Practice Areas
Intellectual Property
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February 22, 2012
Canadian Artists Can't Reap Fees Off Online Transfers
The Copyright Board of Canada refused Friday to grant the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada an interim tariff to cover the online delivery of movies, television shows and user-generated content over the Internet by companies like Facebook Inc. and Netflix Inc.
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February 22, 2012
Microsoft Hits Motorola, Google With EU Antitrust Action
Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday lodged a competition complaint with the European Commission against Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. and its soon-to-be parent Google Inc., alleging Motorola is trying to block sales of Microsoft products that allow wireless viewing of video via the Internet.
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February 22, 2012
SAG, Sports Unions Dispute EA’s Likeness Win In 3rd Circ.
The Screen Actors Guild and the players’ associations of the major professional sports leagues on Friday asked the Third Circuit to reverse a ruling that the First Amendment protects Electronic Arts Inc. in a proposed class action over EA’s use of college athletes’ likenesses in video games.
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February 22, 2012
Perkins Coie Lures Loeb & Loeb IP Team
Perkins Coie has expanded its Chicago intellectual property practice with the addition of a three-attorney team from Loeb & Loeb, the firm announced Tuesday.
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February 22, 2012
Louis Vuitton's Cameo In 'The Hangover' Under Fire
Warner Bros. Inc. said Wednesday that Louis Vuitton Malletier SA should not be able to “veto” the appearance of its designer bags in movies, taking a shot at a trademark suit over a prop in the “The Hangover Part II.”
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February 22, 2012
Comcast Dials Up Another Patent Suit Against Sprint
A Comcast Corp. subsidiary on Tuesday accused Sprint Nextel Corp. of infringing four more of its communication patents, continuing Comcast's recent litigation offensive against its telecommunications rival.
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February 22, 2012
Sony Owns ‘King Of The Road,’ Other Songs: 6th Circ.
Sony/ATV Publishing LLC owns the renewal copyrights to the hit “King of the Road” and other songs by country singer Roger Miller, the Sixth Circuit ruled Wednesday, reversing a district court win for Miller's widow and striking down a damages award of almost $1 million.
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February 22, 2012
Megaupload Founder Wins Bail In New Zealand
Kim Dotcom, the infamous founder of file-sharing and alleged piracy site Megaupload.com, was granted bail Wednesday by a New Zealand district court, as he continues to await extradition proceedings that could land him in a U.S. courtroom.
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February 22, 2012
EU Suspends ACTA Ratification For High Court Inspection
Facing stiff criticism and protests, the European Commission said Wednesday that it was referring the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement to the European Court of Justice to independently clarify the legality of the pact.
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February 22, 2012
Sharp, Toshiba, Others Caught In Flat-Panel Patent Blitz
Graphics Properties Holdings Inc., formerly known as Silicon Graphics Inc., filed six separate lawsuits in Delaware federal court on Tuesday accusing Panasonic Corp., Sharp Corp., Toshiba Corp. and others of infringing up to five patents for flat-panel electronics display technologies.
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February 22, 2012
Gucci Can Still Seek Ban On Guess Goods In Trademark Row
A New York federal judge on Tuesday clarified that although her recent ruling bars luxury retailer Gucci America Inc. from pursuing monetary damages for its claims that Guess Inc. diluted two of its trademarks, the company can still seek injunctive relief.
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February 21, 2012
Evanston Insurance Tries To Shake Bratz Coverage Suit
Attorneys representing Evanston Insurance Co. told a California federal judge on Tuesday that the insurer doesn't have a duty to defend MGA Entertainment Inc. in its ongoing trade secrets feud with Mattel Inc. over the Bratz doll line.
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February 21, 2012
Kolon's Recusal Bid In DuPont Antitrust Case Falls Short
A Virginia federal judge refused to recuse himself Tuesday from Kolon Industries Inc.'s antitrust and trade secrets cases against DuPont Co., saying Kolon had waited too long to criticize his stint as an attorney for McGuireWoods LLP when the firm represented DuPont in a 1985 patent suit.
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February 21, 2012
Justices Decline To Hear Eastman's Resin Patent Case
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to review a decision reversing a finding that two resin patents held by Wellman Inc. are indefinite, rejecting Eastman Chemical Co.'s argument that the standard used by the Federal Circuit conflicts with precedent.
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February 21, 2012
MGA's $1B Bratz Antitrust Suit Against Mattel Jettisoned
A California federal judge on Tuesday tossed MGA Entertainment Inc.'s $1 billion antitrust lawsuit claiming Mattel Inc. tried to sabotage its Bratz doll line, ruling that MGA's claims had already been litigated during the companies’ ongoing intellectual property war.
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February 21, 2012
SNR Denton Defamation Claims Revived In Secrets Row
An Illinois appeals court last week revived SNR Denton’s defamation and tortious interference counterclaims in a consulting company’s trade secrets suit that claims a former executive violated her noncompete agreement by joining the law firm and helping it poach employees for the firm's health care group.
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February 21, 2012
Garmin Scores Win In Triangle GPS Patent Row
A Virginia federal judge has ruled that two kinds of Garmin International Inc. GPS navigation devices do not infringe five navigation technology patents held by Triangle Software LLC, Garmin announced Tuesday.
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February 21, 2012
$1.7B Humira IP Verdict Won't Get Supreme Court Review
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to review a Federal Circuit ruling that negated a $1.67 billion patent verdict against Abbott Laboratories, refusing to consider a Johnson & Johnson unit's argument that the written description requirement used by the appeals court is too unpredictable.
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February 21, 2012
Google Wants Authors Guild Deleted From Books Action
Google Inc. on Friday asked a New York federal court to dismiss The Authors Guild Inc. from the class action challenging its project to archive the world's books, saying the association cannot litigate copyright claims on behalf of its members.
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February 21, 2012
Allergan, Others Sought Pinkeye Treatment Monopoly: Suit
Generic pharmaceutical manufacturer Apotex Inc. launched a suit in Delaware Thursday accusing Allergan Inc. and two Japanese drug manufacturers of pinkeye medication Zymar of creating a monopoly over the medication and creating a new version of the treatment to eliminate generic competition.
Expert Analysis
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Linsanity: The Trademark
The rush to trademark "Linsanity" — the current craze caused by New York Knicks player Jeremy Lin — is reminiscent of attempts to trademark the Charlie Sheen phrase ”Winning," and, similarly, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office may refuse registration, says Geri Haight of Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo PC.
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Some Sticker Shock Over USPTO Fee-Setting Proposals
While the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's goal of using proposed fee increases to have a reserve fund that would cover operations for three months may be a laudable long-term goal, concerns are being expressed that this creates too great a burden on current patent applicants, says Brad Pedersen of Patterson Thuente Christensen Pedersen PA.
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Fashion Designers: Legally Naked?
The recent Christian Louboutin SA v. Yves Saint Laurent America Holding Inc. case highlights fashion designers' limited intellectual property protections and the pressure on designers to frame their aesthetic or artistic choices as brand identifiers in order to secure IP protection, say Tyler Baker and Christine Steiner of Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP.
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Reasonable Royalty: Analytic Vs. Hypothetical Approach
While the Georgia-Pacific “hypothetical negotiation” approach is currently the primary standard for determining a “reasonable royalty,” there is no valid basis to assume it is the correct standard in every case. The analytic approach has the advantage of focusing the attention — and the evidence — squarely on the economic value of the patented technology, says Paul Alexander of Arnold & Porter LLP.
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Tips For Venturing Into Ambush Marketing
Companies pay millions of dollars to associate themselves with prominent sporting events and movie and television award ceremonies. While there are significant inherent legal risks in ambush marketing, there are many ways to utilize third-party references without running afoul of the legal protections afforded the owners, says Jonathan Pompan of Venable LLP.
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An Intellectual Asset Management Program For SMEs
Current enterprise software systems tend to be designed around the needs of large enterprises. The goals of our operating system are to allow the extraction of more value from a small- to medium-sized entity’s intellectual capital, manage costs of patent procurement and maintenance, and obtain meaningful offensive and defensive strategic advantage from patents, say attorneys with Miles & Stockbridge PC .
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Law School, Meet Litigation PR ...
The single most important thing law schools can do to manage their reputations in the face of litigation is apply the lessons learned from Wall Street during the recent financial crisis and strive for transparency in all communications. One need only look to Goldman Sachs’ woes or the struggles of Jon Corzine’s MF Global as examples of the catastrophic results of a campaign based on anything but complete honesty, says Spencer Baretz of Hellerman Baretz Communications.
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Behind The Scenes Of A Pre-Appeal Brief Review
If applicants and practitioners know what really occurs within the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office once an applicant files a notice of appeal accompanied by a pre-appeal brief request for review, they can take advantage of this process more effectively, says Brian Goldberg of Baker Botts LLP.
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Steve Jobs — Not The Best Patent Litigation Role Model
It has been written that Steve Jobs was prepared to use Apple Inc.’s significant patent portfolio to completely shut down Google Inc.'s Android, which he considered a direct rip-off of Apple’s iPhone. Taking an unreasonably hard stance like this in patent litigation will result in two potentially unpleasant outcomes for the patent owner, says David Mixon of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP.
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The Wide-Ranging Applications Of Calif. Anti-SLAPP Law
Although there are a number of subject matters to which California's anti-strategic lawsuits against public participation statute has been applied in the last few years, it is not always obvious whether a newly filed complaint can be targeted with such a motion, say Jeremy Rosen and Josephine Mason of Horvitz & Levy LLP.