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Intellectual Property
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March 28, 2024
NBCUniversal, DeLorean Settle 'Back To The Future' TM Suit
NBCUniversal Media LLC has settled a trademark infringement suit over royalty payments for its use of the iconic DeLorean DMC-12 sports car on "Back to the Future" merchandise, according to a notice filed Tuesday in California federal court.
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March 28, 2024
UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London
This past week in London has seen investors target fraudsters who ran a fake film tax scheme, Barclays Bank sue privately owned Russian bank PJSC Sovcombank, easyGroup bring a trademark infringement claim against online casino TGI Entertainment for its "easybet" word sign, and a bioethanol fuel company hit high-profile individuals connected to the collapsed Elysian Fuels scheme. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.
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March 27, 2024
Kim Kardashian Accused Of Touting Fake Donald Judd Tables
Kim Kardashian bought knockoff Donald Judd tables and chairs for her Skkn By Kim office space and then touted the furniture in a video to her 2 million YouTube subscribers as authentic pieces designed by the late artist, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday in California federal court.
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March 27, 2024
Warner Bros. Beats Claim It Stole Idea For 2022 'Batman' Film
A New York federal judge on Wednesday granted Warner Bros. and DC Comics separate wins in a suit accusing the entertainment giants of stealing a comic book artist's story idea for the 2022 movie "The Batman," finding it was actually the artist who exploited the Batman universe.
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March 27, 2024
Judge-Shopping Guidance Unlikely To Affect Patent Hot Spots
Recent guidance by the policymaking body for U.S. courts aimed at deterring "judge shopping" likely won't disrupt patent cases in Texas, experts say, since the suggestions are not mandatory and can be viewed as already being in place in popular patent districts.
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March 27, 2024
TikTok Star Ordered To Pay $805K To Sony For Sampling Song
A Texas federal judge on Wednesday ordered TikTok musician Trefuego to pay Sony Music Entertainment Inc. more than $805,000 for illegally sampling its licensed song "Reflections," but he denied Sony's bid for an injunction.
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March 27, 2024
ITC Judge Recommends Exclusion Order In Tourniquet IP Row
A U.S. International Trade Commission administrative judge has recommended the commission order that imports of products related to blood flow restriction be banned, handing a win to a pair of American medical product manufacturers.
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March 27, 2024
Citing Warhol, 10th Circ. Undoes Netflix's 'Tiger King' Win
The Tenth Circuit on Wednesday relied on last year's landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the Warhol case to set aside a fair use win for Netflix Inc. in a copyright suit brought by a former zoo employee who livestreamed the funeral of the husband of "Tiger King" star Joe Exotic.
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March 27, 2024
Fed. Circ. Says Faulty Jury Directions Warrant New IP Trial
The Federal Circuit on Wednesday granted Inline Plastics Corp. another chance to convince a Massachusetts federal jury that its tamper-resistant plastic containers were too successful for the underlying patents to be invalidated as obvious.
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March 27, 2024
Pool Co. Says Objection To Trial Attys Leaving Is 'Misplaced'
A swimming pool equipment maker has hit back at objections to some of its counsel exiting the case after a nearly $15 million trial loss over false ad claims in North Carolina, saying its rival's grievances are "misplaced."
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March 27, 2024
Candy Co. Can Use Recipe Amid 'Chocolate Moonshine' Fight
A Pennsylvania federal judge has refused to ban the candy maker Local Yokels Fudge from making or selling fudge, ruling the owner's ex-husband hadn't shown the company is still using his family's secret "Chocolate Moonshine" fudge recipe.
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March 27, 2024
Farm Data Co. Wants To Bar Carlton Fields Atty From IP Suit
Lawyers for an agricultural industry data software outfit want a Carlton Fields lawyer banned from participating in a patent dispute with a rival startup because of her in-house involvement at the rival and work on an older trade secrets suit involving the same technology.
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March 27, 2024
Netflix Owes Fees For Defense Tactics In Patent Trial
Netflix has been ordered to pay attorney fees to GoTV Streaming LLC after making a last-minute switch of its defense at a patent trial last year in California federal court that resulted in a $2.5 million verdict against the streaming giant.
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March 27, 2024
On Deck In JPML: Baby Food, 23andMe Privacy, NCAA
The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation's packed meeting Thursday in South Carolina will see the panel mulling consolidation of privacy litigation against 23andMe, claims of heavy metals in baby food, and scholarship-fixing claims by student athletes against the NCAA — and that's just for starters.
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March 27, 2024
Fed. Circ. Caps $7M Verdict While Clarifying Foreign Damages
The Federal Circuit on Wednesday rejected Trading Technologies' attempt to increase its $6.6 million patent infringement win against IBG LLC, in an opinion focusing on how to apply a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling on foreign damages.
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March 27, 2024
Bungie, YouTuber Settle False Copyright Infringement Suit
An online gamer has settled a lawsuit filed by video game developer Bungie Inc. after a Washington federal judge ruled earlier this month that the gamer illegally posed as a company employee and reported Bungie fans' YouTube videos as copyright violations, according to a court order Wednesday.
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March 27, 2024
New England Patriots Defeat Stadium Wi-Fi Patent Case
A patent-holding entity behind nearly a dozen infringement suits focused on Wi-Fi solutions for sports stadiums suffered its latest defeat Wednesday as a Boston federal judge dismissed its case against the New England Patriots and found the purported invention unpatentable.
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March 27, 2024
Judge Won't Sift Through IP Docs For Oil Co.'s Counterclaims
A Colorado federal judge said it's "patently unreasonable" to expect her to comb through hundreds of pages to find support for an oil and gas equipment maker's patent invalidity allegations, as she dismissed three of the company's counterclaims.
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March 27, 2024
PTAB Wrongly Found Laser IP Obvious, Fed. Circ. Rules
The Federal Circuit on Wednesday reversed a Patent Trial and Appeal Board finding that several claims of a Virtek Vision patent on aligning lasers used in manufacturing are invalid as obvious, while also siding with Virtek Vision on a cross appeal.
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March 27, 2024
Piracy Claims Against Bankrupt ISP Frontier Can Go Forward
A New York bankruptcy judge Wednesday said a group of copyright holders can go to trial with claims internet service provider Frontier Communications is liable for failing to cut off customers who downloaded pirated music and movies.
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March 26, 2024
PTAB Tosses 'Smart Card' Patent Used Against Banks
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board has found that all the claims of a Kioba Processing LLC patent on using a "smart card" to increase the security of wireless transactions are invalid as anticipated or obvious.
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March 26, 2024
Albright Told That Choice Hotel's Alice Ax Is 'Premature'
Patent Armory has told Texas federal Judge Alan D. Albright that a bid to dismiss its patent lawsuit against Choice Hotels International is "premature" and should be set aside at least until fact discovery is done and claim construction has been issued.
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March 26, 2024
Consumers Push For New 9th Circ. Panel In Qualcomm Case
Cellphone buyers are coming out strong against Qualcomm's request to have the same Ninth Circuit panel that vacated their class certification hear an appeal to revive the long-running antitrust litigation over the company's licensing practices, saying there is no reason for "meddling with the usual practice for assigning cases."
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March 26, 2024
Fed. Circ. Wrongly Invented New Design IP Rules, Justices Told
A sportswear company wants the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on a federal circuit's ruling that created a new standard for how courts should review challenges to design patents, which was won by rival Oregon clothing giant Columbia Sportswear.
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March 26, 2024
USPTO Proposes New Trademark Fees For Next Year
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued a proposal to add surcharges on trademark applications in cases where there isn't sufficient information, among other circumstances.
Expert Analysis
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7 Enforcement Predictions For US Export Controls, Sanctions
Federal agencies' assertions of coming increases in export-control and sanctions-violations enforcement are not new, but recent improvements in resources and inter-agency cooperation allow for certain predictions about how the administration’s latest approach to enforcement may be applied going forward, say attorneys at Akin.
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Key Takeaways From 2023 Trade Secret Developments
Attorneys at Faegre Drinker parse the past year's most significant trade secret rulings for practice tips, including the importance of establishing a confidential relationship when sharing trade secrets with third parties.
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Energy Sector Takeaways From Biden's AI Executive Order
While the U.S. Department of Energy begins to establish rules in accordance with President Joe Biden's recent executive order on artificial intelligence, in-house counsel can work with business lines and executive teams to consider implementing their own AI governance process, say Joel Meister and James De Vellis at Foley & Lardner.
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3 Types Of Evidence Excluded Pretrial In 2023 TM Cases
Dylan I. Scher at Quinn Emanuel reviews three areas of rulings on motions in limine from 2023 where parties successfully excluded evidence in a trademark dispute, for legal practitioners to consider for future cases.
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Lessons From This Year's Landmark Green Energy IP Clash
In this year's Siemens v. General Electric wind turbine patent dispute, a Massachusetts federal court offers a cautionary tale against willful infringement, and highlights the balance between innovation, law and ethics, as legal battles like this become more frequent in the renewable energy sector, say John Powell and Andrew Siuta at Sunstein.
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Series
The Pop Culture Docket: Judge D'Emic On Moby Grape
The 1968 Moby Grape song "Murder in My Heart for the Judge" tells the tale of a fictional defendant treated with scorn by the judge, illustrating how much the legal system has evolved in the past 50 years, largely due to problem-solving courts and the principles of procedural justice, says Kings County Supreme Court Administrative Judge Matthew D'Emic.
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Perils Of Incorporation By Reference At The Federal Circuit
The Federal Circuit's recent decision backing a Patent Trial and Appeal Board ruling against Medtronic illustrates the perils of arguments through incorporation by reference, which can result in waiver of arguments and an adverse decision on appeal, says Ryan Hagglund at Loeb & Loeb.
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Series
Performing Music Makes Me A Better Lawyer
The discipline of performing live music has directly and positively influenced my effectiveness as a litigator — serving as a reminder that practice, intuition and team building are all important elements of a successful law practice, says Jeff Wakolbinger at Bryan Cave.
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Comparing Christmas Carols: IP Issues In Mariah Carey Case
All that plaintiffs Andy Stone and Troy Powers want for Christmas this year is $20 million in damages from Mariah Carey in a federal copyright suit claiming her hit "All I Want For Christmas Is You" infringed on their earlier song by the same name, but they will have an uphill battle in demonstrating substantial similarity, says forensic musicologist Ethan Lustig.
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Green Tech And IP From Obama Through Biden: What's Next?
J. Douglas Miller and Matthew Dills at Shumaker consider how positions on the environment have shifted along with the last three U.S. presidential administrations, how these shifts have affected investment in sustainable green technologies and intellectual property strategies, and how the future might look.
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Breaking Down High Court's New Code Of Conduct
The U.S. Supreme Court recently adopted its first-ever code of conduct, and counsel will need to work closely with clients in navigating its provisions, from gift-giving to recusal bids, say Phillip Gordon and Mateo Forero at Holtzman Vogel.
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7 Critical Copyright And AI Questions Courts Need To Address
U.S. courts have yet to rule on many copyright issues regarding generative artificial intelligence technologies, so developers and users should consider several questions when evaluating risks, developing risk mitigation plans and making decisions about particular use cases, say John Delaney and Sean West at Perkins Coie.
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How New Expert Rules Are Already Changing Court Decisions
Though not formally effective until last week, some courts have been relying for several years on amended federal rules clarifying judges’ gatekeeping role, so counsel should be prepared to justify their expert witnesses’ methodologies and expect additional motion practice on expert testimony admissibility, say Colleen Kenney and Daniel Kelly at Sidley.
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Opinion
Legal Profession Gender Parity Requires Equal Parental Leave
To truly foster equity in the legal profession and to promote attorney retention, workplaces need to better support all parents, regardless of gender — starting by offering equal and robust parental leave to both birthing and non-birthing parents, says Ali Spindler at Irwin Fritchie.
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Open Issues At The USPTO And Beyond After Biden AI Order
President Joe Biden's recent executive order on artificial intelligence requires individual government agencies to develop their own principles and guidelines around the use of AI, leaving unanswered questions that will be important for any business that intends to rely on AI to create new or improved products or technologies, say Andrew Lustigman and Mary Grieco at Olshan Frome.