Intellectual Property

  • April 18, 2024

    Red Roof Franchise Co. Settles IP Fight With Motel Operator

    Red Roof Inn's Ohio-based location franchising company and the Toledo motel operator it accused of still using the hospitality chain's branding almost two years after its franchise agreement was terminated have agreed to settle the intellectual property dispute between them, according to a new joint notice.

  • April 18, 2024

    Hipgnosis Agrees To $1.4B Takeover By US Rival Concord

    Concord Chorus has agreed to buy its British music royalties rival Hipgnosis Songs Fund in an all-cash transaction worth $1.4 billion, as the U.S. company looks to add 1.2 million more songs to its portfolio, the companies said in joint statement Thursday.

  • April 17, 2024

    Mintz Sues Parking Meter Co. Over $4.3M IP Legal Bill

    Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo PC sued parking meter provider Duncan Parking Technologies Inc. and its parent company, CivicSmart Inc., in Massachusetts federal court Tuesday, accusing its former clients of owing $4.3 million in unpaid legal fees and interest for representing CivicSmart in a since-settled patent litigation.

  • April 17, 2024

    United Therapeutics Can't Bar Rival Lung Disease Drug

    Repeating himself for the second time in the last several weeks, a federal judge in Delaware on Wednesday said he won't stop a biochemical startup from launching a drug that would compete directly with one of United Therapeutics' biggest pharmaceutical products.

  • April 17, 2024

    Tesla Gets PTAB To Wipe Out Vehicle Charging Patent

    Tesla has persuaded the Patent Trial and Appeal Board to invalidate all claims of a Charge Fusion Technologies electrical charging patent, the latest development in a larger legal battle between the parties.

  • April 17, 2024

    Clarify DMCA Carveout For AI Research, DOJ Says

    The U.S. Department of Justice is showing some support for a proposal that could allow researchers looking into biases in artificial intelligence programming to bypass laws that limit access to copyright-protected AI models.

  • April 17, 2024

    3 Takeaways From Revived Obviousness Case On J&J Patent

    A Federal Circuit ruling from earlier this month that told a judge to reconsider upholding a Johnson & Johnson schizophrenia drug patent emphasizes that analyzing whether a patent is invalid as obvious requires focusing on what it actually claims and an inventor's creativity, attorneys said.

  • April 17, 2024

    3rd Circ. Erases $10M Judgment In Car Charities' TM Dispute

    The Third Circuit on Wednesday erased a $10 million judgment awarded to a charity that sells donated cars for children's education, saying a lower court made a series of errors in concluding that unreasonable delays did not bar claims from Texas-based America Can Cars for Kids in a trademark dispute with a similar charity.

  • April 17, 2024

    2nd Circ. Doubts Adidas Appeal In Thom Browne TM Case

    A Second Circuit panel on Wednesday appeared skeptical of Adidas' arguments that a Manhattan district judge gave improper instructions to a jury that shot down its trademark infringement claims against fashion brand Thom Browne, suggesting the lower court had laid out the issues fairly.

  • April 17, 2024

    Sport Flooring Co. Says Ex-Owner Stole Info To Start Rival Biz

    A former part-owner of a company that sells and installs performance flooring for college athletic facilities and health clubs has been sued by the prior company, which has claimed he stole proprietary information to jumpstart his own competing business.

  • April 17, 2024

    Texas Jury Hits Samsung With $142M Loss In IP Retrial

    A Texas federal jury on Wednesday said Samsung owes G+ Communications LLC $142 million for infringing two 5G wireless network patents, a huge win on retrial for G+, which was originally awarded less than half of that.

  • April 17, 2024

    Alien Influencer, Ex-Partners Walk Away From IP Row

    A Colorado federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by a motivational speaker and self-described influencer who claims to have met with extraterrestrial beings known as the "Blue Avians," after the influencer and two former business partners agreed to drop dueling claims over movie projects and business ventures gone awry. 

  • April 17, 2024

    Sirius XM Faces Patent Row Over Vehicle Kit Product

    A Texas company that owns a patent on a high-bandwidth content distribution structure has filed a lawsuit in the Lone Star State accusing Sirius XM Holdings Inc. of infringing its intellectual property.

  • April 17, 2024

    Colo. Judge Slams Attys For Petty 'Squabbles' In Patent Fight

    A Colorado federal judge on Wednesday roundly rebuked lawyers fighting over patents for oil and gas equipment for filing "needless" motions that seemed to reflect their "interpersonal squabbles" rather than the interests of their clients, and threatened to sanction the attorneys if they ever drag the court into another petty fight.

  • April 17, 2024

    Ogletree Expands Into Western NY With Ex-Goldberg Atty

    Management-side employment firm Ogletree Deakins is expanding into western New York, announcing Tuesday that it is adding a shareholder in Buffalo from Goldberg Segalla.

  • April 17, 2024

    IBM Privacy Head Says AI Needs Transparency To Be Trusted

    To combat artificial intelligence-generated deepfakes, disinformation and bias requires transparent, open-sourced AI models and swift regulations that protect elections, creators and the public, says IBM's Chief Privacy & Trust Officer Christina Montgomery.

  • April 17, 2024

    Chinese Vape Maker Accuses UK Co. Of Bumming Designs

    A Chinese vape maker has accused a rival of selling products that look identical to its SKE Crystal Bar, infringing its intellectual property by using the "Crystal" name and misrepresenting their vapes to British consumers.

  • April 16, 2024

    7th Circ. Finally Freezes Hytera's $1M-Per-Day Sanctions

    The Seventh Circuit on Tuesday halted the daily $1 million fine and sales ban ordered against Hytera Communications for participating in Chinese litigation against a district judge's orders, after previously refusing to save the company from its "self inflicted wounds."

  • April 16, 2024

    Supreme Court Asked To Look At 'Original Patents'

    A Texas patent outfit is back at the U.S. Supreme Court with an appeal over a loss in the lower courts, this time over a reading of legal precedent involving patent law's rarely invoked "original patent" requirements.

  • April 16, 2024

    Caitlin Clark's WNBA Leap Set To Pay Off, Lift Women's Sports

    Although the first-year WNBA salary of Caitlin Clark will be relatively meager, she is in no financial straits because of dramatic changes to the laws and rules governing college athletes' ability to earn money in recent years, and experts say Clark's ascension is lifting up all of women's sports.

  • April 16, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Is Told To Undo Transfer Of Apple Patent Case

    A Texas federal judge has shipped to California a suit accusing Apple of patent infringement, prompting patent-owning technology company Haptic Inc. to appeal the decision to the Federal Circuit.

  • April 16, 2024

    Tai Sidesteps As GOP Reps Try To Pin Down Trade Timeline

    Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee castigated U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai on Tuesday for the administration's vague agenda regarding future trade deals and a long-awaited tariff review that she described as "optimistic" and "coming soon."

  • April 16, 2024

    Cooler Co. Says License Revelation Guts Rival's Patent Claim

    A Canadian cooler maker has urged a Colorado federal judge to toss a rival's patent infringement claims in a dispute over soft-sided coolers, arguing that the rival failed to disclose a licensing agreement that shows it never had the right to claim infringement in the first place.

  • April 16, 2024

    Winston & Strawn Settles Brief-Plagiarizing Allegations

    A Tuesday filing indicated that Winston & Strawn LLP has managed to settle copyright infringement allegations coming from a boutique intellectual property firm that went to a federal court in Manhattan to accuse the BigLaw firm of copying a motion-to-dismiss filing "nearly verbatim."

  • April 16, 2024

    US Tequila Startup Defeats Older Mexican Rival's TM Case

    A Texas federal judge has decided that the tequila marketplace is big enough for both a U.S. startup called "Casa Azul" and an older Mexican brand called "Clase Azul," whose lawyers unsuccessfully tried to persuade the judge of its fame by playing a music video by reggaeton rapper Ozuna. 

Expert Analysis

  • New Hydrogen Regulations Show The Need For IP Protections

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    The introduction of hydrogen regulations, such as the IRS' proposed tax credit for clean hydrogen under the Inflation Reduction Act, are reshaping the competitive landscape, with intellectual property rights an area of increased emphasis, say Evan Glass and James De Vellis at Foley & Lardner.

  • Inside The PTAB's Seagen Cancer Drug Patent Decision

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    The Patent Trial and Appeal Board's recent finding that Seagen's claims for antibody-drug conjugate technology were unpatentable — for lack of enablement, lack of written description and anticipation — mark the latest chapter in the complex patent dispute as the case heads for director review, says Ryan Hagglund at Loeb & Loeb.

  • 6 Pointers For Attys To Build Trust, Credibility On Social Media

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    In an era of information overload, attorneys can use social media strategically — from making infographics to leveraging targeted advertising — to cut through the noise and establish a reputation among current and potential clients, says Marly Broudie at SocialEyes Communications.

  • Opinion

    Biden Admin's March-In Plan Would Hurt Medical Innovation

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    The Biden administration's proposal to reinterpret the Bayh-Dole Act and allow the government to claw back patents when it determines that a commercialized product's price is too high would discourage private investment in important research and development, says Ken Thorpe at the Rollins School of Public Health.

  • Google Patent Case Is A Claim Construction Litigation Lesson

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    The Federal Circuit's recent precedential decision in Google v. EcoFactor, which held that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board erred in the claim construction it had unknowingly adopted, shows that litigators should be alert to claim construction issues that masquerade as something else, says Roy Wepner at Kaplan Breyer.

  • A Post-Mortem Analysis Of Stroock's Demise

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    After the dissolution of 147-year-old firm Stroock late last year shook up the legal world, a post-mortem analysis of the data reveals a long list of warning signs preceding the firm’s collapse — and provides some insight into how other firms might avoid the same disastrous fate, says Craig Savitzky at Leopard Solutions.

  • Reassessing Trade Secrets Amid Proposed Noncompete Ban

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    The Federal Trade Commission's proposed ban on noncompete agreements as well as state bans make it prudent for businesses to reevaluate and reinvigorate approaches to trade secret protection, including knowing what information employees are providing to vendors, and making sure confidentiality agreements are put in place before information is shared, says Rob Jensen at Wolf Greenfield.

  • Considering The Logical Extremes Of Your Legal Argument

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    Recent oral arguments in the federal election interference case against former President Donald Trump highlighted the age-old technique of extending an argument to its logical limit — a principle that is still important for attorneys to consider in preparing their cases, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.

  • How High Court SEC Case Could Affect The ITC

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    While the U.S. Supreme Court’s upcoming ruling in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy will likely spare the U.S. International Trade Commission from major operative changes, the ITC’s ability to issue penalties for violations of its orders may change, say Gwendolyn Tawresey and Ryan Deck at Troutman Pepper.

  • 2nd Circ. Ruling Will Guide Social Media Account Ownership

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    The Second Circuit’s recent decision in JLM Couture v. Gutman — which held that ownership of social media accounts must be resolved using traditional property law analysis — will guide employers and employees alike in future cases, and underscores the importance of express agreements in establishing ownership of social media accounts, says Joshua Glasgow at Phillips Lytle.

  • Storytelling Strategies To Defuse Courtroom Conspiracies

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    Misinformation continues to proliferate in all sectors of society, including in the courtroom, as jurors try to fill in the gaps of incomplete trial narratives — underscoring the need for attorneys to tell a complete, consistent and credible story before and during trial, says David Metz at IMS Legal Strategies.

  • Aldi Design Infringement Case Highlights Assessment Issues

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    The forthcoming English Court of Appeal decision in Marks and Spencer v. Aldi, regarding the alleged infringement of design rights, could provide practitioners with new guidance, particularly in relation to the relevant date for assessment of infringement and the weight that should be attributed to certain design elements in making this assessment, say Rory Graham and Georgia Davis at RPC.

  • Opinion

    9th Circ. Should Overturn The Miles Davis Tattoo Ruling

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    A California district court made several missteps that led to a finding that celebrity artist Kat Von D's Miles Davis tattoo did not infringe copyright, and the Ninth Circuit should overturn the decision because recent U.S. Supreme Court guidance was ignored and the jury did not receive adequate instruction, says Brian Moriarty at Hamilton Brook.

  • Generative AI Raises IP, Data Protection And Contracts Issues

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    As the EU's recent agreement on the Artificial Intelligence Act has fueled businesses' interest in adopting generative AI tools, it is crucial to understand how these tools utilize material to generate output and what questions to ask in relation to intellectual property, data privacy and contracts, say lawyers at Deloitte Legal.

  • Exporters Should Approach Self-Disclosure With Caution

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    A January Bureau of Industry and Security memorandum created an abbreviated process for disclosing export control violations that lack aggravating factors, but deciding which disclosure method to utilize remains a complex strategic undertaking to which companies must give careful consideration, say attorneys at Covington.

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