information enters the operative context of an AI system used by an attorney, says Jianfei Chen at Quarles & Brady​​​​​​​.

  • How 10 Years Of Case Law Have Shaped The DTSA

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    As the Defend Trade Secrets Act reaches its 10th anniversary, attorneys at Ropes & Gray examine recent DTSA case law and highlight key takeaways regarding pleading requirements, damages and risk factors.

  • The Ethics And Practicalities Of Representing AI Agents

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    With autonomous artificial intelligence agents now able to take action without explicit instructions from — or the awareness of — their human owners, the bar must confront whether existing frameworks like informed consent and client privilege will be sufficient on the day an AI agent calls seeking counsel, say attorneys at Morrison Cohen.

  • Series

    Speed Jigsaw Puzzling Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My passion for speed puzzling — I can complete a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle in under 50 minutes — has sharpened my legal skills in more ways than one, with both disciplines requiring patience, precision and the ability to keep the bigger picture in mind while working through the details, says Tazia Statucki at Proskauer.

  • Rebuttal

    Pro Codes Act Does Not Pose Constitutional Concerns

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    A recent Law360 guest article that raises constitutional alarms concerning the proposed Pro Codes Act, under consideration in the U.S. House of Representatives, overstates the potential harm to standards development organizations and mischaracterizes existing law, says James Gourley at Carstens Allen.

  • High Court's Cox Ruling Leaves ISP Copyright Rules Intact

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    Though some commentators predicted a cataclysmic impact from the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Cox v. Sony, in actuality the decision correctly maintains the status quo for internet providers' copyright infringement liability, says Courtney Sarnow at CM Law.

  • Building Codes Ruling May Inform AI Copyright Arguments

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    The Third Circuit's recent decision in ASTM v. UpCodes, finding that republication of copyrighted building codes incorporated into binding law likely constitutes fair use, may help shape intellectual property strategy for standards organizations, rights holders and potentially even AI stakeholders, says Mitesh Patel at Reed Smith.

  • DOJ's Stance On Antitrust And Patent Law Reflects Balance

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    Recent statements of interest in patent litigation and a speech from a key U.S. Department of Justice official communicate the view that strong patent rights and competition policy are complementary, and offer important guidance for intellectual property practitioners and businesses navigating patent enforcement, standard‑setting and licensing, say attorneys at Wiley.

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