Intellectual Property

  • September 29, 2026

    Article Had 'No Good Reason' To Use Playboy Pic, Judge Says

    A New York federal judge has denied business-to-business publisher Haymarket Media Inc.'s bid to escape a suit brought by Playboy over use of one of the magazine's photographs, saying that there "was no good reason" for Haymarket to use the photo in an article about Playboy's choice to bring nudity back to its magazine.

  • September 29, 2026

    Qualcomm Presses High Court To Ignore FedEx RPI Dispute

    Qualcomm wants the U.S. Supreme Court to skip a bid from FedEx to examine the Federal Circuit's refusal to review whether the technology company complied with real-party-in-interest requirements in a patent challenge, arguing the same type of dispute won't likely come up again.

  • September 29, 2026

    Agtech Biz Founder Loses Chancery Judge Recusal Bid

    A Delaware Chancery Court magistrate has denied a motion from HerdDogg Inc.'s founder to recuse himself from presiding over litigation she brought seeking to place the agricultural technology company into receivership, saying "unequivocally" that the founder had not shown disqualification would be appropriate.

  • September 29, 2026

    3rd Circ. Affirms Thomson Reuters' Westlaw AI Copyright Win

    The Third Circuit on Tuesday upheld Thomson Reuters' victory against Ross Intelligence Inc. in the first U.S. appellate ruling to address whether artificial intelligence training can be fair use of copyrighted material, upholding a Delaware federal court's decision that the startup infringed Westlaw headnotes by using material derived from them to develop an AI-powered legal search tool.

  • September 29, 2026

    Novo Inks $2.6B License For Once-Weekly GLP-1 Pill

    Novo Nordisk said Tuesday that it will pay Hengrui Pharma up to $2.6 billion for the right to market a GLP-1 weight loss pill that patients could potentially take just once per week.

  • September 28, 2026

    Grok-Maker Can't Get Deepfake Suit Paused Or Transferred

    Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company must continue battling a proposed class action brought by women suing over Grok-generated deepfakes of them in sexual situations, a California federal judge ruled Monday, declining to pause or transfer the suit to Texas.

  • September 28, 2026

    Senate Passes Protect College Sports Act

    The Senate voted 77-22 on Monday night to pass legislation to impose sweeping regulations on college sports, a multibillion dollar industry. 

  • September 28, 2026

    Bayer's COVID Vax IP Suits Against Moderna, Pfizer Survive

    Bayer CropScience was cleared to pursue its patent infringement suits against COVID-19 vaccine makers Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna, after a judge sitting in Delaware upheld its cases on Monday.

  • September 28, 2026

    Apple Briefs Set Stage For Challenge To Record $5.7B Verdict

    Friday's $5.7 billion verdict against Apple Inc. for infringing Taction Technology Inc.'s vibration technology patents is the largest in history, eclipsing many others that have been overturned, and filings by Apple preview its arguments for why this one should meet the same fate.

  • September 28, 2026

    Squires Cancels Anniversary Event Amid Ethics Questions

    U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires has postponed an unprecedented celebration of his first year in office after it raised a series of ethics concerns, a source with close ties to the agency said Monday.

  • September 28, 2026

    Netflix Gets Atty Fees From Ramey For 'Bad Faith' Conduct

    A California federal judge Monday refused to let intellectual property attorney Bill Ramey off the hook for paying Netflix's attorney fees, attributing nearly $1.4 million to the Houston-based attorney's misconduct, including the concealment of the fact that his client didn't own a patent they accused Netflix of infringing.

  • September 28, 2026

    Fla. Judge Axes Pot Co.'s THC Patent Suit Against Trulieve

    A Florida federal judge on Monday granted cannabis company Trulieve Inc.'s request to toss a rival patent company's complaint alleging Trulieve infringed several of the rival's patents.

  • September 28, 2026

    'Migration' Copying Suit Is For The Birds, Mike White Says

    Universal City Studios, Illumination Entertainment and "White Lotus" creator Mike White urged a California federal judge Monday to toss a writer's lawsuit claiming they stole his script for the 2023 film "Migration," saying the movie is not substantially similar to the unpublished screenplay, and the complaint does not plausibly allege that they had access to it.

  • September 28, 2026

    Sanction Bids In LKQ, GM Patent Case Are Rejected By Judge

    General Motors and a company that got the Federal Circuit to set more flexible standards for assessing whether a design patent is obvious had their requests to sanction each other shot down on Monday in a patent dispute over two vehicle fender designs.

  • September 28, 2026

    US Presses High Court To Skip Tesla Case Over PTAB Review

    The federal government has urged the U.S. Supreme Court to pass on Tesla Inc.'s challenge to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's limits on patent challenges, arguing Friday that the agency is under no obligation to grant requests for patent review.

  • September 28, 2026

    News Groups Call Out DOJ's Backing Of Fair Use In AI Fight

    A group of news organizations including The New York Times responded Monday to a letter of interest from the government supporting the view that artificial intelligence companies' use of copyrighted material for training counts as fair use, saying it was inconsistent with the views of the U.S. Copyright Office and the facts of the case.

  • September 28, 2026

    WordPress Parent Ducks Extortion But Not Antitrust Claims

    A California federal judge issued a mixed ruling last week in the two-way fight between WordPress parent Automattic and web hosting company WPEngine, dismissing digital extortion claims against Automattic while preserving WPEngine's antitrust allegations, and preserving Automattic counterclaims of trademark infringement but dismissing false advertising accusations.

  • September 28, 2026

    Most Of Artist's Suit Over Lego 'Queer Eye' Jacket Survives

    A Connecticut federal judge has refused to toss copyright claims in a suit accusing Lego of ripping off a leather jacket designer's work after it appeared on the Netflix show "Queer Eye," but agreed that a trade dress claim had to go.

  • September 28, 2026

    NASCAR Team Says Docket Error Doesn't Warrant Default

    Joe Gibbs Racing has asked a North Carolina federal judge not to hand its former competition director and his current NASCAR team an entry of default over an inadvertently missed deadline, arguing it has so far participated fully in the litigation.

  • September 28, 2026

    Judge Cuts Patent Claims Against Volvo Over Payment Data

    A Delaware federal judge has knocked out claims that a division of Volvo infringed a digital payment hub patent owned by ModoPayments, but kept alive the lawsuit's copyright infringement claims.

  • September 28, 2026

    Del. High Court Adds To Vet Patent Indemnity, Strikes Interest

    The Delaware Supreme Court has issued a mixed ruling in a veterinary implant patent dispute, holding a company's founder liable for his share of a $9.8 million license and about $2.4 million more in defense fees while striking millions in prejudgment interest he had been ordered to pay.

  • September 28, 2026

    Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

    The Delaware Chancery Court this past week heard arguments over whether to dismiss a derivative suit accusing UiPath Inc. insiders of misleading investors and trading on inside information, while a Match Group Inc. stockholder sued for records concerning reports of sexual assault and other violence involving users of the company's dating apps.

  • September 28, 2026

    FTC Touts 'Dismantling' Of Corteva's Pesticide Rebates

    The Federal Trade Commission on Monday touted its new settlement with Corteva Inc. for severely constricting the pesticide company's ability to pay distributors a loyalty rebate in exchange for limiting sales of cheaper generics, the latest in a string of agreements Trump-era antitrust enforcers have struck ending existing claims.

  • September 28, 2026

    Seed Patent Dispute Settles 3 Days Into Trial

    Corteva Agriscience and Inari Agriculture Inc. have settled a seed intellectual property dispute three days into a Delaware federal trial over whether the latter infringed three patents and misappropriated seed samples.

  • September 28, 2026

    Burford Eyes $1.4B Of $5.7B Patent Trial Verdict Against Apple

    Burford Capital said it is entitled to $1.4 billion of last week's historic $5.7 billion patent infringement jury verdict against Apple, but the litigation funder cautioned Monday that the massive payday could still evaporate on appeal.

Expert Analysis

  • Expert Witness's ChatGPT Use Highlights New AI Risks

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    An expert witness's recent use of ChatGPT in multidistrict litigation involving 3M to formulate most of his opinion illustrates the lack of clear rules for how an expert may use generative AI in an opinion, expanding both offensive and defensive discovery considerations, says David Shargel at Bracewell.

  • Fed. Circ. Dental IP Ruling Reinforces Prior Art Framework

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    The Federal Circuit's recent decision in Dental Monitoring v. Align Technology reaffirms the necessity of substantive written description support for establishing an earlier effective prior art date under the America Invents Act, and aligns Patent Trial and Appeal Board practice with district court litigation, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Justices' Hikma Reasoning May Extend Well Beyond Pharma

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    The active steps framework announced by the U.S. Supreme Court in its Hikma v. Amarin decision, finding that Amarin failed to plausibly allege inducement of infringement, has the potential to reshape how courts evaluate inducement claims across patent, copyright and other doctrines, say attorneys at BCLP.

  • An Inside Look At Squires' Discretionary Denials

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    A deep dive into the discretionary denials issued by U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires since he took over last year identifies trends in commonly asserted arguments and how they correlate with institution outcomes, say attorneys at Kirkland & Ellis.

  • Series

    Ballet Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    A lifetime of learning and performing ballet taught me that success — whether in dance or practicing law — comes only through hours of thorough preparation, boundless energy and relentless effort, says Sharon Katz-Pearlman at Greenberg Traurig.

  • AI Prompt-Injection Hacking Creates Emerging Legal Risks

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    Last month, the first decision sanctioning a prompt-injection attack aimed at a U.S. court highlights the risks that this tactic — attempting to manipulate artificial intelligence systems by hiding invisible instructions in a document — poses for trade secrets, patent prosecution and other areas, say attorneys at Kilpatrick.

  • TTAB's Nike Ruling Highlights Trademark Filing Pitfalls

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    The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board's recent decision in Nike v. Blue Ribbon Team illustrates how the Lanham Act's requirement for bona fide intent works in practice, and provides a road map on how to counsel clients before intent-to-use trademark applications are filed, say attorneys at BCLP.

  • 9th Circ. 'Bad Spaniels' Ruling Rewrites TM Dilution Playbook

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    The Ninth Circuit’s recent ruling that each element of the Jack Daniel's packaging parodied by the Bad Spaniels dog toy must be independently assessed for fame narrows trademark owners' ability to use a flagship mark's halo effect to protect the entire brand from tarnishment, say attorneys at Reed Smith.

  • Fed. Circ. In July: Meeting The Enablement Requirement

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    The Federal Circuit's decision in Wyeth v. AstraZeneca last month exemplifies when a generalized conception of an invention is insufficient to enable the full scope of asserted patent infringement claims, and may lead to more enablement challenges, say attorneys at Knobbe Martens.

  • Series

    Taekwondo Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Taekwondo has taught me to recognize when to fight for a position and when to focus on finding a solution, and that the best outcomes are often achieved by solving problems — all of which has improved my work as a bankruptcy lawyer, mediator and Subchapter V trustee, says Amy Denton Mayer at Berger Singerman.

  • Why AI Diligence Is Especially Key In IP Practice

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    In light of recent federal court sanctions against intellectual property litigators for filing work product generated by artificial intelligence without verification, it's important to consider the unique risks and consequences that can arise from overreliance on AI, which poses less visible risks in IP matters, says Stephen Ball at Husch Blackwell.

  • When And How To Use 4 Types Of Cross-Exam Questions

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    Perceptions of a great cross-examination are often shaped by aggressive courtroom exchanges, but to be truly effective, this stage of trial requires strategically selecting confirmation, confinement, contrast or confrontation questions at key moments, says Allison Rocker at Baker McKenzie.

  • Opinion

    'Plain Meaning' Requires Plainer Meaning In IP Litigation

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    The Federal Circuit's recent decision in Socket Solutions v. Import Global highlights the frequent ambiguity surrounding courts' references to "plain meaning" in patent claim construction — an ambiguity that should be resolved by courts, not litigants, say attorneys at Klarquist Sparkman.

  • What To Know As Legal Duty To Consider AI Takes Shape

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    While the U.K. Jurisdiction Taskforce’s recent statement on liability for artificial intelligence harms is nonbinding for both U.K. and U.S. lawyers, it highlights the importance of being able to distinguish between the availability of a tool and a professional obligation to use it, say Jonny Frank and Michael Costa at StoneTurn.

  • Patent Ruling Shows Concrete Tech Solution Key To Eligibility

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    The Federal Circuit’s recent Ceiva Opco v. Amazon.com decision offers an important reminder that software-related inventions can remain patent eligible when they claim a concrete technological solution to a specific problem, says Irah Donner at Manatt.

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