Intellectual Property

  • March 10, 2025

    Disney Unit Wins Copyright Trial Over 'Moana' Film

    A Los Angeles federal jury handed a win Monday to a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Co. in a copyright infringement trial over the 2016 blockbuster "Moana," rejecting a claim that the movie ripped off another animation artist's Polynesian adventure epic.

  • March 10, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Skeptical Of USPTO's Refusal To Register F-Word TM

    A Federal Circuit panel appeared skeptical of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's reasoning for rejecting an application to register the F-word as a mark because of its widespread use, with one judge telling the government's attorney a couple of times during arguments Monday, "I don't understand what you're saying."

  • March 10, 2025

    Perkins Coie Adds 2 Finnegan IP Attys In Calif.

    Perkins Coie LLP is growing its West Coast team, announcing Monday it is bringing in two Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner LLP intellectual property attorneys as partners in its Silicon Valley office in Palo Alto, California.

  • March 10, 2025

    Patent Exec Seeks Defamation Win Over Atty's Statements

    A patent-licensing company executive has asked a Florida federal court to rule in his favor on a defamation claim against a Baker Botts LLP attorney representing Starbucks in a Texas patent case and toss a counterclaim from the attorney, saying her abuse-of-process allegation "reads like a failed exercise in ontological gymnastics."

  • March 10, 2025

    CBD Co. Launches More Patent Suits Over Topical Cream

    CBD company Metronome LLC has filed another pair of suits in Delaware federal court alleging competitors are infringing its patent with a topical pain relief cream that uses cannabis-derived ingredients.

  • March 10, 2025

    Philly Inquirer Cuts IP Deal With Framed Front Page Seller

    The Philadelphia Inquirer has confidentially settled its infringement suit against a company that sold framed copies of its articles and front pages, according to filings in Pennsylvania federal court.

  • March 10, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Won't Pause Teva Patent Delisting For Appeal

    The Federal Circuit denied on Friday Israeli drugmaker Teva Pharmaceuticals' bid to keep an injunction ordering it to remove its inhaler patents from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Orange Book on hold pending its appeal of the matter to the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • March 10, 2025

    High Court Skips Florida Brokerage's Copyright Fee Appeal

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review a Florida real estate brokerage firm's challenge to lower court decisions denying it attorney fees when another company accusing it of copyright infringement voluntarily dropped the case.

  • March 07, 2025

    FDA Can Take Eli Lilly Weight Loss Drug Off Shortage List

    A Texas federal judge has refused to issue an injunction that would allow compounding pharmacies to produce a lucrative weight loss drug, ruling that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was within its authority when it removed the medication from the drug shortage list.

  • March 07, 2025

    Photographer Sanctioned For Skipping Deposition In IP Case

    A federal judge in the Southern District of New York has issued sanctions over skipped depositions, among other conduct, by the plaintiff in a copyright lawsuit over a photo of actor Jonah Hill that appeared on a fashion retail website. 

  • March 07, 2025

    Justices Asked To Audit Ed Sheeran's 'Thinking Out Loud' Win

    Structured Asset Sales LLC asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday to review the Second Circuit's opinion that Ed Sheeran's "Thinking Out Loud" did not rip off Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On," arguing that the lower appellate court incorrectly affirmed that the Copyright Act of 1909 only protected the Motown song's sheet music.

  • March 07, 2025

    ByteDance Wants Sanctions For Attys After Client's Perjury

    TikTok's parent company ByteDance has urged a California court to sanction Nassiri & Jung LLP attorneys it says "enabled" a former engineer's perjury in a suit alleging he was wrongly fired, arguing that the lawyers should've prevented their client's "abuse of the justice system."

  • March 07, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Talks Definitions In Express Mobile Patent Case

    The Federal Circuit spent a chunk of its morning hashing it out over the meaning of the phrase "runtime engine" in a pair of disputes brought to the court by Express Mobile, one in which it accused GoDaddy of violating a set of patents and another fighting the invalidation of one of those patents.

  • March 07, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Panel Wary Of Discarding Prosecution Laches

    A Federal Circuit panel indicated Friday that it doesn't plan to overturn precedent holding that inventors forfeit their patent rights when they cause unreasonable delays in the application process, telling counsel for prolific inventor Gilbert Hyatt that it would take the full court to do that.

  • March 07, 2025

    Ex-Kirkland IP Atty Can't Fire Her Bias Suit Atty 'For Cause'

    A former Kirkland & Ellis LLP intellectual property associate suing the firm over bias claims cannot fire her counsel at Filippatos PLLC over professional misconduct allegations, a California federal judge ruled Thursday while allowing Filippatos to withdraw as her counsel.

  • March 07, 2025

    Charter Defeats Touchstream's $1B Patent Case At Texas Trial

    A Texas federal jury cleared cable giant Charter Communications on Friday in a patent case over a New York startup's device that allows videos to be played on a separate, larger screen.

  • March 07, 2025

    'Spiderman' Leak Cost Film Studio Tens Of Millions, DOJ Says

    A 37-year-old Tennessee man who worked at a DVD and Blu-ray manufacturing and distribution company used by major studios has been charged with stealing and selling copies of blockbuster movies before their release and with leaking "Spiderman: No Way Home" online, the U.S. Justice Department announced.

  • March 07, 2025

    Apple Prevails In Watch Tech Patent Fight At Fed. Circ.

    The Federal Circuit handed Apple a significant victory Friday in a dispute that might have led to a ban on imports of its smartwatches, affirming that a competing company's heart monitor patents are invalid and vacating a conflicting U.S. International Trade Commission decision that found the watches infringed those patents.

  • March 07, 2025

    USPTO Scraps Expedited Review Program For New Filers

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is winding down a program that expedites review of patent applications from first-time filers, the agency announced, saying the initiative will "expire as scheduled" on Tuesday.

  • March 07, 2025

    1st Circ. Nixes Order Halting Foxconn Patent Arbitration

    The First Circuit on Thursday nixed an order barring a subsidiary of Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn from pursuing arbitration in China of a patent dispute with a U.S. power systems manufacturer while related proceedings at the U.S. International Trade Commission are ongoing.

  • March 07, 2025

    Wash. Judge Finds 'Alludo' TM Fight Best Left To A Jury

    A Washington federal judge has denied dueling summary judgment bids in an educational technology firm's trademark infringement lawsuit against the company behind the 1990s word-processing application WordPerfect, finding Thursday that genuine factual disputes remain over whether the defendant's alleged copying of the "Alludo" product name would likely cause confusion.

  • March 07, 2025

    Electronics Co. Owes $14M In Charger Patent Suit, Jury Finds

    A Delaware federal jury on Friday found Hong Kong electronics company Anker Innovations Co. infringed Texas company Fundamental Innovation Systems International LLC's patents with its USB charger products, saying Anker owes more than $13.6 million in damages.

  • March 07, 2025

    9th Circ. Probes Ax Of Trader Joe's IP Suit Against Union

    Ninth Circuit judges on Friday questioned a federal judge's decision to toss Trader Joe's trademark suit against a union selling merchandise with the grocers' name, with one saying it was "a little bit unusual" to have a determination about the likelihood of confusion decided at the motion to dismiss stage.

  • March 07, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Says Judge Misconstrued Term In Tactical Vest Row

    A Federal Circuit ruling on Friday reversed a finding from a Florida federal judge on constructing the phrase ​​"pull cord," reviving a fight over a patented system for making tactical vests easier to take off.

  • March 07, 2025

    LG Resolves Screen Display Patent Suit

    Bishop Display Tech LLC and LG Electronics have resolved a dispute over allegations that LG and its subsidiaries infringed several patents for liquid crystal screen displays, according to a filing in Texas federal court on Thursday.

Expert Analysis

  • Reading Tea Leaves In Fed. Circ. Deep Dive On Review Scope

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    Roy Wepner at Kaplan Breyer investigates why a recent Federal Circuit opinion spent six pages explaining its unsurprising conclusion on proper scope of review — that no deference need be afforded to the trial court in a case dismissed for failure to state a claim.

  • Consider The Impact Of Election Stress On Potential Jurors

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    For at least the next few months, potential jurors may be working through anger and distrust stemming from the presidential election, and trial attorneys will need to assess whether those jurors are able to leave their political concerns at the door, says Ken Broda-Bahm at Persuasion Strategies.

  • How Judiciary Can Minimize AI Risks In Secondary Sources

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    Because courts’ standing orders on generative artificial intelligence and other safeguards do not address the risk of hallucinations in secondary source materials, the judiciary should consider enlisting legal publishers and database hosts to protect against AI-generated inaccuracies, say attorneys at Lankler Siffert & Wohl.

  • 3 Steps For Companies To Combat Task Scams

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    On the rise in the U.S., the task scam — when scammers offer a victim a fake work-from-home job — hurts impersonated businesses by tarnishing their name and brand, but companies have a few ways to fight back against these cons, says Chris Wlach at Huge.

  • False Patent Marking Claims Find New Home In Lanham Act

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    While the Patent Act may have closed the courthouse doors for many false patent marking claims, the Federal Circuit, in its recent decision in Crocs v. Effervescent, may be opening a window to these types of claims under the Lanham Act, says John Cordani at Robinson & Cole.

  • A Look At Calif. Biz Code And The Fight Over Customer Lists

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    To ensure Uniform Trade Secret Act security, California staffing agencies and their attorneys should review Section 16607 of the state Business Code, which prohibits contracts that restrain employees from engaging in other lawful types of business, to understand the process for determining whether a customer list constitutes a trade secret, says Skye Daley at Buchalter.

  • How Attorneys Can Break Free From Career Enmeshment

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    Ambitious attorneys can sometimes experience career enmeshment — when your sense of self-worth becomes unhealthily tangled up in your legal vocation — but taking the time to discover and realign with your core personal values can help you recover your identity, says Janna Koretz at Azimuth Psychological.

  • Bankruptcy Decision Exemplifies Venue Issue For Franchisees

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    A California bankruptcy court's decision earlier this month in Pinnacle Foods and a lingering circuit split on assumption of executory franchise contracts highlights the issue of whether franchisee debtors can qualify for case venue in friendlier circuits, says David Gamble at Parkins Rubio.

  • Key Healthcare Issues That Hinge On The Election Outcome

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    The 2024 presidential race, while not heavily dominated by healthcare issues compared to past elections, holds significant implications for the direction of healthcare policy in a potential Harris or Trump administration, encompassing issues ranging from Medicare to artificial intelligence, says Miranda Franco at Holland & Knight.

  • Patent Lessons From 4 Federal Circuit Reversals In September

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    Cases that were reversed or vacated by the Federal Circuit last month provide helpful clarity on collateral estoppel, patent eligibility, construction of claim terms that have different boundaries across different claims, and the role of courts as neutral arbiter, say attorneys at Bunsow De Mory.

  • Lawyers With Disabilities Are Seeking Equity, Not Pity

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    Attorneys living with disabilities face extra challenges — including the need for special accommodations, the fear of stigmatization and the risk of being tokenized — but if given equitable opportunities, they can still rise to the top of their field, says Kate Reder Sheikh, a former attorney and legal recruiter at Major Lindsey & Africa.

  • Trademark Food For Thought When Rebranding

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    Brand makeovers like the one underway by Campbell Soup Co. can have a significant effect on a company's intellectual property rights, particularly as it relates to their trademarks, but with thoughtful strategizing, companies can anticipate seamless rebrands and hopefully avoid becoming cautionary tales, says Annie Allison at Haynes Boone.

  • Opinion

    Judicial Committee Best Venue For Litigation Funding Rules

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    The Advisory Committee on Civil Rules' recent decision to consider developing a rule for litigation funding disclosure is a welcome development, ensuring that the result will be the product of a thorough, inclusive and deliberative process that appropriately balances all interests, says Stewart Ackerly at Statera Capital.

  • The Strategic Advantages Of Appointing A Law Firm CEO

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    The impact on law firms of the recent CrowdStrike outage underscores that the business of law is no longer merely about providing supplemental support for legal practice — and helps explain why some law firms are appointing dedicated, full-time CEOs to navigate the challenges of the modern legal landscape, says Jennifer Johnson at Calibrate Strategies.

  • Fed. Circ. Ruling May Signal Software Patent Landscape Shift

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    The Federal Circuit's recent ruling in Broadband iTV, despite similarities to past decisions, chose to rely on prior cases finding patent-ineligible claims directed to receiving and displaying information, which may undermine one of the few areas of perceived predictability in the patent eligibility landscape, say attorneys at King & Wood.

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