Fed. Circ. Reverses Telecom Patent Owner's PTAB Win

By Adam Lidgett

The Federal Circuit on Thursday threw out a Patent Trial and Appeal Board decision that refused to invalidate claims in a mobile communications patent owned by a unit of European patent-licensing company Sisvel, with a panel majority saying the PTAB made numerous errors.

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3 Things To Know About 9th Circ. Ruling In $56M Beer Battle

By Ivan Moreno

The Ninth Circuit has affirmed a $56 million trial verdict for Stone Brewing Co. in a long-running trademark battle involving Molson Coors, saying the evidence supported the jury's conclusion that the Canadian-American beer company's repackaging of its Keystone Light brand infringed its competitors' "Stone" mark.

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Fox Rothschild Atty Beats Trade Secret Theft Allegations

By Andrew Karpan

A federal judge in New Jersey says a company trying to develop cancer drugs had waited too long to sue its former patent lawyer after he allegedly "confessed" over five years ago to helping a Chinese rival file a patent application that allegedly misappropriated trade secrets.

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Hikma Wants Extension At High Court In Skinny Label Case

By Adam Lidgett

Hikma Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. wants an extra month to file its petition challenging the Federal Circuit's revival of a suit claiming the company induced physicians to infringe patents covering Amarin Pharma Inc.'s blockbuster cardiovascular drug Vascepa, citing the case's importance and the busy schedules of attorneys.

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Justices Urged To Review Copyright Attorney Fee Circuit Split

By Ali Sullivan

A Florida real estate broker is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to decide if defendants hit with copyright infringement suits can collect attorney fees when those suits are dropped, calling the case "an obvious candidate" for high court review.

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'Crush-Resistant' OxyContin Patents Fail At Fed. Circ.

By Andrew Karpan

In one of its last major moves in 2024, the Federal Circuit decided to reject an appeal from the bankrupt maker of OxyContin, which is trying to use patent laws to block the release of a competing "crush-resistant" generic painkiller.

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Perkins Coie Fights DQ Bid In Facial Recognition IP Suit

By Ryan Boysen

Perkins Coie LLP wants to continue defending Jumio Corp. in a patent infringement lawsuit involving facial recognition technology, calling plaintiff FaceTec Inc.'s bid to disqualify the law firm over its previous work for FaceTec a "tactical" ploy.

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Issa Again Selected To Lead House IP Subcommittee

By Ryan Davis

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., will again lead the House subcommittee overseeing intellectual property in the upcoming Congress, a role in which he has sponsored bills seeking to limit how many patents can be asserted in biosimilar cases and require disclosure of litigation funding.

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Rep. Jordan Picks Wis. Lawmaker For House Antitrust Panel

By Jared Foretek

Republicans are moving to install a frequent critic of President Joe Biden's Federal Trade Commission at the head of the House of Representatives' antitrust subcommittee, naming Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Wis., to the post Tuesday.

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Omnitracs' $19M Patent Trial Jury Win Tossed By Calif. Judge

By Craig Clough

A California federal judge has overruled a jury's holding that Platform Science willfully infringed one of Qualcomm spinoff Omnitracs' fleet management software patents and vacated the resulting $19 million verdict, finding that the plaintiffs' expert gave faulty testimony. 

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Boston Dynamics Settles Robot IP Suit With Rival

By Adam Lidgett

Boston Dynamics Inc. has agreed to a deal to end a patent infringement lawsuit it launched against competitor Ghost Robotics Corp. in Delaware federal court over artificial intelligence technology tested by the U.S. Air Force.

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Dyson, SharkNinja Put Down Blades In Sprawling Patent Fight

By Gina Kim

Dyson Inc. and its rival SharkNinja Inc. have informed federal judges in Texas and Massachusetts that they've reached a settlement in their sprawling patent fight spanning multiple jurisdictions over vacuum cleaner appliances, and they have requested a stay in the litigation.

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Brief

Comcast Foe Fails To Resurrect Patent Case Over Xfinity App

By Andrew Karpan

The full Federal Circuit on Thursday denied a request to look at a decision overturning a Delaware federal jury's infringement verdict in favor of a small California company that has been suing Comcast over patent claims for the past five years.

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Netflix Says 'Uncopyrightable Facts' Sink Boy Scout Doc Suit

By Emily Sawicki

Netflix has asked a New Jersey federal court to toss a trial lawyer's copyright infringement claims over their competing documentaries on sexual abuse within the Boy Scouts of America, arguing that any claimed similarities "are based on uncopyrightable facts that are free for all creators to use."

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Southern Comfort Malt Liquor Buyers Score False Ad Cert.

By Gina Kim

A New York federal judge certified a class of Southern Comfort customers alleging Sazerac Co. deceptively labeled its malt beverage products, but declined to allow one plaintiff to serve as class representative, finding Thursday he lied in interrogatory answers and "appeared not to know the basic premise of the case."

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Brief

9th Circ. Dismisses LegalForce Trademark Appeal

By Matt Perez

The Lanham Act, the primary federal statute dictating trademark law, does not apply to the advertising and selling of equity, the Ninth Circuit stated in an appeals case between intellectual property firm LegalForce RAPC Worldwide PC and a Japanese company that fundraised off the brand "LegalForce."

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Startup Wants New Trial After TransUnion Undoes $18M Loss

By Carolyn Muyskens

A Sixth Circuit panel was wrong to affirm that a startup must come away empty-handed from a dispute with TransUnion LLC over a partnership to develop an online insurance quote marketplace, the startup said in asking the panel to give it a new trial instead of throwing out its jury win completely. 

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IBM And GlobalFoundries Settle Contract, Trade Secret Suits

By Rae Ann Varona

IBM and semiconductor maker GlobalFoundries US Inc. have settled lawsuits lodged against each other in which IBM accused GlobalFoundries of breaching a $1.5 billion manufacturing deal, while GlobalFoundries accused IBM of unlawfully disclosing its confidential trade secrets, the companies announced Thursday.

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Trucking Software Co. Sued Over Alleged Trade Secrets Theft

By Kelcey Caulder

A technology company that offers solutions to shippers, carriers and logistics service providers has filed suit against Southern Motor Carriers Association Inc. and one of its board members, alleging they interfered with its contractual and business relations and misappropriated trade secrets related to one of its software packages.

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Fed. Circ. In December: A Patent Prosecution History Lesson

Despite relying on two rock-solid principles of patent law, DDR lost its Federal Circuit case against Priceline.com, highlighting how a change in the scope of the invention from the provisional to the nonprovisional application can affect the court's analysis of how a skilled artisan would understand claim terms after reading the prosecution history, say attorneys at Knobbe Martens.

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Identifying Deepfakes During Evidence Collection, Discovery

Attorneys must familiarize themselves with the tools used to create and detect deepfakes — media manipulated by artificial intelligence to convincingly mimic real people and events — as well as best practices for keeping this fabricated evidence out of court, says Bijan Ghom at Saxton & Stump.

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Series

Playing Esports Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Competing in a global esports tournament at Wimbledon last year not only fulfilled my childhood dream, but also sharpened skills that are essential to my day job, including strategic thinking, confidence and networking, says AJ Schuyler at Jackson Lewis.

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Bonus Spotlight

Holland & Knight Matches BigLaw Bonuses In Major Markets

By Anna Sanders

Holland & Knight LLP announced associates in major U.S. markets will receive year-end and special bonuses matching those given by other BigLaw firms, with attorneys working in regional offices making smaller figures, according to a report.

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Biden Honors Del. Jurist For Role In Brown V. Board Ruling

By Jeff Montgomery

President Joe Biden issued a top civilian award, posthumously, to former Chancellor Collins J. Seitz of Delaware Chancery Court, father of the state's current chief justice, for his role in decisions woven into the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling.

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Clyde & Co. Merges With Dallas Insurance Boutique

By Emily Sawicki

Clyde & Co. LLP has announced a merger with Dallas boutique Tillman Batchelor LLP, expanding the global law firm's insurance capabilities in Texas amid its ongoing growth in North America.

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Taft Hired BCLP Comms Director Ahead Of Merger

By Andrea Keckley

Once its merger with Sherman & Howard LLC became effective at the start of the new year, Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP announced Thursday it had hired Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner's former director of communications.

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AI Chatbots Will Transform Legal Scholarship, AI Chatbot Says

By Matt Perez

Generative artificial intelligence like OpenAI's ChatGPT software will redefine legal scholarship, according to a new paper primarily produced by the chatbot.

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States Debate High Court Solution To Election Map Catch-22

By Katie Buehler

Louisiana has implored the U.S. Supreme Court to decisively resolve litigation over its federal election map in one of three ways, suggesting the justices could toss the case on standing, decide the merits, or, preferably, find that federal courts have no role in refereeing redistricting disputes.

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Ex-GMU Prof.'s Accusers Say He Can't Prove $108M Damages

By Aebra Coe

Former FTC Commissioner Joshua Wright allegedly failed to provide information to back his $108 million defamation damages claim and then walked out of a deposition, according to a Virginia court filing by two former students whom Wright sued over their statements to Law360.

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Atty Wants Free Speech Suit Over Tenn. Court Rule Kept Alive

By Jack Karp

A free speech challenge to a Middle District of Tennessee rule barring attorneys from making "any extrajudicial statements" about cases in the district should be allowed to move forward since the court is not entitled to sovereign immunity, according to the Nashville civil rights lawyer behind the suit.

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Giuliani Says Memory Faulty In Meandering NY Contempt Row

By Pete Brush

A Manhattan federal judge mulled a bid to hold Rudy Giuliani in contempt of a $148 million defamation judgment Friday, during a day of sparring in which the former New York City mayor repeatedly told counsel for two defamed Georgia poll workers that he doesn't remember case details.

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Battling Berts: Judge Enjoins Ga. Law Firm In Trademark Row

By Kelcey Caulder

A Georgia federal judge Friday temporarily barred an Atlanta-based law firm from advertising and promoting its personal injury legal services through messaging like "If You're Hurt ... Call Bert!" and "If You're Hurt, Call Bert," ruling that it is too similar to another personal injury firm's trademarked slogan.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

How to deal with diversity, climate change and artificial intelligence are the key issues giving general counsel night terrors at the start of the new year. And in Delaware, the Chancery Court is allowing a stockholder suit to move forward against Fox Corp., related to its false reports of voting fraud in 2020.

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UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

By Laura Stewart Liberty

This past week in London has seen Chris Eubank Jr. hit with a libel claim from a boxing promoter, a perfume boss face proceedings from his businesses following sanctions violations claims, and Israeli broadcasters file intellectual property claims against BT and Sky. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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