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Intellectual Property
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May 22, 2024
Justices Urged To Undo 'Nonsensical' Double Patenting Ruling
Cellect LLC asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the "nonsensical" invalidation of its patents through so-called obviousness-type double patenting, alleging the Federal Circuit "punished" it for delays in the patent prosecution process that were outside of its control.
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May 22, 2024
Insurance Co. Says Ex-Underwriter 'Lured' Away Colleagues
An insurance brokerage and its affiliate have accused a former high-ranking company official of decamping for a competitor and encouraging colleagues to follow suit, according to a complaint designated Wednesday to North Carolina Business Court.
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May 22, 2024
Carmen Electra, Other Models' Likeness Suit Moves Forward
A Pennsylvania federal judge has rejected a bid from three Philadelphia-area strip clubs to throw out a suit claiming they wrongly used the likeness of models including Carmen Electra, saying the models' claims were plausible.
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May 22, 2024
Boeing Can't Use Belated Patent Defense In Startup's IP Trial
A Washington federal judge has rejected The Boeing Co.'s last-minute bid to tell a jury that its patents preempt claims it misappropriated an electric jet startup's intellectual property, saying it would be unfair to allow previously unpled affirmative defenses now that the trial is underway.
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May 22, 2024
Teva, Bristol-Myers Cite Bystolic Against Cancer Drug Case
Celgene and parent Bristol-Myers Squibb pointed a New Jersey federal judge to the dismissal, recently upheld by the Second Circuit, of an antitrust suit over delayed generic competition to AbbVie's hypertension treatment Bystolic to argue the same logic applies to their bid to duck antitrust claims over cancer therapies.
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May 22, 2024
Spencer Fane Lures In Big-Name 'Misfits' For Patent Group
Spencer Fane LLP has spent the past two years building up what it hopes to be a top-tier intellectual property group, pulling together a "band of misfits" from firms like Fish & Richardson PC and McKool Smith, according to the group's co-leader.
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May 22, 2024
Data Storage Co. Says Seagate Stole Info For New Product
New Jersey data storage company Access Optical Networks Inc. has sued competitor Seagate Technology LLC in California state court, alleging its rival stole trade secrets to advance development of a new storage product — all while pretending to want to develop a business relationship with AON.
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May 22, 2024
Dickinson Adds Ex-Sheppard Mullin IP Pro In Silicon Valley
Dickinson Wright PLLC said Wednesday that it has added a former Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP partner as the newest member of its Silicon Valley office.
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May 22, 2024
Womble Bond Adds IP Litigator In LA
A patent attorney specializing in software and technology innovations has moved his practice to Womble Bond Dickinson LLP's Los Angeles office after more than 12 years with Ladas & Parry LLP.
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May 22, 2024
Honeywell Rival Sues To Ward Off 'Meritless' Litigation Threat
A Japanese manufacturer is suing to put a stop to what it described as an "aggressive threat of litigation" by Honeywell International Inc. in the conglomerate's long-running crusade to protect its patents for barcode scanners, calling Honeywell's latest claim "unwarranted and meritless."
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May 21, 2024
Scarlett Johansson Taps Bird Marella Atty For OpenAI Fight
A prominent entertainment attorney who represented Scarlett Johansson in litigation over the release of "Black Widow" is teaming up with the actress again, this time to battle OpenAI and its new chatbot, which Johansson claims sounds "eerily" like her, though she says she never granted the artificial intelligence company permission.
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May 21, 2024
Questions Abound As Fed. Circ. Scraps Design Patent Tests
By discarding established tests for proving that design patents are invalid as obvious Tuesday, the full Federal Circuit has opened the door for new invalidity arguments and created uncertainty by not providing much guidance on how courts should evaluate them, attorneys said.
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May 21, 2024
Texas Panel Says Mallory Ruling Has No Home There
A Texas appellate court has upheld a ruling preventing a Dallas car repair services company from litigating a trade secrets case there against a Michigan rival over allegedly hiring away a former executive, holding that the U.S. Supreme Court's Mallory decision last year doesn't do much in Texas.
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May 21, 2024
Bungie's Code Copying Claims Questioned At Seattle Trial
A top product security engineer at Bungie told a Seattle federal jury on Tuesday that a hacker accused of exploiting a popular game to make cheat software likely never had access to the game's source code and acknowledged the game company hasn't seen the cheat code that it claims amounts to copyright infringement.
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May 21, 2024
Sens. Challenge Pharma Lobbyist Over Patent Abuse
U.S. senators from both sides of the aisle took turns at a Tuesday hearing questioning the pharmaceutical industry's top lobbyist over whether patent abuse plays a role in maintaining the high price of prescription drugs.
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May 21, 2024
Fla. Scientist Fights Contempt Ruling In Data Theft Suit
A Florida Everglades scientist urged a state appeals court Tuesday to reverse a contempt ruling against him over violating an injunction to preserve computer data from his prior job, saying that the order was ambiguous and that the lower court wrongly appointed opposing counsel to prosecute the violation.
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May 21, 2024
Fed. Circ. Sides With PTAB In Cloud Computing Fight
The Federal Circuit on Tuesday affirmed a decision from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board that a patent covering a cloud computing environment that was challenged by Microsoft wasn't patentable because it was obvious.
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May 21, 2024
Va. Judge Ships Splenda IP Suit Against Peet's To Calif.
A Virginia federal judge has agreed to ship a lawsuit accusing Peet's Coffee Inc. of breaching trademark laws across the country to California federal court, finding that the companies that brought the claims aren't connected enough to the Old Dominion.
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May 21, 2024
Copyright Claims Against Defense Agencies Go To Trial
A Court of Federal Claims judge has ruled that a geospatial technology firm's copyright infringement claims against defense agencies must go to trial, citing disputed facts about whether related software was effectively created on the government's time and dime.
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May 21, 2024
Split Fed. Circ. Revives IP Suit Against Nokia Over Standing
A split Federal Circuit on Tuesday threw out a lower court decision that found an inventor's company didn't have standing to sue Nokia, Cisco and ADVA over a fiber optic patent, saying it was unclear if the company had the rights to the patent.
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May 21, 2024
Earth, Wind & Fire Cover Band Owes $750K In TM Suit
A Florida federal judge has ordered a concert producer and promoter to pay $750,000 to the entity that owns the music of Earth, Wind & Fire after the band won a summary judgment ruling in March that found the defendants infringed the legendary group's trademarks by organizing concerts featuring their music and name.
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May 21, 2024
$93M Lipitor Antitrust Deal Sparks Dispute Over Fee Division
Attorneys representing a class of buyers in antitrust litigation against Pfizer over the cholesterol medication Lipitor are squabbling over how to divide up to $31 million in attorney fees before a New Jersey federal judge even approves the total, according to court documents.
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May 21, 2024
Conn. Law Firm's Trade Secrets Case Likely Moving To Fla.
A trade secrets lawsuit brought by a Greenwich, Connecticut, law firm against a former independent contractor is poised to move to the Southern District of Florida after a federal judge in Hartford said Tuesday that a new venue appears to be more appropriate.
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May 21, 2024
Strategic Hiring Was The New Normal For BigLaw In 2023
The 400 largest law firms by headcount in the U.S. grew more slowly in 2023 than in the previous two years, while Kirkland & Ellis LLP surpassed the 3,000-attorney threshold, according to the latest Law360 ranking.
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May 21, 2024
The Law360 400: Tracking The Largest US Law Firms
The legal market expanded more tentatively in 2023 than in previous years amid a slowdown in demand for legal services, especially in transactions, an area that has been sluggish but is expected to quicken in the near future.
Expert Analysis
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What Law Firms Should Know Amid Rise In DQ Motions
As disqualification motions proliferate, law firms need to be aware of the types of conflicts that most often lead to disqualification, the types of attorneys who may be affected and how to reduce their exposure to these motions, says Matthew Henderson at Hinshaw.
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What Have We Learned In The Year Since Warhol?
In the almost year since the U.S. Supreme Court decided Andy Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith, which was widely seen as potentially chilling to creative endeavors, seven subsequent decisions — while illuminating to some extent — do not indicate any trend toward a radical departure from prior precedents in fair use cases, says Jose Sariego at Bilzin Sumberg.
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Practical Pointers After Fed. Circ. Double-Patenting Decision
With the Federal Circuit recently denying a full court review of In re: Cellect, a decision regarding obviousness-type double-patenting, affected patent family holders should evaluate their rights through both patent prosecution and future litigation lenses to minimize risks, say Austin Lorch and Jeff Wolfson at Haynes Boone.
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Clemson's ACC Exit Fee Suit May Have Major Consequences
Clemson University's recent suit in South Carolina state court against the Atlantic Coast Conference, which challenges the ACC's $140 million exit fee and its ownership of member schools' media rights, would likely have enormous ramifications for ACC members in the event of a definitive court ruling, say William Sullivan and Alex Anderson at Pillsbury.
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How Duty Of Candor Figures In USPTO AI Ethics Guidance
The duty of candor and good faith is an important part of the artificial intelligence ethics guidance issued last week by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and serious consequences can visit patent and trademark applicants who violate that duty, not just their attorneys and agents, says Michael Cicero at Taylor English.
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Patent Lessons From 8 Federal Circuit Reversals In March
A number of Federal Circuit patent decisions last month reversed or vacated underlying rulings, providing guidance regarding the definiteness of a claim that include multiple limitations of different scopes, the importance of adequate jury instruction, the proper scope of the precedent, and more, say Denise De Mory and Li Guo at Bunsow De Mory.
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Tenn. Law Protecting Artists From AI Raises Novel Issues
Tennessee recently enacted a law that extends the right of publicity protection to individuals' voices in an attempt to control the proliferation of artificial intelligence in the music industry, presenting fascinating questions about the First Amendment, the fair use doctrine and more, say attorneys at Davis Wright.
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A Look At Ex Parte Seizures 8 Years Post-DTSA
In the eight years since the Defend Trade Secrets Act was enacted, not much has changed for jurisprudence on ex parte seizures, but a few seminal rulings show that there still isn’t a bright line on what qualifies as extraordinary circumstances warranting a seizure, say attorneys at Finnegan.
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Series
Whitewater Kayaking Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Whether it's seeing clients and their issues from a new perspective, or staying nimble in a moment of intense challenge, the lessons learned from whitewater kayaking transcend the rapids of a river and prepare attorneys for the courtroom and beyond, says Matthew Kent at Alston & Bird.
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10 Years After Alice, Predictability Debate Lingers
A decade after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Alice ruling, critics continue to argue that the subject matter eligibility framework it established yields inconsistent results, but that contention is disproved by affirmance data from the Federal Circuit, district courts and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, say Dennis Abdelnour and David Thomas at Honigman.
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This Earth Day, Consider How Your Firm Can Go Greener
As Earth Day approaches, law firms and attorneys should consider adopting more sustainable practices to reduce their carbon footprint — from minimizing single-use plastics to purchasing carbon offsets for air travel — which ultimately can also reduce costs for clients, say M’Lynn Phillips and Lisa Walters at IMS Legal Strategies.
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Circumstantial Evidence Requires A Pointillist Approach
Because complex cases with sophisticated defendants are unlikely to reveal much, if any, direct evidence, attorneys must aggregate many pieces of circumstantial evidence into a cohesive narrative — much like the painting technique of pointillism, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.
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How China's IP Proposal Could Affect US Brands' TM Strategy
Proposed amendments to China's Trademark Law aimed at improving the application and enforcement processes could make some common U.S. brand protection strategies moot, and may require brand owners to more carefully explain marks' use or nonuse, say attorneys at Neal Gerber.
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Exploring Patent Trends In Aerospace Electrification
As blue-chip companies lead the charge to power large-scale commercial airplanes with electricity, and startups advance the trend on a regional scale, patent applications directed at improving energy storage and electric motor efficiency are on the rise, say attorneys at Finnegan.
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3 Tech Sourcing Best Practices That Are Relevant For AI
It might be tempting to think that sourcing artificial intelligence tools requires a completely new set of skills, but the best practices that lead to a good deal are much the same as traditional technology procurement, says Mia Rendar at Pillsbury.