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Intellectual Property
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Technology
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May 17, 2013
Drinker Biddle Snags E-Discovery Duo From Williams Mullen
Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP said that it has recently added two former Williams Mullen partners to chair its information governance and electronic discovery practice in Washington, D.C.
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May 17, 2013
Deals Rumor Mill: Yahoo, Advent, Blackstone
Yahoo is gunning for blogging site Tumblr in what could shake out to be another billion-dollar deal in the social networking space, while Blackstone is putting together a "super" fund that plucks the best and boldest trades from its existing third-party funds.
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May 17, 2013
Apple Says It Sparked E-Book Competition With Market Entry
Apple Inc. told a New York federal court Thursday that its entry into the e-book market increased competition and that its negotiations with major publishers did not amount to a price-fixing conspiracy, as the U.S. Department of Justice has suggested.
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May 17, 2013
HP Deflects Blame In 'Chubby Checker' Penis-Size App Suit
Hewlett Packard Co. on Thursday distanced itself from "The Chubby Checker," a penis-size calculator targeted in singer Chubby Checker's trademark infringement lawsuit in Florida, arguing software developers who created and named the now-defunct Palm application may be held liable, but not HP.
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May 16, 2013
Yahoo Wins Reversal Of $2.75B Judgment In Mexico
Yahoo Inc. won reversal of a $2.75 billion judgment from a Mexico appeals court in a breach of contract suit brought by Worldwide Directories SA de CV and Ideas Interactivas SA de CV, the Internet giant announced Thursday.
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May 16, 2013
Powerwave's Ch. 11 Sale Approved After Creditors Strike Deal
A fight between the creditors committee and the senior secured lender in the Powerwave Technologies bankruptcy case over a disappointing $17 million bid for the company was resolved Thursday when the two sides came to a last-minute settlement that will allow the Chapter 11 sale to go forward but still provide a small return for unsecured creditors.
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May 16, 2013
DOD Anti-Counterfeit Rule Raises Safe Harbor Concerns
A long-awaited U.S. Department of Defense regulation lays out additional steps contractors must take to prevent counterfeit electronics from making their way into defense technology, but questions remain about the implementation of the new rules, especially concerning the scope of a safe harbor provision for DOD-approved anti-counterfeiting practices.
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May 16, 2013
Bipartisan Phone Records Bill Unveiled In Wake Of AP Scandal
A bipartisan group of lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives introduced a bill Thursday to force federal agencies to go to a judge before seizing telephone records, citing the recent revelations regarding the U.S. Department of Justice’s secret gathering of Associated Press reporters' phone records.
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May 16, 2013
Copyright Law Needs Update For Digital Age, Lawmakers Told
U.S. copyright law needs to be modernized to account for the seismic technological advances in computing and digital media that couldn't have been envisioned when Congress last went about performing a comprehensive revision of the nation's copyright law more than 30 years ago, experts told a House panel Thursday.
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May 16, 2013
Russia Signs On To Multinational Data Protection Pact
Russia on Wednesday became the latest country to sign on to a 32-year-old European regulatory regime meant to safeguard the personal data of individuals, joining more than 40 other countries.
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May 16, 2013
Alioto's $47M LCD Fee Survives, But Loan Fight Continues
The judge overseeing liquid crystal display multidistrict litigation on Tuesday rejected objections to a $47 million attorneys' fee award to the Joseph M. Alioto's law firm based on its dispute with a lender, but cautioned Alioto that the loan fight wasn't over.
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May 16, 2013
Kodak Seeks Green Light On $650M Imaging Biz Spinoff
Eastman Kodak Co. asked a New York bankruptcy court Wednesday to approve a $650 million spinoff of its document imaging business to its largest creditor U.K. Kodak Pension Plan, a key settlement resolving $2.8 billion in claims and pushing the company a step closer to a Chapter 11 exit.
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May 16, 2013
Google Drops Bid For IP Boutique Firm's Personnel File
A Colorado federal judge on Wednesday signed off on Google Inc.’s withdrawal of its move to force intellectual property boutique Sheridan Ross PC to produce the personnel file of a former employee who claims he created two disputed patents, after Google learned it contained no relevant information.
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May 16, 2013
Apple Wants 3rd Party Barred From Patent Discovery
Apple Inc. urged a California federal judge Thursday to bar IP Nav, a rival's licensing agent, from accessing the tech giant's confidential information in a case accusing Apple's flagship products of patent infringement, arguing that allowing third-party access could leave Apple vulnerable to more patent suits.
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May 16, 2013
EU Continues Push For More Cybersecurity Protections
A top European Union commissioner on Thursday outlined Europe's plans to fight cybercrime, repeating the bloc's vow to institute new reporting requirements for private companies experiencing threats to their secured networks.
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May 16, 2013
Ex-AMD Workers Ordered Not To Destroy, Use Trade Secrets
A group of former Advanced Micro Devices Inc. employees was prohibited by a Massachusetts federal judge Wednesday from destroying or using trade secrets they allegedly stole from their ex-employer while the company's suit against them is pending.
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May 16, 2013
China Warns EU On Possible Solar, Telecom Trade Measures
The European Union's intention to impose duties on solar panels imported from China and possible trade remedies against China's telecommunications industry would harm relations between the two governments, a spokesman for China's Ministry of Commerce reportedly said Thursday.
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May 16, 2013
Justices Asked To Restore $626M Verdict In Apple Patent Row
The lobbying group for inventors on Thursday joined the fight to reinstate a $625.5 million patent infringement verdict against Apple Inc., saying the U.S. Supreme Court should overturn an appellate ruling to avoid “needlessly increasing the burden of proving direct infringement of process patents."
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May 16, 2013
Deals Rumor Mill: Marine Harvest, Actavis, Elliott Management
Marine Harvest could ratchet up its bid for rival fish farmer Cermaq past the current $1.7 billion mark if the target company agrees to make certain concessions in the deal, while activist hedge fund Elliott Management continues on its tear this proxy season with new plans to shake up yet another company.
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May 16, 2013
Tokyo Court Nixes Creditor Appeal Of $2B Elpida-Micron Deal
Micron Technology Inc. nudged closer to completing its $2 billion acquisition of bankrupt rival Elpida Memory Inc. on Wednesday after a Japanese court rejected an appeal from bondholders challenging Elpida's reorganization plan and the underlying merger between the chipmakers.
Expert Analysis
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Duration Of Damages: Can Lost Profits Continue Forever?
If a business is financially harmed, but not ruined, by the acts of another party, it may seek damages based on some measure of lost profit. But for how long? An expert offering an opinion that financial harm will continue well into the future should consider the potential hesitancy of a judge or jury to award uncertain, long-term future damages, say Rodney Bosco and David Ottenbreit of Navigant Consulting Inc.
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Will AIA Power Clean Technology?
The creation of cost-effective, efficient means to challenge the validity of a patent will certainly become one of the long-lasting impacts of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act. For clean technology companies, the proceedings offer a way to navigate the tidal wave of industry patents issued under fast-paced examination programs, say attorneys with Robins Kaplan Miller & Ciresi LLP.
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3 Lessons From Apple’s IPad Trademark Dispute In China
The implications of the dispute between Apple Inc. and Proview Technology Co. Ltd. regarding Apple’s use of the “iPad” mark in China, including how it may impact Apple’s business in the U.S. and how Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. missed a golden opportunity in its patent war against Apple, provide important lessons for U.S. companies and intellectual property professionals, says Lei Mei of Mei & Mark LLP.
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Why Can A Librarian Make Unlocking Cellphones Illegal?
On March 4, the Obama administration said that consumers should be able to unlock their cellphones without risking penalties — a response to the librarian of Congress making unlocking illegal by altering a Digital Millennium Copyright Act exemption. The DMCA provides for a triennial exemption review process by the librarian, which has resulted in irrational results that often have little to do with protecting copyrights and significant impact on consumers, says Danica Mathes of Bell Nunnally & Martin LLP.
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Avoiding The Remedy Dilemma In Enforcing Design Patents
The holdings in Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. present design patent owners with a dilemma — protect only the most innovative parts of their article and increase their chances of proving infringement and thus damages while decreasing the prospects for an injunction, or protect their entire article in the hopes of obtaining an injunction, but thereby possibly decreasing the chances of establishing infringement in the first place, say attorneys with Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner LLP.
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Sharpen Your Pencils For Conflict Minerals Disclosures
As the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission-mandated conflict minerals disclosure deadline draws near, companies must push forward with their diligence and compliance efforts, using this as an opportunity to rethink certain aspects of their operations and derive efficiencies when possible, says Barbara Jones of Greenberg Traurig LLP.
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Practical Privacy Takeaways From FTC's Deal With HTC
The Federal Trade Commission's privacy law enforcement action against HTC America Inc. is a good example of how quickly and aggressively privacy law and enforcement are evolving. As evidenced by this action and others, failure to incorporate privacy considerations as part of a company’s culture, training and oversight can lead to 20-year regulatory consent orders and/or expensive litigation, say attorneys with Kelley Drye & Warren LLP.
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6 Areas Often Underestimated In Law Firm Mergers
While mergers in other industries are driven by cost efficiencies or economies of scale, law firm mergers are typically focused on the potential to leverage clients and the overall quality of the attorney population, branding and market position. As a result, full disclosure of third-party vendor or support function operating costs can be a secondary concern until after the deal closes. Firms need to hit the ground running the moment the merger is inked, says Matthew Sunderman of HBR Consulting LLC.
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The Next Big Thing In Securities Litigation
The New York Times recently reported that a Chinese military unit had hacked more than 140 organizations over the last several years, stealing valuable intellectual property such as technology blueprints, proprietary manufacturing processes, business plans and pricing documents. The revelation raises the possibility of a new wave of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement actions, class actions and derivative lawsuits related to cybersecurity, say attorneys with King & Spalding LLP.
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A Decade With Electronic Data Rooms
In 2013, the deal community and the electronic data room will observe the 10th anniversary of their partnership, so it is timely to review how EDRs have evolved and how they have affected the due diligence process, forecast how they might develop, and assess their usefulness in getting deals done, says Molly Stockley of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP.