Pfizer, BioNTech Get PTAB To Invalidate Moderna Vaccine IP

By Dani Kass

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board handed a massive victory to Pfizer and BioNTech on Wednesday, as it invalidated two Moderna patents covering its Spikevax COVID-19 vaccine, which the challengers stand accused of infringing.

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PTAB Bar Urges Congress, Lutnick To Protect USPTO Workers

By Dani Kass

The PTAB Bar Association is calling on intellectual property leaders in Congress, along with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, to spare the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office from Trump administration initiatives to freeze hiring and require in-person work.

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Justices Asked To Recuse Fitbit Judge Over Google Ties

By Andrew Karpan

A Silicon Valley-based patent-holding company that lost its infringement case against Fitbit is telling the U.S. Supreme Court that a California federal judge and her husband's financial ties to Fitbit parent Google are so strong that "if these circumstances do not warrant recusal ... then nothing does."

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Fed. Circ. Says Marketing Costs Can Permit ITC Patent Suits

By Ryan Davis

The Federal Circuit ruled Wednesday that the U.S. International Trade Commission has wrongly prohibited domestic expenses related to sales, marketing and other activities from allowing companies to pursue ITC patent cases, and revived a suit brought by eyelash extension company Lashify.

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Fed. Circ. Keeps Lenovo, Databricks Patent Fights In Texas

By Andrew Karpan

The Federal Circuit has turned down efforts by Lenovo and Databricks to ship separate lawsuits they are facing from patent-holding companies out of the Eastern District of Texas.

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Disney Doesn't Allow IP Theft, 'Moana' Co-Creator Testifies

By Rachel Scharf

One of the creators of "Moana" testified in a California federal copyright trial Wednesday that he "would never" use another writer's idea without permission, noting that one of his projects was killed after The Walt Disney Co. was unable to buy source material.

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Court Finds StockX Liable In Counterfeit Nike Sneaker Suit

By Andrea Keckley

Following oral arguments in New York federal court on Tuesday, a judge found sneaker reseller StockX LLC liable for selling counterfeit Nike shoes, ordering the companies to find available trial dates this year for the remaining allegations.

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Broadcom Slams 'Meritless Retaliatory' Netflix Patent Suit

By Bonnie Eslinger

Technology giant Broadcom blasted a patent infringement lawsuit filed by Netflix over five software patents Broadcom contends are invalid and urged a federal California court to toss the litigation, calling it a "meritless retaliatory case" meant to distract from Netflix's "rampant infringement of patents owned by Broadcom-related entities."

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Teva Wants Pause Of Patent Delisting For High Court Appeal

By Nadia Dreid

Israeli drugmaker Teva Pharmaceuticals is hoping the Federal Circuit will keep an injunction ordering it to remove its inhaler patents from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Orange Book on hold while it appeals the matter to the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Celltrion Can't Undo Eye Med Biosimilar Injunction On Appeal

By Ryan Davis

The Federal Circuit on Wednesday affirmed a lower court's preliminary injunction barring South Korea-based Celltrion Inc. from launching a biosimilar version of Regeneron's blockbuster eye disease treatment Eylea, rejecting Celltrion's argument that it has shown a patent on the drug may be invalid.

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Fed. Circ. Backs PNC's PTAB Win Over Mobile Banking IP

By Andrew Karpan

The Federal Circuit on Wednesday affirmed a win PNC Bank landed at an administrative patent board against a Texas bank that is suing PNC over mobile banking technology.

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HBO Wins Initial Toss Of 'Chernobyl' IP Case

By Andrea Keckley

A New York federal judge has dismissed a Ukrainian videographer's lawsuit accusing HBO and Sky UK of ripping off his video readout of a firefighter's call for its historical miniseries "Chernobyl," allowing him to file an amended complaint only for the copyright infringement claims.

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Steven Madden Resolves Libel Dispute Over IP Allegations

By Andrea Keckley

Parties in Steven Madden Ltd.'s lawsuit accusing Danish "affordable luxury" brand Ganni A/S of falsely claiming that two of its shoe designs infringed Ganni's intellectual property have reached an agreement to resolve the dispute, according to a filing Tuesday in New York federal court.

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Rival Cos. Called 'Empower' Agree To End TM Fight, For Now

By Gina Kim

Empower Annuity Insurance Co. of America and Empower Finance Inc. agreed to end, for now, their trademark infringement dispute over the "Empower" mark, over a year after a Colorado federal judge found customer confusion was "unlikely" in the financial services sector and refused to order Empower Finance to change its name.

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Alibaba Denies Control Over Copycat Dr. Martens Adverts

By Tabitha Burbidge

E-commerce site Alibaba has told a London court that it played no part in creating sponsored online advertising containing trademarks owned by Dr. Martens, but claims that the iconic leather boot brand also has not genuinely used all its trademarks.

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Bezos' Satellite Co. Drops Docs Fight With His Newspaper

By Greg Lamm

Jeff Bezos' satellite company has ended a public records fight with the Bezos-owned Washington Post over Washington state labor department workplace investigation records, after both sides agreed on blacking out some details to shield trade secrets.

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Parameters Set For Final NIL Deal Approval Hearing

By Elaine Briseño

The California federal judge overseeing the massive $2.78 billion name, image and likeness settlement between the National Collegiate Athletic Association and former and current student-athletes has released guidelines for the deal's final approval hearing in April.

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Brief

Paul Newman's Daughters End IP Suit Against Newman's Own

By Ryan Harroff

Late actor Paul Newman's daughters withdrew their lawsuit from Connecticut state court accusing the Newman's Own Foundation of trading off their father's name for non-charity-related purposes and breaching its duty to fund their own foundations despite the deceased film star's intent.

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NJ Panel Wrestles With Reviving Lorillard's Tax Refund Claim

By Paul Williams

New Jersey state appeals court judges grappled Wednesday with whether to revive tax refund claims from Lorillard following a state Tax Court decision that said changes to a royalty addback and deduction rule retroactively fixed constitutional issues with the regulation.

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Patent Prosecution Length Has Surprising Impact On Invalidity

Though practitioners might hypothesize that patents with longer prosecution histories are less likely to have inherent validity problems, a statistical analysis of over 89,000 patents involved in litigation suggests otherwise, say attorneys at Baker Botts.

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Managing Anti-Corporate Juror Views Revealed By CEO Killing

After the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson laid bare deep-seated anti-corporate sentiments among the public, companies in numerous industries will have to navigate the influence of related juror biases on litigation dynamics, say Jorge Monroy and Keith Pounds at IMS Legal Strategies.

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DOJ's Absence Felt At ABA Conference On White Collar Crime

By Carolina Bolado

Officials from the U.S. Department of Justice were conspicuously absent Wednesday from the American Bar Association's annual white collar crime conference, leaving organizers scrambling to fill empty panel seats and practitioners guessing as to what the Trump administration's enforcement priorities will be.

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Wilson Sonsini Latest Firm To Announce Beijing Closure

By Tracey Read

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC confirmed Wednesday that it will reduce its presence in Greater China by shutting down its Beijing office.

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Atty Who Repped Trump And Bannon Joins Brownstein Hyatt

By Jack Rodgers

Evan Corcoran, who represented President Donald Trump in his classified documents case and Steve Bannon in his contempt of Congress trial, has joined Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP's Washington, D.C., office.

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Ex-DOJ Official Jeffrey Clark Returns To Trump Administration

By Alison Knezevich

Jeffrey Clark, a former U.S. Department of Justice official who is facing criminal charges in Georgia and fighting to save his law license over claims that he helped President Donald Trump try to overturn the results of the 2020 election, has returned to the federal government.

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Atty's Vanity Plate Gets Spotlight In Fatal Shooting Trial

By Brian Steele

A Connecticut prosecutor has zeroed in on the vanity license plate that was on Cramer & Anderson LLP partner Robert L. Fisher Jr.'s car when he fatally shot an attacker in June 2021, asking the defendant's character witnesses Wednesday if they knew about it, and if so, what they thought of it.

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Jury Mulling Judge's Murder Trial Hears More Arguments

By Gina Kim

With jury deliberations in the murder trial of a California judge who fatally shot his wife stretching into their sixth day Wednesday, the presiding judge allowed the prosecution and defense to make additional arguments addressing the jury's question about the willfulness requirement for second-degree murder.

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Del. Corporate Law Bill Poses 'Grave Risk,' Plaintiffs' Firms Say

By Jeff Montgomery

Five of Delaware's most active corporate litigation plaintiffs' firms have branded pending legislation aimed at curbing stockholder suits as a "dangerous and radical" measure that attacks the state's courts and will put Delaware's nationally known incorporation franchise "at grave risk."

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ABA Says Attys Victimized By Clients May Share Certain Info

By Emily Sawicki

An attorney who is a victim of a crime perpetrated by a client or prospective client may disclose client information "to the extent reasonably necessary to report a crime," the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility has found in its latest ethics opinion, released Wednesday.

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Senate Confirms Todd Blanche To Be Trump's Deputy AG

By Courtney Bublé

The Senate voted 52-46 on Wednesday to confirm Todd Blanche, one of President Donald Trump's former criminal attorneys, to be deputy attorney general.

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High Court Allows Release Of Frozen USAID Foreign Aid

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that a D.C. federal judge can require the Trump administration to release up to $2 billion in frozen foreign aid funding, but told the judge he must clarify the scope of the government's responsibility and ensure it has enough time to comply with any deadline. 

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Revived Bill To Add Judges Teed Up For Another House Vote

By Courtney Bublé

The House Judiciary Committee voted out of committee three bills on Wednesday along party lines, including legislation to add more federal judgeships that the federal judiciary says are needed desperately but has become subject to partisan fighting.

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