Intellectual Property

  • May 20, 2024

    Scarlett Johansson 'Shocked, Angered' By ChatGPT AI Voice

    Scarlett Johansson revealed in a statement Monday that she declined OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's offer to voice the current ChatGPT, but said she was "shocked, angered and in disbelief" when she recently heard a demo of the generative artificial intelligence system's voice that "sounded so eerily similar" to her own.

  • May 20, 2024

    Bungie Takes Aim At Cheat Code Sellers In Copyright Trial

    Video game studio Bungie kicked off a Seattle copyright trial on Monday by telling federal jurors a group of cheat code sellers deleted financial records and other data and even fabricated a fake press release about the sale of their website to throw Bungie and its attorneys off their scent.

  • May 20, 2024

    Idaho, Micron Defend 'Bad Faith' Patent Law At Fed. Circ.

    The state of Idaho and Micron Technology Inc. have told the Federal Circuit that Idaho's law barring "bad faith" allegations of patent infringement is constitutional, defending a lower court's ruling that Longhorn IP must pay an $8 million bond under the law.

  • May 20, 2024

    House Advances Bill To Limit Some Patent Office Fines

    A bill that would create a "good faith exception" to certain fines from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has unanimously passed through the House's Judiciary Committee.

  • May 20, 2024

    Startup Admits Sharing IP With Boeing After Supposed Swipe

    The co-founder of a startup accusing the Boeing Co. of plotting to steal its intellectual property to build a copycat electric jet acknowledged during cross-examination Monday that his company kept willingly sharing trade secrets with the aviation giant after discovering the alleged misappropriations.

  • May 20, 2024

    GM Cleared Of 'Inequitable Conduct' Accusations In Patent Row

    A federal judge in Chicago has ruled that General Motors's longtime legal rival there has failed to convince him that engineers working for the automaker showed "deceptive intent" when filing a design patent at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office using the wrong name.

  • May 20, 2024

    USPTO Clarifies Means-Plus-Function Claims For Antibodies

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's new Appeals Review Panel clarified the use of means-plus-function claiming when patenting antibodies, while continuing to reject claims of a Xencor Inc. patent application related to treating autoimmune diseases.

  • May 20, 2024

    Judge Tosses Acuitas' COVID Biotech IP Suit

    A New Jersey federal judge on Monday threw out a lawsuit from a maker of a component of a COVID-19 vaccine relating to patent infringement litigation brought by two other companies against Pfizer and BioNTech.

  • May 20, 2024

    Healthcare Futures Co. Sues Breakaway Ex-Members In Del.

    A company seeking to develop what it described as the first healthcare futures exchange has sued two former managers in Delaware's Court of Chancery for pilfering intellectual property and other resources and then launching a competing venture.

  • May 20, 2024

    Tesla Pushes Charging Station Patent Suit Out Of Texas

    Despite Elon Musk's decision to move the headquarters of his company to the Western District of Texas, Tesla was able to persuade a federal judge in Austin to send an infringement suit targeting its charging stations to California, where the company was previously based.

  • May 20, 2024

    Travelers Owed Tech Co. Defense In TM Row, 8th Circ. Says

    Travelers had a duty to defend a computer retailer in an underlying trademark infringement action filed by Cisco Systems, the Eighth Circuit affirmed Monday, saying it cannot conclude that coverage is barred by the policy's related-acts provision.

  • May 20, 2024

    Split Fed. Circ. Affirms Del. Atty Fees Can't Include PTAB Work

    Dish Network and Sirius XM aren't entitled to attorney fees for getting a patent they were accused of infringing invalidated at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, even if the instigating infringement claims were deemed "objectively baseless," a split Federal Circuit panel affirmed Monday.

  • May 20, 2024

    Rite Aid Settles Trademark Suit Over New Logo

    Rite Aid has reached an agreement with Brand Design Co. to end a lawsuit claiming that the drugstore chain misused the design firm's font for a new logo, the parties have told a Pennsylvania federal court.

  • May 20, 2024

    Photographer, Lions Clash Over Sanders Statue Suit Venue

    A professional photographer and the NFL's Detroit Lions are scuffling over whether New York federal court is the proper venue to handle the photographer's lawsuit accusing the team of unlawfully using his copyrighted photo to create a statue of legendary running back Barry Sanders.

  • May 20, 2024

    3 Insurance Execs Can't Hit Pause On Asset Theft Claims

    Three former Sherbrooke Corporate Ltd. executives accused of stealing assets when they left to form their own venture lost a bid to halt the company's lawsuit, after a North Carolina federal judge doubted that their efforts to toss the case would succeed.

  • May 20, 2024

    USPTO Says Patent Applicants' Data Was Mistakenly Leaked

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has said it accidentally released certain patent information that shouldn't have been made public during a more than monthlong period, marking another time the office has incorrectly released information.

  • May 20, 2024

    Moderna Fends Off Pfizer's MRNA Patent Challenge

    Moderna has successfully defended a key patent underpinning its COVID-19 vaccine, after rivals Pfizer and BioNTech attempted to convince the European Patent Office that the IP protections should be nixed.

  • May 20, 2024

    Justices Reject Hearst's 'Discovery Rule' Petition In Pics Case

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review a Fifth Circuit decision that found Hearst Newspapers liable for infringing copyrighted photos of Ireland's "Guinness Castle," even though the suit was filed past the three-year statute of limitations.

  • May 20, 2024

    High Court Skips Fight Over 'Impossible' TM Name

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined a cert petition from Illinois-based marketing consulting firm Impossible X LLC, which had asked the justices to review a Ninth Circuit ruling that revived a trademark complaint against it from veggie-burger maker Impossible Foods Inc.

  • May 20, 2024

    Justices Reject Seirus Challenge To Design Patent Test

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to review a Federal Circuit ruling that revived Columbia Sportswear's design patent suit against Seirus Innovative Accessories Inc., which Seirus said created an "illogical, unworkable test" for design patent cases.

  • May 17, 2024

    Qorvo Wins $38.6M In Akoustis Trade Secrets And Patent Trial

    A Delaware federal jury on Friday told Akoustis Technologies Inc. to pay wireless company Qorvo Inc. nearly $38.6 million for misappropriating its trade secrets and infringing its patents, following a two-week trial over radio frequency filter technology.

  • May 17, 2024

    Boeing Jury Urged To Award Startup At Least $163M At IP Trial

    An electric-jet company told a Seattle jury Friday that Boeing misappropriated its trade secrets to build a copycat plane under the guise of investing in the startup, entitling it to an award of more than $163 million.

  • May 17, 2024

    Bong Co. Can't Get Early Win In TM Suit Over No-Show Opponent

    The maker of Stündenglass-branded glass infusers was denied a win over a retailer that didn't bother to put up a defense against its trademark infringement suit, after a California federal judge accepted a magistrate's report that the litigious manufacturer still couldn't back up its claims.

  • May 17, 2024

    3rd Circ. Won't Rethink Cancellation Of $10M Win In TM Battle

    Texans can continue to be subjected to the earworm that is the "Kars 4 Kids" jingle, as the Third Circuit declined this week to reconsider its ruling against a local charity that had temporarily won a $10 million judgment in a trademark dispute over the name.

  • May 17, 2024

    Patent Office Gets Another Earful About 'March-In' Plan

    Industry groups of all stripes have lined up at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to complain yet again about a Biden administration proposal from last year to potentially use "march-in" rights and seize pharmaceutical patents using the Bayh-Dole Act.

Expert Analysis

  • Patent Lessons From 8 Federal Circuit Reversals In March

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    A number of Federal Circuit patent decisions last month reversed or vacated underlying rulings, providing guidance regarding the definiteness of a claim that include multiple limitations of different scopes, the importance of adequate jury instruction, the proper scope of the precedent, and more, say Denise De Mory and Li Guo at Bunsow De Mory.

  • Tenn. Law Protecting Artists From AI Raises Novel Issues

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    Tennessee recently enacted a law that extends the right of publicity protection to individuals' voices in an attempt to control the proliferation of artificial intelligence in the music industry, presenting fascinating questions about the First Amendment, the fair use doctrine and more, say attorneys at Davis Wright.

  • A Look At Ex Parte Seizures 8 Years Post-DTSA

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    In the eight years since the Defend Trade Secrets Act was enacted, not much has changed for jurisprudence on ex parte seizures, but a few seminal rulings show that there still isn’t a bright line on what qualifies as extraordinary circumstances warranting a seizure, say attorneys at Finnegan.

  • Series

    Whitewater Kayaking Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Whether it's seeing clients and their issues from a new perspective, or staying nimble in a moment of intense challenge, the lessons learned from whitewater kayaking transcend the rapids of a river and prepare attorneys for the courtroom and beyond, says Matthew Kent at Alston & Bird.

  • 10 Years After Alice, Predictability Debate Lingers

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    A decade after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Alice ruling, critics continue to argue that the subject matter eligibility framework it established yields inconsistent results, but that contention is disproved by affirmance data from the Federal Circuit, district courts and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, say Dennis Abdelnour and David Thomas at Honigman.

  • This Earth Day, Consider How Your Firm Can Go Greener

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    As Earth Day approaches, law firms and attorneys should consider adopting more sustainable practices to reduce their carbon footprint — from minimizing single-use plastics to purchasing carbon offsets for air travel — which ultimately can also reduce costs for clients, say M’Lynn Phillips and Lisa Walters at IMS Legal Strategies.

  • Circumstantial Evidence Requires A Pointillist Approach

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    Because complex cases with sophisticated defendants are unlikely to reveal much, if any, direct evidence, attorneys must aggregate many pieces of circumstantial evidence into a cohesive narrative — much like the painting technique of pointillism, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.

  • How China's IP Proposal Could Affect US Brands' TM Strategy

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    Proposed amendments to China's Trademark Law aimed at improving the application and enforcement processes could make some common U.S. brand protection strategies moot, and may require brand owners to more carefully explain marks' use or nonuse, say attorneys at Neal Gerber.

  • Exploring Patent Trends In Aerospace Electrification

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    As blue-chip companies lead the charge to power large-scale commercial airplanes with electricity, and startups advance the trend on a regional scale, patent applications directed at improving energy storage and electric motor efficiency are on the rise, say attorneys at Finnegan.

  • 3 Tech Sourcing Best Practices That Are Relevant For AI

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    It might be tempting to think that sourcing artificial intelligence tools requires a completely new set of skills, but the best practices that lead to a good deal are much the same as traditional technology procurement, says Mia Rendar at Pillsbury.

  • The Pros And Cons Of NIST's Proposed March-In Framework

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    Recent comments for and against the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s proposed guidance on march-in rights — which permit the government to seize federally funded patents — highlight how the framework may promote competition, but could also pose a risk to contractors and universities, say Nick Lee and Paul Ragusa at Baker Botts.

  • Why Fed. Circ. Should Resolve District Split On Patent Statute

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    A split exists among district courts in their analysis of when marking cannot be done on a patented article due to its character, and the Federal Circuit should consider clarifying the analysis of Section 287(a), a consequential statute with important implications for patent damages, say Nicholas Nowak and Jamie Dohopolski at Sterne Kessler.

  • Practicing Law With Parkinson's Disease

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    This Parkinson’s Awareness Month, Adam Siegler at Greenberg Traurig discusses his experience working as a lawyer with Parkinson’s disease, sharing both lessons on how to cope with a diagnosis and advice for supporting colleagues who live with the disease.

  • When Trade Secret Protection And Nat'l Security Converge

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    The Trump administration's anti-espionage program focused on China is over, but federal enforcement efforts to protect trade secrets and U.S. national security continue, and companies doing business in high-risk jurisdictions need to maintain their compliance programs to avoid the risk of being caught in the crosshairs of an investigation, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

  • Why Incorporating By Reference Is Rarely Good Practice

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    The Federal Circuit’s recent ruling in Promptu Systems v. Comcast serves as a reminder that while incorporating by reference may seem efficient, it is generally prohibited by courts and can lead to sanctions when used to bypass a word count limit, says Cullen Seltzer at Sands Anderson.

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