Intellectual Property

  • June 03, 2024

    Design Patents May Be Harder To Get Under New Test

    The Federal Circuit's decision discarding long-standing tests for proving that a design patent is invalid as obvious means the world has changed for patent examiners and applicants, attorneys said, and the new standard could lead to more design patent applications being turned down.

  • June 01, 2024

    Blockbuster Summer: 10 Big Issues Justices Still Must Decide

    As the calendar flips over to June, the U.S. Supreme Court still has heaps of cases to decide on issues ranging from trademark registration rules to judicial deference and presidential immunity. Here, Law360 looks at 10 of the most important topics the court has yet to decide.

  • May 31, 2024

    Samsung Strikes First With Smart Ring IP Suit Against Oura

    Samsung has yet to announce a release date for its new Galaxy Ring brand of wearable, health-tracking devices, but it has filed an intellectual property suit in California federal court Thursday targeting a Finnish startup that makes its own line of smart rings. 

  • May 31, 2024

    PTAB Upholds Medtronic Bladder Control Patents On Remand

    The Patent Trial and Appeal Board affirmed Medtronic patents covering a sacral stimulation system after Federal Circuit judges ordered the board last year to give the maker of a rival bladder and bowel control device another shot at knocking those patents out.

  • May 31, 2024

    Vape Co. Can't Toss Breeze Smoke's Claims In IP Row

    An Illinois federal judge has rejected vape pen maker Midwest Goods' bid to throw out counterclaims that it infringed competitor Breeze Smoke's trade dress and a design patent, while also denying a bid from Breeze Smoke for a preliminary injunction.

  • May 31, 2024

    DC Judge Takes Dim View Of Proposed 'Surfside' TM Deal

    A D.C. federal judge has refused to enforce a scrapped settlement in a trademark dispute between a Mexican restaurant operator and a distilling company over the name "Surfside," saying there wasn't ever an enforceable deal.

  • May 31, 2024

    3rd Circ. Preview: Labor Battles Heat Up In June

    Several cases are heating up the Third Circuit argument calendar in June, including a home care company's attempt to duck a $7 million payout to thousands of workers who claimed the company violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by not compensating them for travel time.

  • May 31, 2024

    NYT Opposes 'Worldle' TM Bid To Protect Its 'Wordle' Game

    The New York Times Co. is trying to stop the trademark registration of a game called "Worldle," where players attempt to find landmarks and other things on Google Street View, arguing the name would cause confusion with the newspaper's popular "Wordle" game.

  • May 31, 2024

    COVID Test Contract Suit 'Cries Out' For Jury, NC Judge Says

    A fight between two companies over a doomed distribution deal for COVID-19 tests has gone from "ships passing in the night" to not even "sailing in the same ocean," a North Carolina Business Court judge said, paring the case for trial.

  • May 31, 2024

    Netgear Wins Most Of Its ITC Case Against TP-Link

    An administrative judge at the U.S. International Trade Commission largely ruled in favor of Netgear in its case that accused Hong Kong-based network equipment rival TP-Link of infringing its patents.

  • May 31, 2024

    Off The Bench: NCAA Transfers Freed, Atty Plays Cards Right

    In this week's Off the Bench, the NCAA agrees to more historic rule changes while experts examine its post-House settlement future, and a patent lawyer looks back at his transformation into a poker champion.

  • May 31, 2024

    Polsinelli's Medical Device Team Gains Ex-Lerner David IP Trio

    Polsinelli PC is continuing to grow its intellectual property bench, saying Thursday that it has brought on three attorneys from the boutique Lerner David LLP who focus on intellectual property strategy and protection.

  • May 31, 2024

    WDTX Chief Adds New Hurdle For Patent Attys Eyeing Albright

    The Western District of Texas' chief judge has made it harder for parties to have their patent cases end up in U.S. District Judge Alan Albright's court by refusing to automatically connect related litigation.

  • May 31, 2024

    Greek IT Company Sues NY Law Firm Over Leaked Patent Info

    A Greece-based technology company has sued Ladas & Parry LLP in New York federal court, alleging that the firm sent proprietary information to a third party while the company had an attorney-client agreement with the firm.

  • May 31, 2024

    New Antibody IP Ruling Still Needs To Be Tested In Courts

    A May decision from top U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officials is giving some attorneys renewed hope that they'll be able to secure antibody patents, but they say the agency's ruling may not be enough to overcome courts that have been hostile toward these patents.

  • May 31, 2024

    UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

    This past week in London has seen financier Crispin Odey file a defamation claim against the Financial Times, Ford hit with the latest "Dieselgate" claim and a human rights activist bring a privacy claim against Saudi Arabia. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

  • May 31, 2024

    NJ Judge Says Mortgage Lender's Counterclaim Falls Flat

    A New Jersey federal judge tossed an unfair competition counterclaim brought by Nationwide Mortgage Bankers Inc. in a trade secrets suit by its rival Paramount Residential Mortgage Group, ruling that Nationwide Mortgage's counterclaim allegations do not actually count as unfair competition under Garden State law.

  • May 30, 2024

    Warren Pushes To Clinch 'Popular' Drug Patent 'March-In' Plan

    Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, Thursday urged the U.S. Department of Commerce to finalize a proposal that would allow the government to take possession of "taxpayer-funded" patents on drugs and lease them to generic-drug makers, saying the "popular framework will help reduce exorbitant drug costs."

  • May 30, 2024

    Divided PTAB Sinks Wildseed Mobile IP In Wins For Google

    The Patent Trial and Appeal Board has issued a pair of rulings wiping out claims in two patents asserted by a litigation outfit targeting the way that ads work on YouTube, but the decisions included a rare dissent-in-part from an administrative judge who disagreed on how a 2005 Sony patent application fit into the dispute.

  • May 30, 2024

    Albright Urged To Up Flypsi's $12M Trial Win Against Google

     A Texas jury verdict requiring Google to pay $12 million in damages to software developer Flypsi Inc. for patent infringement is insufficient, Flypsi has told U.S. District Judge Alan Albright, asking the court to order a damages retrial or award it ongoing royalties and require Google to pay attorney fees.

  • May 30, 2024

    Netflix Fails To Show Inventor, Funder Violated Injunction

    A California federal judge has said Netflix couldn't prove a Finnish inventor violated an injunction tied to his concealment of certain legal funds, or that a litigation fund manager the inventor worked with needs to face claims tied to that concealment.

  • May 30, 2024

    Jury Awards Electric Jet Startup $72M In Boeing IP Case

    A Washington federal jury said Thursday that The Boeing Co. should pay Zunum Aero Inc. $72 million for misappropriating the electric jet startup's trade secrets and souring a deal with a potential investor, in an award partially subject to trebling under state law.

  • May 30, 2024

    Apple Gets PTAB To Ax Patent Claims On Waking Up Phone

    Apple has successfully challenged an inventor's patent covering a way for a mobile phone to show information by a user just looking at it, with the Patent Trial and Appeal Board finding several claims were invalid as obvious.

  • May 30, 2024

    Sorority, Ex-Affiliate End Trademark Suit After Mediation

    A sorority and a former affiliate have agreed to scrap a trademark dispute alleging the affiliate continued to use the sorority's name and symbols after their relationship had been severed.

  • May 30, 2024

    ITC Judge Clears Amazon In Video Tech Co.'s Patent Case

    A U.S. International Trade Commission judge has found that Amazon hasn't broken federal patent trade law by importing streaming products, dealing a setback to video technology company DivX LLC in its infringement case.

Expert Analysis

  • ITC Ruling Has Serious IP Implications For Foreign Imports

    Author Photo

    While a recent U.S. International Trade Commission decision is a win for trade secret owners who can show injury to a U.S. domestic industry, the decision also means that companies operating in foreign jurisdictions will be subject to the requirements of U.S. trade secret law, say Paul Ainsworth and Cristen Corry at Sterne Kessler.

  • What The Justices' Copyright Damages Ruling Didn't Address

    Author Photo

    While the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Warner Chappell v. Nealy clarified when a copyright owner may recover damages in jurisdictions that apply the so-called discovery rule, it did not settle the overriding question of whether the Copyright Act even permits applying the rule, say Ivy Estoesta and William Milliken at Sterne Kessler.

  • Series

    Teaching Yoga Makes Me A Better Lawyer

    Author Photo

    Being a yoga instructor has helped me develop my confidence and authenticity, as well as stress management and people skills — all of which have crossed over into my career as an attorney, says Laura Gongaware at Clyde & Co.

  • How Clinical Trials Affect Patentability In US And Europe

    Author Photo

    A comparison of recent U.S. and European patent decisions — concerning the effect of disclosures in clinical trials on the patentability of products — offers guidance on good practice for companies dealing with public use issues and prior art documents in these commercially important jurisdictions, say lawyers at Finnegan.

  • TTAB Ruling Raises Foreign-Language Mark Questions

    Author Photo

    The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board's recent decision to cancel the Veuve Olivier registration due to its similarity to Veuve Clicquot brings new focus to the treatment of foreign terms and the doctrine of foreign equivalents, say attorneys at Finnegan.

  • A Vision For Economic Clerkships In The Legal System

    Author Photo

    As courts handle increasingly complex damages analyses involving vast amounts of data, an economic clerkship program — integrating early-career economists into the judicial system — could improve legal outcomes and provide essential training to clerks, say Mona Birjandi at Data for Decisions and Matt Farber at Secretariat.

  • Measuring Early Impact Of Rule 702 Changes On Patent Cases

    Author Photo

    Since Federal Rule of Evidence 702 was amended to clarify the standards for admitting expert witness testimony five months ago, emerging trends in patent cases suggest that it may be easier to limit or exclude expert testimony, and hold key practice takeaways for attorneys, say Manuel Velez and Nan Zhang at Mayer Brown.

  • Protecting IP May Be Tricky Without Noncompetes

    Author Photo

    Contrary to the Federal Trade Commission's view, trade secret law cannot replace noncompetes' protection of proprietary information because intellectual property includes far more than just trade secrets, so businesses need to closely examine their IP protection options, say Aimee Fagan and Ching-Lee Fukuda at Sidley.

  • 8 Legal Issues Influencing Investors In The Creator Economy

    Author Photo

    The rapidly expanding digital creator economy — funding for which more than doubled in the U.S. in the first quarter — comes with its own set of unique legal issues investors must carefully consider before diving in, say Louis Lehot and Alan Pate at Foley & Lardner.

  • E-Discovery Quarterly: Recent Rulings On Text Message Data

    Author Photo

    Electronically stored information on cellphones, and in particular text messages, can present unique litigation challenges, and recent court decisions demonstrate that counsel must carefully balance what data should be preserved, collected, reviewed and produced, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • How Copyright Office AI Standards Depart From Precedent

    Author Photo

    The U.S. Copyright Office's recent departure from decades of precedent for technology-assisted works, and express refusal to grant protection to artificial intelligence-assisted works, may change as the dust settles around ancillary copyright issues for AI currently pending in litigation, says Kristine Craig at Hanson Bridgett.

  • IP Considerations For Companies In Carbon Capture Sector

    Author Photo

    As companies collaborate to commercialize carbon capture technologies amid massive government investment under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a coherent intellectual property strategy is more important than ever, including proactively addressing and resolving questions about ownership of the technology, say Ashley Kennedy and James De Vellis at Foley & Lardner.

  • Does Expert Testimony Aid Preliminary IPR Responses?

    Author Photo

    Dechert attorneys analyze six years of patent owners' preliminary responses to inter partes review petitions to determine whether the elimination of the presumption favoring the petitioner as to preinstitution testimonial evidence affected the usefulness of expert testimony in responses.

  • Rebuttal

    Double-Patenting Ruling Shows Terminal Disclaimers' Value

    Author Photo

    While a recent Law360 guest article seems to argue that the Federal Circuit’s Cellect decision last year robs patent owners of lawful patent term, the ruling actually identifies how terminal disclaimers are the solution to the problem of obviousness-type double patenting, say Jane Love and Robert Trenchard at Gibson Dunn.

  • Series

    Swimming Makes Me A Better Lawyer

    Author Photo

    Years of participation in swimming events, especially in the open water, have proven to be ideal preparation for appellate arguments in court — just as you must put your trust in the ocean when competing in a swim event, you must do the same with the judicial process, says John Kulewicz at Vorys.

Want to publish in Law360?


Submit an idea

Have a news tip?


Contact us here
Can't find the article you're looking for? Click here to search the Intellectual Property archive.
Hello! I'm Law360's automated support bot.

How can I help you today?

For example, you can type:
  • I forgot my password
  • I took a free trial but didn't get a verification email
  • How do I sign up for a newsletter?
Ask a question!