Intellectual Property

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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."

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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. 

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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. 

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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."

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • March 26, 2024

    Google Urges Texas Court To Undo $12M Voice Patent Verdict

    Google has asked a Texas federal court to undo a jury's finding that it owes $12 million to an app developer for infringing patents on a method for calling from multiple phone numbers using a single phone, reasserting that the technology was used commercially well before it was patented.

  • March 26, 2024

    Chewy, IBM Agree To End Online Ad Patent Dispute

    Online pet goods retailer Chewy Inc. and computing giant IBM Corp. have agreed to drop a patent fight in New York federal court, shortly after a federal appeals court wrote there was a "genuine dispute of material fact" surrounding infringement allegations tied to one of IBM's patent claims.

  • March 26, 2024

    Judge Declines 'Mini-Trial' Over Fees In 'Reply All' TM Suit

    A federal magistrate judge in Brooklyn has awarded nearly $1.1 million in legal fees to Spotify's Gimlet Media while calling out "the extensive finger-pointing and mutual accusations" from a software company and its lawyers over who owes fees after bringing a failed trademark suit targeting the "Reply All" podcast.

  • March 26, 2024

    Sony Ducks $500M PlayStation Patent Suit In Del.

    A Delaware federal court has sided with Sony in a $500 million patent infringement suit brought by Genuine Enabling Technology LLC over PlayStation consoles, marking a close to the case.

  • March 26, 2024

    Calif. Atty Tapped To Be RFK Jr.'s Running Mate

    Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Tuesday that a Silicon Valley lawyer will be his running mate as the pair make a longshot bid for the White House this year.

Expert Analysis

  • Series

    Riding My Peloton Bike Makes Me A Better Lawyer

    Author Photo

    Using the Peloton platform for cycling, running, rowing and more taught me that fostering a mind-body connection will not only benefit you physically and emotionally, but also inspire stamina, focus, discipline and empathy in your legal career, says Christopher Ward at Polsinelli.

  • Compliance Steps After ABA White Collar Crime Conference

    Author Photo

    Senior law enforcement officials’ statements this month at the American Bar Association's white collar crime conference suggest government enforcement efforts this year will increasingly focus on whistleblower incentives, artificial intelligence and data protection, and companies will need to update their compliance programs accordingly, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

  • 2 Issues For Venture-Backed Climate Tech Startups To Avoid

    Author Photo

    As climate tech startups become more common, poor equity dilution management and stacked seed financing are two common pitfalls that apply more acutely to climate tech startups than to the broader venture-backed startup space, say attorneys at Goodwin.

  • Cannabis Case Lights Up Benefits Of Creative IP Protection

    Author Photo

    A recently filed California federal court case, The Holding Company v. Pacific West Distributors, illustrates potential creative strategies cannabis companies can use to build intellectual property rights, such as combining federal and state registrations for copyrights and trademarks, say attorneys at Seyfarth.

  • Spartan Arbitration Tactics Against Well-Funded Opponents

    Author Photo

    Like the ancient Spartans who held off a numerically superior Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae, trial attorneys and clients faced with arbitration against an opponent with a bigger war chest can take a strategic approach to create a pass to victory, say Kostas Katsiris and Benjamin Argyle at Venable.

  • Uncertainty Surrounds Patent Eligibility Restoration Bill

    Author Photo

    A recent U.S. Senate hearing regarding the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act, a bill that aims to overhaul patent eligibility law and establish clearer statutory exclusions, marks a pivotal moment in the ongoing patent eligibility debate, but the law’s fate remains uncertain as discussions continue, say attorneys at Marshall Gerstein.

  • 3 Litigation Strategies To Combat 'Safetyism'

    Author Photo

    Amid the rise of safetyism — the idea that every person should be free from the risk of harm or discomfort — among jurors and even judges, defense counsel can mount several tactics from the very start of litigation to counteract these views and blunt the potential for jackpot damages, says Ann Marie Duffy at Hollingsworth.

  • Infringement Policy Lessons From 4th Circ. Sony Music Ruling

    Author Photo

    The Fourth Circuit's recent decision in Sony Music v. Cox Communications, which in part held that the internet service provider was liable for contributing to music copyright infringement, highlights the importance of reasonable policies to terminate repeat infringers, and provides guidance for litigating claims of secondary liability, say Benjamin Marks and Alexandra Blankman at Weil.

  • What Recent Study Shows About AI's Promise For Legal Tasks

    Author Photo

    Amid both skepticism and excitement about the promise of generative artificial intelligence in legal contexts, the first randomized controlled trial studying its impact on basic lawyering tasks shows mixed but promising results, and underscores the need for attorneys to proactively engage with AI, says Daniel Schwarcz at University of Minnesota Law School.

  • Tips On Numerical Range From Fed. Circ. Philip Morris Ruling

    Author Photo

    The Federal Circuit's recent RAI v. Philip Morris decision that a patent provided sufficient written description to support a claimed numerical range offers several takeaways for practitioners, including the need for a cautious approach to criticism of ranges, say attorneys at BCLP.

  • UMG-TikTok IP Rift Highlights Effective Rights Control Issues

    Author Photo

    Despite Universal Music Group's recent withdrawal of TikTok's licensing rights to its music catalog, the platform struggles to control uploads and reproductions of copyrighted material, highlighting the inherent tension between creative freedom and effective rights control in the age of social media, says Simon Goodbody at Bray & Krais.

  • 5 Things Trial Attorneys Can Learn From Good Teachers

    Author Photo

    Jennifer Cuculich at IMS Legal Strategies recounts lessons she learned during her time as a math teacher that can help trial attorneys connect with jurors, from the importance of framing core issues to the incorporation of different learning styles.

  • Fed. Circ. Patent Lesson: No Contradiction, No Indefiniteness

    Author Photo

    The Federal Circuit’s recent ruling in Maxwell v. Amperex Technology highlights the complexities of construing patent claims when seemingly contradictory limitations are present, and that when a narrowing limitation overrides a broader one, they do not necessarily contradict each other, says Roy Wepner at Kaplan Breyer.

  • Data-Driven Insights On Optimizing PTAB Institution Decisions

    Author Photo

    A look at Patent Trial and Appeal Board institution decisions from the last six years highlights critical information a patent owner should know regarding trends in the board’s decision making when patents come under challenge, and which arguments to raise in preliminary responses, say Jacob Golan and Benjamin Anger at Knobbe Martens.

  • Golf Course Copyright Bill Implications Go Beyond The Green

    Author Photo

    A new federal bill, the BIRDIE Act, introduced in February would extend intellectual property protections to golf course designers but could undercut existing IP case law and raise broader questions about the scope of copyright protection for works that involve living elements or nonhuman authorship, say attorneys at Bradley Arant.

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!