Intellectual Property
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Top Story
Breaking Down The Appeals In $1B VirnetX-Apple Patent War
The nearly $1 billion won by VirnetX in patent trials against Apple Inc. exists under a cloud since the Patent Trial and Appeal Board has found the patents invalid. With appeals pending from the board's decisions and one of the trials, here's a look at VirnetX's arguments that the patents shouldn't have been reviewed, and Apple's efforts to flip the verdict.
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April 5, 2018
Nonprofits Urge HHS To Take Over Sarepta's Exondys Patents
A group of nonprofits on Thursday urged the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to take over five patents covering Sarepta Therapeutics Inc.’s controversially approved and expensive muscular dystrophy drug Exondys 51, saying federal funding wasn’t disclosed in the patent applications.
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April 5, 2018
Patents For Siri Tech Found Abstract In Win For Amazon
Amazon.com Inc. and other tech giants have scored a recent win as a Delaware federal judge invalidated three patents for digital voice assistant technology developed by the company behind Apple Inc.’s Siri voice recognition software, finding the patents claimed nothing more than an abstract idea.
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April 5, 2018
Justices Told Fed. Circ. Wrongly OKs PTAB With New Grounds
The owner of a web linking patent challenged by Google urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to bar the Federal Circuit from affirming U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board decisions on different grounds than the board ruled on, saying the practice conflicts with "bedrock administrative law."
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April 5, 2018
AbbVie Inks Humira IP Licensing Deal With Samsung Bioepis
Pharmaceutical giant AbbVie on Thursday said it inked a deal to license the intellectual property of its Humira drug to Samsung Bioepis and to dismiss all related suits against the Samsung unit, less than a year after it struck a similar deal with Amgen.
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April 5, 2018
Sandoz Rehashed Arguments In Rituxan IP Challenge: PTAB
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board rejected challenges from Sandoz Inc. to a patent covering Genentech Inc.’s biologic Rituxan after finding they were too similar to ones brought by another biosimilar maker, but agreed to institute review in Pfizer Inc.’s challenge of the same patent, according to decisions released Wednesday.
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April 5, 2018
China Hits US With New WTO Case Challenging Tariffs
China has launched a World Trade Organization challenge against the U.S. targeting the proposed new tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods, according to a WTO filing on Thursday.
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April 5, 2018
CardioNet's Heart Monitor Patents Get Trimmed Under Alice
A Massachusetts federal judge has hacked away at two of CardioNet LLC’s patents for identifying and treating heart arrhythmias, finding that claims she already invalidated under the U.S. Supreme Court’s Alice ruling are representative of other claims at issue in the litigation.
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April 5, 2018
Terix CEO Gets 2 Years In Prison For $10M Oracle IP Theft
The CEO and co-owner of Terix Computer Co. Inc. was sentenced on Thursday to two years in prison for his role in fraudulently obtaining more than $10 million worth of intellectual property from Oracle Corp.'s subsidiary, as an Ohio federal judge declined to adopt the government's call for a five-year sentence.
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April 4, 2018
BlackBerry Claims Snapchat Infringes Its Messaging Patents
BlackBerry hit Snap Inc. with a lawsuit in California federal court Tuesday accusing the social media company’s Snapchat phone application of infringing six BlackBerry mobile messaging patents, including two patents that BlackBerry recently accused Facebook Inc. of infringing.
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April 4, 2018
Facebook’s ‘Arrogance’ Behind Trade Secret Theft, Jury Told
Facebook and Emerson Electric Co. are arrogant behemoths that swiped BladeRoom Group Ltd.’s trade secrets for constructing the sophisticated data centers technology players require, BladeRoom’s attorney told jurors at the start of a California federal trial Wednesday, while Facebook countered the suit is “sour grapes” over a multimillion-dollar contract BladeRoom didn’t get.
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April 4, 2018
Chinese Scientist Gets 10 Years For Plot To Steal GMO Seeds
A Chinese agricultural scientist found guilty by a Kansas federal jury of charges related to a conspiracy to steal cutting-edge genetically modified rice seeds from a biopharmaceutical research facility was sentenced to more than 10 years in prison, prosecutors announced Wednesday.
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April 4, 2018
What You Need To Know About Serial Challenges At PTAB
While patent owners have long feared that serial attacks at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board give petitioners an unfair advantage, the numbers show repeated patent challenges are not widespread. But that doesn't mean there is nothing to worry about, and companies are expected to test the boundaries of what is acceptable.
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April 4, 2018
Alarm.com Fights Toss Of Suit Over PE's Competitor Deal
Home security firm Alarm.com argued Wednesday that a “tapestry of information” supports moving ahead with its Delaware Chancery Court suit alleging that a former chairman and private equity investor exploited confidential information to invest in and pump up a new, competing startup.
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April 4, 2018
Crowe & Dunlevy Adds 2 Foley Gardere IP Attys In Dallas
Crowe & Dunlevy has expanded its intellectual property team by adding two former Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP attorneys to its Dallas office following Gardere’s tie-up with Foley & Lardner LLP.
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April 4, 2018
Nike, Fitbit, Others Escape Suit Over Data Uploading Patent
Nike Inc., Fitbit Inc. and a handful of other companies escaped a bundle of lawsuits alleging they’d infringed a data uploading patent when a California federal judge ruled the technology described in the patents, which involve uploading with a Bluetooth connection, wasn’t patent-eligible under the U.S. Supreme Court’s Alice ruling.
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April 4, 2018
Tupac Estate Can't Take Over Albums, Record Label Says
A Canadian record label urged a California judge on Wednesday to toss a bid by Tupac Shakur’s estate to take over the rights to dozens of the rapper’s unreleased tracks and two platinum albums, arguing Death Row Records’ sale of the assets was cleared by a bankruptcy court.
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April 4, 2018
Judge Axes Samsung Expert's Testimony From Apple Trial
U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh has barred Samsung’s expert from using a consumer survey-based methodology to argue damages in an upcoming California federal trial with Apple Inc. over the designs of its smartphones and chastised Samsung for trying to get around her previous order limiting the number of damages experts.
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April 4, 2018
TTAB Won't Register 'Laroque' French Wine
The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board issued a precedential ruling that a "Laroque" wine label was confusingly similar to an already-registered "Chateau Laroque" trademark.
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April 4, 2018
James' Talk Show IP Dispute A Stretch, But Good For Publicity
A recent move by LeBron James’ multimedia platform to pick a fight with the University of Alabama alleging it ripped off his barbershop-set sports talk show may be a losing battle — but that may be just what the business-savvy basketball superstar wants.
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April 4, 2018
Dallas Tex-Mex Chain Sues Founder Over Rival Eateries, IP
A popular Dallas-area Tex-Mex chain on Wednesday sued its former CEO and founder in Texas state court for allegedly misappropriating money from the partnership, helping a competing Tex-Mex chain and opposing the restaurants’ trademark application.
Editor's Picks
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The 2017 Federal Circuit Year In Review
After a three-year surge, patent suits at the Federal Circuit leveled off last year as the court showed signs of adjusting to its bustling workload. The judges found time to write more opinions, and they reached greater consensus, penning fewer separate concurrences and dissents than in 2016.
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2017 Patent Litigation: A Year In Review
A Supreme Court ruling redrew the patent litigation map. The International Trade Commission became an ever more popular patent venue. District courts saw fewer cases. The Patent Trial and Appeal Board isn’t what it used to be. 2017 was a challenging year for patent attorneys.
Expert Analysis
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What May Happen To Your IPR The Day After Oil States
If the U.S. Supreme Court decides in Oil States v. Greene’s that the inter partes review process is unconstitutional, how will it affect the thousands of concluded and pending IPRs, and the constitutionality of other post-grant challenge procedures? The briefing filed in the follow-on petitions provides a good preview of the legal issues that lay ahead, say Douglas Salyers and Lauren Ulrich Baker of Troutman Sanders LLP.
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'IP Come Home!' How TCJA Incentivizes Asset Repatriation
Two provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act aim to keep U.S. companies’ intangible assets from wandering the globe in search of shelter offshore. For affected taxpayers, one generally brings good news and the other brings bad, says Robert Kiggins of Culhane Meadows PLLC.
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The Art And Science Of Investigative Questions: Part 3
In the third article of this five-part series, longtime trial lawyer David Dolkas contrasts tough questions with tough-sounding questions and discusses which are likely to elicit more information from a source or witness.
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Copyright Ruling May Encourage Willful Infringement
A New York federal court recently found Shoshanna Collection liable for willful copyright infringement and awarded FameFlynet statutory damages in the amount of $750. Trebling licensing fees as a measure for statutory damages may sound sensible. But it is contrary to the Copyright Act and Second Circuit law, says Terry Parker of Rath Young Pignatelli PC.
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Searching For 'Act Of Infringement' Under Hatch-Waxman
Federal courts in Delaware and Texas have reached different conclusions on the location of an “act of infringement” under the Hatch-Waxman Act. The Bristol-Myers decision's nationwide act of infringement offers a reasonable approach, while the Galderma ruling’s reliance on the abbreviated new drug application preparation seems questionable, say Ron Vogel and Brian Coggio of Fish & Richardson PC.
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10 Tips For Working With IT To Preserve Data
Increasingly, when courts impose a “legal hold” they require legal supervision of the preservation process, meaning lawyers must rely heavily on information technology professionals to execute the mechanics. John Tredennick of Catalyst Repository Systems and Alon Israely of TotalDiscovery offer insights on how legal and IT can work together to make the process more efficient and fulfill the company’s legal obligations.
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The Art And Science Of Investigative Questions: Part 2
When lawyers question sources and witnesses, they need to know which portion of the person’s brain is answering each question. For purposes of asking questions, longtime trial lawyer David Dolkas divides the brain into two parts: the red brain and the blue brain.
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Innovation-Based Tech Standards Under Growing Threat
It is frightening to consider how many technological innovations of the last 20 years might have missed mass adoption had they been subject to the same pressures faced by innovators today, says David Kappos, a partner at Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP and former director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
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Personal Jurisdiction Defenses May Protect Parent Entities
Weil v. Vereit demonstrates that real estate investment trusts and other parent entity real estate firms may be able to avoid lawsuits brought in Delaware or other states in which their subsidiaries are formed by asserting a personal jurisdiction defense, say attorneys with Jenner & Block LLP.
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IPR Claim Amendments In The Wake Of Aqua Products
The Federal Circuit's decision last year in Aqua Products may make it easier for patent owners to amend challenged claims in inter partes review proceedings. However, current statistics do not indicate any appreciable impact on the grant rate of motions to amend, say James Glass and Richard Lowry of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP.