Intellectual Property

  • April 01, 2024

    Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop Faces TM Suit Over Health Products

    Oregon-based Good Clean Love Inc. sued Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop Inc. for trademark infringement over its good.clean.goop women's health products, alleging that the rival's branding is threatening Good Clean Love's reputation and goodwill by sowing customer confusion.

  • April 01, 2024

    High Court Refuses To Revisit Alice Ruling In Steel Beam Case

    The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to revisit its landmark ruling on how courts should determine patent eligibility, this time rejecting a plea coming from a company whose claim to have invented an important new method for automating the manufacture of steel beams failed to hold up in court.

  • April 01, 2024

    Ex-Pharma Co. Exec Denies Signing Noncompete Deal

    The former director of government sales for a pharmaceutical company asked the North Carolina Business Court on Friday to knock out a breach of contract claim in a lawsuit that alleges he took trade secrets to a competitor, arguing the company has no valid noncompete agreement to back it up.

  • April 01, 2024

    In East Texas, Korean Biz Bags $10M Verdict Over 5G Patents

    Jurors in Texas federal court ordered a Chinese phone manufacturer on Monday to pay more than $10 million to Korean entity Pantech in a patent dispute over technology used to comply with 5G wireless standards.

  • April 01, 2024

    Duracell Gets Vape Co.'s 'Optimum' TM Suit Tossed For Good

    A New Jersey federal judge has thrown out a vape company's trademark suit alleging Duracell U.S. Operations Inc. infringed on its trademark for the "Optimum" brand name, saying there's no evidence showing any actual or potential confusion between the companies' products.

  • March 29, 2024

    Northern Texas Judges Won't Adopt Judge-Shopping Rule

    Judges with the Northern District of Texas have opted not to make any changes to how cases are assigned, despite a recent letter from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer urging the district to implement an updated policy aiming to prevent litigants from judge shopping, the district's chief judge said Friday.

  • March 29, 2024

    Intel License Defense Tossed In Calif. VLSI Patent Case

    A California federal judge on Friday threw out Intel's counterclaim arguing that it has a license to VLSI's microchip patents in a multibillion-dollar dispute, indicating that it can be raised in a separate case.

  • March 29, 2024

    Judge Denies Injunction For Tyvaso Drug Competitor

    A D.C. federal judge Friday denied drugmaker United Therapeutics Corp.'s attempt to preemptively block the U.S. Food and Drug Administration from approving a new competitor to its blockbuster pulmonary hypertension medication Tyvaso, saying the company was effectively seeking to challenge an agency action before the FDA made one.

  • March 29, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Tears Cancer Testing Rivals Apart In Injunction Args

    A trio of Federal Circuit judges appeared fed up Friday with a Morrison Foerster LLP attorney who they repeatedly suggested was focusing on arguments not raised to the district court judge who had blocked her client from selling certain cancer tests while facing infringement litigation.

  • March 29, 2024

    Allergan Scoffs At Sandoz Bid To Undo $39M Patent Loss

    Allergan told the Federal Circuit to reject Sandoz's fight over a $39 million verdict against it for infringing an Allergan eyelash growth drug patent, saying Sandoz's reliance on a 2014 decision involving the same drug misses the decision's central point.

  • March 29, 2024

    In Pandora Win, Fed. Circ. Won't Revive Playlist Patents

    The Federal Circuit on Friday declined to revive a collection of patents on generating playlists that were issued to an early, erstwhile executive at Amazon and were asserted in a failed lawsuit against music streaming website Pandora.

  • March 29, 2024

    9th Circ. Critical Of Treasure Hunter's Insurance Appeal

    A Ninth Circuit panel expressed doubt Friday that a treasure hunter could get an insurer to pay him a $7.5 million settlement over a soured shipwreck salvaging expedition, suggesting his ex-partners' refusal to hand over vital maps was an intentional act to keep him from striking gold — not an accident covered by insurance.

  • March 29, 2024

    UK Photog Tells Judge Napster License Didn't Cover Original Art

    A British photographer told a Washington federal judge Friday that Napster's promotion of a reggae record infringed his copyright for the photo used on the album cover, arguing that even though he licensed the album art to a record company, the music streamer did not have rights to the photo itself.

  • March 29, 2024

    Winston & Strawn Looks To Settle Brief-Copying IP Suit

    A Winston & Strawn LLP attorney on Friday told a Manhattan federal judge that the firm is angling to settle a copyright infringement suit that accuses its attorneys of copying a motion-to-dismiss filing by a boutique intellectual property firm "nearly verbatim," saying it isn't worth the cost to all involved.

  • March 29, 2024

    Nikola Says Convicted Ex-CEO Plotting Illegal Board Takeover

    Electric truck manufacturer Nikola Corp. sued its former CEO and convicted felon Trevor Milton in Arizona federal court Friday, accusing him of scheming with unqualified loyalists to regain control of the company by flouting securities laws, infringing Nikola's trademarks and breaching agreements.

  • March 29, 2024

    Vidal Tells PTAB To Better Explain Nokia Challenge Denials

    U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director Kathi Vidal has vacated the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's refusal to hear three patent challenges by Nokia, telling the board to more fully explain its holding that the patent office had already considered the invalidity arguments.

  • March 29, 2024

    Trojan Battery Co. Gets $2.6M Win In TM Row

    A Texas federal judge has sided with Trojan Battery Co. in its trademark infringement and unfair competition case against Trojan EV LLC and Golf Carts of Cypress LLC, ordering a permanent injunction and an award of millions of dollars.

  • March 29, 2024

    Vidal Offers 'Peace Of Mind' For MDL Rivals Heading To PTAB

    U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director Kathi Vidal has set new boundaries on interpreting the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's discretionary denial precedent for follow-on petitions, making clear that defendants can work together in multidistrict litigation without giving up the right to file separate patent challenges.

  • March 29, 2024

    Gambling Co. To Face Most Card Shuffle Tech Antitrust Claims

    An Illinois federal judge largely refused to let Scientific Games Corp. duck monopolization claims over its automatic card shufflers dominance, finding that with the exception of two out of six asserted patents, a would-be rival has adequately alleged the company tricked the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office into granting those patents.

  • March 29, 2024

    Del. Judge Clears Liquidia To Sell Lung-Disease Drug

    A Delaware federal judge has ruled that biochemical startup Liquidia can launch its lung disease drug after the Federal Circuit upheld a patent board ruling cutting out the remaining claims in a hypertension patent owned by United Therapeutics that was keeping the drug off the market.

  • March 29, 2024

    DraftKings Rips Former Exec's 'Lies' In Ongoing Fanatics Spat

    Former DraftKings executive Michael Hermalyn lied in his opposition last week to its preliminary injunction request, just as he had during his departure to rival Fanatics and throughout a trade secrets and breach of contract suit against him, the company has told a Massachusetts federal court in defending its injunction request.

  • March 28, 2024

    Apple Says Ex-Engineer Leaked To 'Homeboy,' Other Journos

    Apple Inc. is accusing a former engineer of leaking sensitive information about its business practices, internal policies and products to employees at other technology companies as well as at least three journalists for national publications — including one saved in his phone as "Homeboy" — in a suit in California state court.

  • March 28, 2024

    Penile Implant Doc Awarded $18.3M After Trade Secrets Trial

    A California federal judge on Thursday awarded more than $18.3 million in royalties and damages to a urologist who won a jury trial verdict last year over a competitor's theft of penile implant trade secrets.

  • March 28, 2024

    Quinn Emanuel Adds Longtime Kirkland Litigator In Chicago

    Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP's office in Chicago has added a 24-year veteran of Kirkland & Ellis LLP who litigates intellectual property, high-profile torts and product liability matters, the firm announced this week.

  • March 28, 2024

    NY Garment Co. Appeals Valentino's Award In Copyright Feud

    A garment manufacturer has asked a New York federal court to hold off on enforcing Valentino SpA's arbitral award for costs related to a copyright case, saying it is a small company and will be ruined if the Italian luxury brand collects its money while an appeal remains pending.

Expert Analysis

  • Understanding Discovery Obligations In Era Of Generative AI

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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    Attorneys and businesses must adapt to the unique discovery challenges presented by generative artificial intelligence, such as chatbot content and prompts, while upholding the principles of fairness, transparency and compliance with legal obligations in federal civil litigation, say attorneys at King & Spalding.

  • New Legal Frameworks Are Instrumental For AI In Music

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    As artificial intelligence encroaches — or complements — the deeply human art of music making, creating harmony between law and technology will require all stakeholders in the music industry to provide input on intellectual property and ethical concerns, say Ariela Benchlouch and Gai Sher at Greenspoon Marder.

  • IP Suits Over Brand Owner Font Use Offer Cautionary Tales

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    Dyan Finguerra-DuCharme and Mallory Chandler at Pryor Cashman consider the history of fonts and point to recent court decisions that show how brand owners can avoid legal typeface troubles.

  • Copyright Ruling A Victory For Innovation In Publishing Sector

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    The D.C. Circuit’s recent ruling in Valancourt v. Garland shows that demanding book copies without paying for them is arguably property theft, proving that the practice stifles innovation in the publishing industry by disincentivizing small printing companies from entering the market due to a fear of high costs and outdated government regulations, says Zvi Rosen at Southern Illinois University School of Law.

  • 3 Rulings Illustrate Infringement Hurdles For Hip-Hop Plaintiffs

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    Three district court decisions dismissing hip-hop copyright claims recently came down in quick succession, indicating that plaintiffs face significant hurdles when they premise claims on the use of words, phrases and themes that are common in the genre, say Benjamin Halperin and Shiara Robinson at Cowan DeBaets.

  • Rethinking Tech Contract Terms For Governance Of AI Use

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    Traditional considerations in technology deals are often inadequate for governing artificial intelligence use, which means lawyers should revisit and reimagine existing terms across the full spectrum of relevant contracts, ranging from procurement agreements and data licenses to customer agreements, say Marina Aronchik and Samuel Hartman at Mayer Brown.

  • Deploying Analogies To Explore AI Copyright Questions

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    Xin Shao at F. Chau & Associates translates two representative artificial intelligence copyright cases into more traditional copyright law scenarios to facilitate the direct application of legal theories to undisputed technological facts.

  • The Case For Post-Bar Clerk Training Programs At Law Firms

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    In today's competitive legal hiring market, an intentionally designed training program for law school graduates awaiting bar admission can be an effective way of creating a pipeline of qualified candidates, says Brent Daub at Gilson Daub.

  • What's At Stake In Bystolic 'Side Deals' Litigation

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    In re: Bystolic Antitrust Litigation, which has oral argument set for next month, will likely shed light on how the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit views side deals, and could create a circuit split in pleading standards for reverse payment cases, say attorneys at Axinn.

  • Attorneys Have An Ethical Duty To Protect The Judiciary

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    The tenor of public disagreement and debate has become increasingly hostile against judges, and though the legislative branch is trying to ameliorate this safety gap, lawyers have a moral imperative and professional requirement to stand with judges in defusing attacks against them and their rulings, says Deborah Winokur at Cozen O'Connor.

  • Best Practices For Defense Tech Startup Financing

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    Navigating the expanding and highly regulated defense technology sector requires careful planning and execution, starting at incorporation, so startups should prepare for foreign investor issues, choose their funding wisely and manage their funds carefully, say attorneys at WilmerHale.

  • 'Trump Too Small' Args Show Justices Inclined To Reverse

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    The U.S. Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments in the "Trump Too Small" trademark case Vidal v. Elster — and the tenor of the justices' feedback makes it clear that the refusal to register a mark under the Lanham Act most likely does not violate free speech rights, as opposed to the Federal Circuit's decision last year, says Brian Brookey at Tucker Ellis.

  • FTC Orange Book Move Signals New Pharma Patent Scrutiny

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    The Federal Trade Commission's recent dispute against improper listing of drug patents in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Orange Book indicates heightened surveillance of the pharmaceutical industry, particularly where competition-related consequences of patent or regulatory processes are concerned, say attorneys at Fenwick.

  • AI Can Help Lawyers Overcome The Programming Barrier

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    Legal professionals without programming expertise can use generative artificial intelligence to harness the power of automation and other technology solutions to streamline their work, without the steep learning curve traditionally associated with coding, says George Zalepa at Greenberg Traurig.

  • Why The Effect Of Vivint Has Been Minimal

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    A survey of recent ex parte reexamination decisions since the Federal Circuit’s 2021 In re: Vivint decision appears to support the court’s conclusion that the ruling was limited in scope and would have limited impact, says Yao Wang at Fish & Richardson.

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