Intellectual Property

  • July 02, 2024

    USPTO Faces TM Suit From Ariana Grande Over Benefit Show

    Federal trademark officials wrongly turned down a bid by pop star Ariana Grande to register a trademark relating to a benefit concert she performed in England following the deadly bombing at one of her other shows in Manchester, according to a new lawsuit.

  • July 02, 2024

    Conn. Justices Send Trade Secrets Row Back To Trial Court

    The Connecticut Supreme Court ordered a "limited" new trial Tuesday in a trade secrets case that pit Dur-A-Flex Inc. against numerous companies tied to research chemist Samet Dy, its former employee, finding error in the lower court's rulings on issues including damages and the enforceability of Dy's noncompete agreement.

  • July 02, 2024

    Marriott Loses Counterclaim In Delta's TM Suit

    Delta Air Lines Inc. has won its fight against Marriott International Inc.'s claim that the airline breached an agreement over the use of "Delta Hotels," with a Georgia federal judge finding that the deal at issue applies only in Hong Kong and China.

  • July 02, 2024

    Justices Told Fed. Circ. Nullified Limits On PTAB Evidence

    Manufacturer Provisur Technologies Inc. has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Federal Circuit decision reviving rival Weber Inc.'s challenge to Provisur's food slicer patents, saying the appellate court flouted precedent that limits the evidence available in Patent Trial and Appeal Board cases.

  • July 02, 2024

    Hytera Hit With Discovery Sanctions In Motorola Radio IP Suit

    An Illinois federal judge imposed sanctions against China's Hytera Communications on Monday for flouting three court orders to produce source code for review in Motorola's patent dispute claiming the radio manufacturer unlawfully copied its digital two-way radio technology and infringed seven patents.

  • July 02, 2024

    More Ex-Basketball Players Sue NCAA For NIL Compensation

    A group of former men's college basketball players, led by a pair from the 2008 national champion University of Kansas team, have filed a proposed class action in federal court accusing the NCAA of earning billions off the ongoing replay of their highlights without compensating them.

  • July 02, 2024

    DLA Piper Tells Judge Fired Associate Got Proper Discovery

    Counsel for DLA Piper LLP told a Manhattan federal judge on Tuesday the firm has provided responsive information to a former associate who claims she was unlawfully fired while pregnant, adding it is confident her termination was lawful.

  • July 02, 2024

    Pfizer, BioNTech Infringed Moderna's MRNA Vaccine Patent

    Pfizer and BioNTech are on the hook for infringing Moderna's protections over its mRNA vaccines after a London court upheld on Tuesday the validity of one of two key U.K. patents over the technology.

  • July 01, 2024

    9th Circ. Cites Led Zeppelin In Affirming 'SmartBiz' TM Loss

    The Ninth Circuit on Monday affirmed a trial loss by the user of the "SmartBiz" trademark against Collins Cash, the user of the "Smart Business Funding" mark, citing the circuit's own ruling that sided with Led Zeppelin in a copyright dispute to find the lower court did not abuse its discretion when it declined to give the plaintiff's requested jury instruction.

  • July 01, 2024

    Arrgh, Nintendo Sues Mod Of 'SwitchPirates' Subreddit

    Nintendo is now going after a Reddit poster who moderates a subreddit called "SwitchPirates" and who the video game company accuses of stocking ​​"a massive catalog of Nintendo Switch games."

  • July 01, 2024

    Wolfgang Puck Judge Chops Sanctions Bids In Royalty Fight

    A Florida magistrate judge on Sunday rejected competing sanctions bids in a contentious lawsuit filed by celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck and interior designer Barbara Lazaroff claiming the owner of an appliance company hid assets to get out of paying a $2.4 million arbitration award for unpaid royalties.

  • July 01, 2024

    Atty Warned Not To 'Gamble' In Bid To DQ Quinn Emanuel

    A California federal judge considering Bright Data's bid to disqualify Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP from representing X Corp. in the social media company's data scraping lawsuit suggested Monday that Bright Data's Proskauer Rose LLP counsel is "gambling" by withholding a document from the judge.

  • July 01, 2024

    Dish Faces Appeal After Beating Jury's $469M Verdict

    A company that developed a way of skipping naughty scenes from movies wants the Federal Circuit to restore the $469 million that a jury in Salt Lake City ordered the satellite company Dish Network LLC to cough up for allegedly using those ideas to let customers skip commercials.

  • July 01, 2024

    $18M Hoodie Blanket Verdict Stands Despite New Design Test

    The Federal Circuit's newly revised test for proving that a design patent is invalid as obvious does not warrant a new trial following an $18.4 million verdict in a dispute between rival makers of wearable hoodie blankets, an Arizona federal judge ruled Friday.

  • July 01, 2024

    Starbucks Targets 'Starbuds' Marijuana Truck In IP Suit

    Starbucks has filed a trademark suit against the operator of a repurposed New York City food truck that sells marijuana under the brand Starbuds Flowers and uses an altered image of the coffee giant's iconic siren logo smoking a joint.

  • July 01, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Won't Hold Off VLSI Appeal For Lynk-Samsung Case

    The Federal Circuit on Monday denied a stay request from VLSI Technology LLC, where the chip patent owner had argued that related litigation between Lynk Labs and Samsung could affect the outcome of its appeal.

  • July 01, 2024

    Pegasystems Investors Sue After $2B Trade Secrets Verdict

    A pair of Pegasystems Inc. stockholders are seeking to hold its CEO and other officers liable for lost value following a $2 billion judgment against the company in a trade secrets case, according to a shareholder derivative complaint filed in Massachusetts state court.

  • July 01, 2024

    Kilpatrick Taps First Woman Atty To Lead IP Group

    Kilpatrick has elevated a longtime trademark partner based in Atlanta to lead its global intellectual property department, making her the first woman to lead the IP department.

  • July 01, 2024

    Newman's Own Hairbrush License Deal Barred By Conn. Court

    Two daughters of late Hollywood actor and philanthropist Paul Newman have won a temporary injunction in Connecticut state court against the use of his image and likeness in connection with a Wet Brush brand hairbrush, barring the licensing of his publicity and intellectual property rights to any product that is not food.

  • July 01, 2024

    CNX Says Employee Tried To Patent Its Tech For Himself

    CNX Resources Corp. has filed a trade secret lawsuit in Pennsylvania federal court accusing a former employee of wrongfully using the natural gas company's confidential business information to file patent applications in his own name.

  • July 01, 2024

    2nd Circ. Throws Out Disbarred Ex-BigLaw Atty's RICO Suit

    Former BigLaw associate Anthony Zappin is now 0-for-16 in the flurry of lawsuits he filed after a 2015 divorce sanctions ruling led to him being fired, disbarred and routinely mocked in the New York City tabloids, after the Second Circuit on Monday upheld the dismissal of a racketeering case against three foes he blames for his predicament.

  • July 01, 2024

    Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

    Two multimillion-dollar settlement approvals, a $25 million fee-shifting demand, and a biotech merger spoiled by murder: This was just the beginning of the drama last week in the nation's preeminent court of equity. Shareholders in satellite companies filed new cases, a cannabis company headed toward trial, and there were new developments in old disputes involving Tesla and Truth Social.

  • July 01, 2024

    Apple Scores Some Patent Board Reviews In Watch IP Fight

    Yet another front has opened in Apple's ongoing legal war with a small medical software company that claims the tech giant used its patents in a blood oxygen sensor found in the newer version of the Apple Watch.

  • July 01, 2024

    Artist Not Entitled To Exhibition Profits, Argues Arts Charity

    A charity has argued that an artist it previously sued for £100,000 ($125,500) over holographic portraits of the queen wasn't entitled to profits from a 2012 exhibition of those works.

  • June 28, 2024

    Chevron's End Is Just The Start For Energized Agency Foes

    By knocking down a powerful precedent that has towered over administrative law for 40 years, the U.S. Supreme Court's right wing Friday gave a crowning achievement to anti-agency attorneys. But for those attorneys, the achievement is merely a means to an end, and experts expect a litigation blitzkrieg to materialize quickly in the aftermath.

Expert Analysis

  • Trump Hush Money Case Offers Master Class In Trial Strategy

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    The New York criminal hush money trial of former President Donald Trump typifies some of the greatest challenges that lawyers face in crafting persuasive presentations, providing lessons on how to handle bad facts, craft a simple story that withstands attack, and cross-examine with that story in mind, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.

  • Cell Therapy Cos. Must Beware Limits Of Patent Safe Harbors

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    Though developers of gene and cell therapy products commonly assume that a legal safe harbor protects them from patent infringement suits, recent case law shows that not all preapproval uses of patented technology are necessarily protected, say Natasha Daughtrey and Joshua Weinger at Goodwin.

  • ITC Ruling Has Serious IP Implications For Foreign Imports

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    While a recent U.S. International Trade Commission decision is a win for trade secret owners who can show injury to a U.S. domestic industry, the decision also means that companies operating in foreign jurisdictions will be subject to the requirements of U.S. trade secret law, say Paul Ainsworth and Cristen Corry at Sterne Kessler.

  • What The Justices' Copyright Damages Ruling Didn't Address

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    While the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Warner Chappell v. Nealy clarified when a copyright owner may recover damages in jurisdictions that apply the so-called discovery rule, it did not settle the overriding question of whether the Copyright Act even permits applying the rule, say Ivy Estoesta and William Milliken at Sterne Kessler.

  • Series

    Teaching Yoga Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Being a yoga instructor has helped me develop my confidence and authenticity, as well as stress management and people skills — all of which have crossed over into my career as an attorney, says Laura Gongaware at Clyde & Co.

  • How Clinical Trials Affect Patentability In US And Europe

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    A comparison of recent U.S. and European patent decisions — concerning the effect of disclosures in clinical trials on the patentability of products — offers guidance on good practice for companies dealing with public use issues and prior art documents in these commercially important jurisdictions, say lawyers at Finnegan.

  • TTAB Ruling Raises Foreign-Language Mark Questions

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    The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board's recent decision to cancel the Veuve Olivier registration due to its similarity to Veuve Clicquot brings new focus to the treatment of foreign terms and the doctrine of foreign equivalents, say attorneys at Finnegan.

  • A Vision For Economic Clerkships In The Legal System

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    As courts handle increasingly complex damages analyses involving vast amounts of data, an economic clerkship program — integrating early-career economists into the judicial system — could improve legal outcomes and provide essential training to clerks, say Mona Birjandi at Data for Decisions and Matt Farber at Secretariat.

  • 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.

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