Intellectual Property

  • September 18, 2024

    USPTO Makes Patent Amendment Program Permanent

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Wednesday made permanent a pilot program that assists patent owners seeking to amend patent claims in America Invents Act reviews by providing preliminary feedback about proposed changes.

  • September 18, 2024

    Georgia High Court Won't Hear Missed Patent Deadline Case

    The highest court in Georgia has decided not to take up an appeal from a neurosurgeon in his nearly $102 million lawsuit, letting stand a lower court's finding that a patent docketing contractor used by remote law firm FisherBroyles can't be held liable for a missed patent application deadline.

  • September 18, 2024

    Toss Atty Input Overboard, Says Org. In Blackbeard Image Spat

    A marine research organization and a state cultural resources agency have urged the North Carolina Business Court to scrap testimony from attorneys from trial evidence in a contract battle over the use of images and video of Blackbeard's shipwreck.

  • September 18, 2024

    IP Firm Prevails In Malpractice Suit Over Dueling Patent Apps

    A Boston intellectual property law firm on Wednesday ducked a legal malpractice suit brought by a Colorado technology company alleging the firm betrayed it while filing patents on behalf of another client, after a Massachusetts federal judge found an absence of attorney-client relationship sunk the claims.

  • September 18, 2024

    Pa. AG Sues Robot Co. Over $2M In Unfilled Orders, Refunds

    A Pittsburgh robotics company took orders for more than $4 million worth of robot toys but failed to deliver many of them — and in the case of a toy based on the TV show "Rick and Morty," didn't secure the intellectual property rights — according to a consumer protection lawsuit announced by the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office on Wednesday.

  • September 18, 2024

    SF Says Oakland Airport Name Change Is 'Copycat Branding'

    San Francisco officials are urging a California federal court to block Oakland's attempt to incorporate "San Francisco Bay" into its airport name, accusing Oakland of "adopting a copycat brand" to attract more travelers.

  • September 18, 2024

    ITC Looking At Advanced Bionics Implant Patent Claims

    The U.S. International Trade Commission said it will look into allegations from Switzerland's Advanced Bionics that Austria's Med-El has been infringing cochlear implant hearing aid technology.

  • September 18, 2024

    Conn. Investment Adviser Stole Secrets, Ex-Employer Says

    An employee of a Connecticut investment advisory firm started a competing company and solicited his employer's clients before suddenly resigning and taking trade secrets to his new business, according to a new lawsuit in state court.

  • September 18, 2024

    NCAA Must Give Up Control To Reach Suitable NIL Settlement

    The date set by a California federal judge for the NCAA and the athletes suing it over name, image and likeness compensation to iron out issues with their proposed $2.78 billion settlement is fast approaching, and according to experts, a rational solution that would satisfy the two sides and the law might not exist.

  • September 18, 2024

    No Excess Coverage For Atos' Trade Secrets Suit, Judge Says

    A Liberty Mutual unit doesn't owe coverage to a subsidiary of French information technology giant Atos for an underlying trade secrets suit, a New York federal court ruled, saying the company failed to provide timely notice of the claim as required by its $10 million errors and omissions policy.

  • September 18, 2024

    Texas Firm, Marketing Biz Settle 'Click To Call' Ad Scheme Suit

    A Houston-based personal injury firm has reached a settlement with an Oklahoma-based marketing company it accused in a federal lawsuit of diverting clients and business to competitors through misleading advertisements in a click-to-call scheme.

  • September 18, 2024

    Calif. Gov. Signs Suite Of Bills Combating AI Deepfakes

    California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday signed five first-in-the-nation artificial intelligence-related bills giving actors more protections over their digital likenesses and reining in the use of AI-generated deepfakes during elections.

  • September 18, 2024

    Breitling Can't Get $1.4M Fee In Jeweler's 'Red Gold' TM Suit

    A Connecticut federal judge has rejected a request for $1.48 million in attorney fees by Swiss watchmaker Breitling SA and its American arm after they beat trademark infringement claims brought by a California jeweler, ruling that the claims may have been unsuccessful but that they were "not frivolous."

  • September 18, 2024

    Another IP Team Joins Barclay Damon From DC Boutique

    Three intellectual property attorneys from the D.C.-based boutique firm Gardella Grace PA have moved their practices to Barclay Damon LLP, making them the second IP group to move to Barclay Damon from a boutique in the last five months, according to a Tuesday announcement.

  • September 17, 2024

    Bible Tabs Maker Says Chinese Co. Sold Amazon Dupes

    The maker of Bible index tabs has sued a Chinese company allegedly selling knock-offs on Amazon that copy the brand's "expressive, ornamental and distinctive floral designs."

  • September 17, 2024

    JM Smucker Says Rival Is Spreading Uncrustable Lies

    A Los Angeles-based online snack retailer is smearing the image of J.M. Smucker Co.'s signature Uncrustables sandwiches through defamatory social media posts and false claims that its own products are nutritionally superior, the jam giant alleged Monday in an Ohio federal court complaint.

  • September 17, 2024

    2nd Circ. Lets American Girl Doll Counterfeit Case Proceed

    The Second Circuit on Tuesday held that doll manufacturer American Girl LLC could move ahead with its New York federal suit accusing a China-based company of selling counterfeit versions of its dolls, finding that American Girl showed the defendant transacted business in the state.

  • September 17, 2024

    Ford Barred From Using InterMotive Mark After $13M Verdict

    A Michigan federal judge permanently barred Ford Motor Co. from using the name of a California tech company's vehicle control module, following last year's jury award of more than $13 million to the tech maker for infringement by Ford.

  • September 17, 2024

    Flowers For Miley? Not Without Bruno Mars, Suit Says

    Singer Miley Cyrus is accused of lifting extensively from Bruno Mars' popular song "When I Was Your Man" to create her hit "Flowers," according to a copyright suit in California federal court that also targets Sony, Apple, Disney and several others.

  • September 17, 2024

    Brooklyn Feds Unveil Whistleblower Nonprosecution Plan

    The Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's Office on Tuesday announced an initiative to reward corporate whistleblowers with nonprosecution deals amid a broader effort by federal prosecutors to encourage voluntary disclosure of criminal activity.

  • September 17, 2024

    Tech Co. Takes Shot At Brooklyn Nets Over 'Netaverse' Use

    The Brooklyn Nets have damaged the reputation of hardware and software technology company Phinge Corp. by unlawfully using the phrase "netaverse," which Phinge has been using since 2022, for the team's virtual reality services, according to a new trademark infringement lawsuit lodged in California federal court.

  • September 17, 2024

    GC Base Salaries At Big Companies On The Rise

    General counsel base salaries at companies making $5 billion or more in revenue has increased from last year, while their total compensation has decreased, according to a report released Tuesday by the Association of Corporate Counsel and Empsight International LLC.

  • September 17, 2024

    Google Taps In-House Atty For Head Of General Litigation

    Google has promoted a longtime in-house attorney to be its head of general litigation, tapping a 13-year veteran of the tech giant who originally studied architectural engineering before going to law school. 

  • September 17, 2024

    Meta Deletes Photo Tagging IP At Fed. Circ.

    The Federal Circuit on Tuesday handed Meta Platforms Inc. a win in an infringement case, upholding the invalidation of a patent-holding company's patent on digitally tagging images and dismissing related patents on appeal after they failed to survive at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

  • September 17, 2024

    Addleshaw Goddard Expands IP Team With Five Stobbs Hires

    Addleshaw Goddard LLP has hired a five-lawyer team from an intellectual property boutique led by a veteran IP litigator from the high-profile Colin the Caterpillar case as it strives to grow a market-leading team.

Expert Analysis

  • Measuring Early Impact Of Rule 702 Changes On Patent Cases

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    Since Federal Rule of Evidence 702 was amended to clarify the standards for admitting expert witness testimony five months ago, emerging trends in patent cases suggest that it may be easier to limit or exclude expert testimony, and hold key practice takeaways for attorneys, say Manuel Velez and Nan Zhang at Mayer Brown.

  • Protecting IP May Be Tricky Without Noncompetes

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    Contrary to the Federal Trade Commission's view, trade secret law cannot replace noncompetes' protection of proprietary information because intellectual property includes far more than just trade secrets, so businesses need to closely examine their IP protection options, say Aimee Fagan and Ching-Lee Fukuda at Sidley.

  • 8 Legal Issues Influencing Investors In The Creator Economy

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    The rapidly expanding digital creator economy — funding for which more than doubled in the U.S. in the first quarter — comes with its own set of unique legal issues investors must carefully consider before diving in, say Louis Lehot and Alan Pate at Foley & Lardner.

  • E-Discovery Quarterly: Recent Rulings On Text Message Data

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    Electronically stored information on cellphones, and in particular text messages, can present unique litigation challenges, and recent court decisions demonstrate that counsel must carefully balance what data should be preserved, collected, reviewed and produced, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • How Copyright Office AI Standards Depart From Precedent

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    The U.S. Copyright Office's recent departure from decades of precedent for technology-assisted works, and express refusal to grant protection to artificial intelligence-assisted works, may change as the dust settles around ancillary copyright issues for AI currently pending in litigation, says Kristine Craig at Hanson Bridgett.

  • IP Considerations For Companies In Carbon Capture Sector

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    As companies collaborate to commercialize carbon capture technologies amid massive government investment under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a coherent intellectual property strategy is more important than ever, including proactively addressing and resolving questions about ownership of the technology, say Ashley Kennedy and James De Vellis at Foley & Lardner.

  • Does Expert Testimony Aid Preliminary IPR Responses?

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    Dechert attorneys analyze six years of patent owners' preliminary responses to inter partes review petitions to determine whether the elimination of the presumption favoring the petitioner as to preinstitution testimonial evidence affected the usefulness of expert testimony in responses.

  • Rebuttal

    Double-Patenting Ruling Shows Terminal Disclaimers' Value

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    While a recent Law360 guest article seems to argue that the Federal Circuit’s Cellect decision last year robs patent owners of lawful patent term, the ruling actually identifies how terminal disclaimers are the solution to the problem of obviousness-type double patenting, say Jane Love and Robert Trenchard at Gibson Dunn.

  • Series

    Swimming Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Years of participation in swimming events, especially in the open water, have proven to be ideal preparation for appellate arguments in court — just as you must put your trust in the ocean when competing in a swim event, you must do the same with the judicial process, says John Kulewicz at Vorys.

  • How Courts Are Interpreting Fed. Circ. IPR Estoppel Ruling

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    In the year since the Federal Circuit’s Ironburg ruling, which clarified the scope of inter partes and post-grant review estoppel, district court decisions show that application of IPR or PGR estoppel may become a resource-intensive inquiry, say Whitney Meier Howard and Michelle Lavrichenko at Venable.

  • Should NIL Collectives Be Allowed Tax-Favored Status?

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    Arguments are being made for and against allowing organizations to provide charitable contribution tax deductions for donations used to compensate student-athletes, a practice with impacts on competition for student-athletes and overall tax fairness, but ultimately it is a question for Congress, say Andres Castillo and Barry Gogel at the University of Maryland School of Law.

  • What 100 Federal Cases Suggest About Changes To Chevron

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    With the U.S. Supreme Court poised to overturn or narrow its 40-year-old doctrine of Chevron deference, a review of 100 recent federal district court decisions confirm that changes to the Chevron framework will have broad ramifications — but the magnitude of the impact will depend on the details of the high court's ruling, say Kali Schellenberg and Jon Cochran at LeVan Stapleton.

  • Patent Damages Jury Verdicts Aren't Always End Of The Story

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    Recent outcomes demonstrate that patent damages jury verdicts are often challenged and are overturned approximately one-third of the time, and successful verdict challenges typically occur at the appellate level and concern patent validity and infringement, say James Donohue and Marie Sanyal at Charles River.

  • Manufacturers Should Pay Attention To 'Right-To-Repair' Laws

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    Oregon’s recently passed "right-to-repair" statute highlights that the R2R movement is not going away, and that manufacturers of all kinds need to be paying attention to the evolving list of R2R statutes in various states and consider participating in the process, says Courtney Sarnow at Culhane.

  • Why High Court May Have Rejected IP Obviousness Appeal

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    Attorneys at Womble Bond analyze possible reasons the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Vanda Pharmaceuticals' request to review the Federal Circuit’s reasonable expectation of success standard for determining obviousness, including that the court was unpersuaded by the company's argument that Amgen v. Sanofi places a bind on drug developers.

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