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Intellectual Property
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April 30, 2025
Lego Says Toy Co.'s Tiny Figurines Are Big IP Infringement
Lego sued Veux Toys LLC in Connecticut federal court Tuesday, seeking to block the California-based toy retailer from selling figurines that are "substantially similar" to its copyrighted products, such as Spider-Man toy men.
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April 30, 2025
Cahill Gordon Adds King & Spalding IP Litigation Trio In DC
Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP has added a three-partner intellectual property group from King & Spalding LLP for its new technology IP litigation practice in Washington, D.C., the firm said Wednesday.
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April 30, 2025
Foley & Lardner Adds 5 IP Attys From Perkins Coie, K&L Gates
Foley & Lardner LLP is expanding its intellectual property team in California, announcing Wednesday the addition of five IP attorneys — four from Perkins Coie LLP in San Diego and one from K&L Gates LLP in San Francisco.
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April 30, 2025
NBA Looks To Keep Knockoff Sales At Bay Amid IP Suit
The NBA's licensing arm has asked an Illinois federal judge to extend a ban on the illicit sales of counterfeit goods while freezing the assets of alleged culprits, saying without this, defendants in a copyright infringement suit may attempt to move their money to offshore accounts.
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April 30, 2025
Boston Lab Says Exec Took Trade Secrets To Rival
An executive departing a Boston contract research lab allegedly downloaded confidential and proprietary documents before he left to join a competing business in a move that breached his noncompete contract, according to a trade secrets lawsuit filed Tuesday in Massachusetts federal court.
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April 30, 2025
NJ Panel Declines To Revive Tobacco Co.'s Tax Refund Claim
A tobacco company cannot revive its claim for a tax refund, a New Jersey appeals court found, agreeing with the state's tax court that 2020 amendments to a regulation limiting a royalty add-back deduction must be applied retroactively.
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April 29, 2025
5th Circ. Hints Exclusivity Could End Tata's $168M Woe
A Fifth Circuit panel asked whether Tata Consultancy Services had taken trade secrets to solely build a product for a specific customer, questioning Tuesday whether to keep intact a $168 million judgment finding Tata stole an IT company's technology concerning source code and life insurance software documentation.
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April 29, 2025
9th Circ. Revives Copyright Fight Over Sam Smith Tune
The Ninth Circuit on Tuesday resurrected a copyright lawsuit over pop stars Sam Smith and Normani's 2019 hit "Dancing With a Stranger," saying a reasonable jury could find that the song's hook shares protectable lyrics, pitches and rhythm with that of a 2015 track called "Dancing With Strangers."
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April 29, 2025
Apple Settles Harvard Profs' IPhone Night Vision Patent Suit
Apple has agreed in principle to settle a suit brought by a startup company owned by two Harvard professors who claimed the tech giant infringed patents related to cameras that can render night vision images.
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April 29, 2025
Mercedes-Benz Wins Remand From Top PTAB Judges
A panel of the top judges at the patent board has agreed that Mercedes-Benz deserves another chance to invalidate a processor patent issued over a decade ago to engineers at Intel Corp. and later assigned to a company that's asserting it against the automaker and others.
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April 29, 2025
Meta Seeks Punitives For NSO WhatsApp Hack As Trial Opens
Meta's counsel told a California federal jury during trial openings Tuesday that Israeli spyware-maker NSO Group owes nearly $445,000 plus punitive damages for its "despicable" conduct hacking 1,400 WhatsApp users' devices, while NSO's counsel denied owing Meta anything and criticized Meta's case as a PR attempt to "own the narrative."
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April 29, 2025
Sports Illustrated Owner Ends TM Row With Former Publisher
Sports Illustrated's owner has agreed to permanently end its trademark dispute against its former publisher over claims that the publisher tore apart a long-standing licensing agreement while sabotaging the brand and holding hostage valuable intellectual property, according to a stipulation filed Tuesday in New York federal court.
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April 29, 2025
Photog Owes $67K For Skipping Deposition In Copyright Feud
A federal judge in the Southern District of New York on Tuesday ordered a photographer suing a fashion website over a photo of actor Jonah Hill to cough up nearly $67,000 for skipping his own deposition in the case, among other conduct.
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April 29, 2025
USPTO Flouted Labor Law At Examiner Meeting, Union Says
The labor union representing the federal government's patent examiners has filed a formal complaint alleging a representative for the union was blocked from being able to talk at a meeting between the workers and the federal patent office.
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April 29, 2025
Key Takeaways From Patent Office's New Denial Process FAQ
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Friday released answers to an extensive list of frequently asked questions about its new process for deciding whether to deny patent challenges for discretionary reasons. Here's a look at some of the most significant details.
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April 29, 2025
4th Circ. Rules Honeywell Royalty Fight Belongs In Fed. Circ.
The Fourth Circuit on Tuesday found that a fight over royalty payments between technology conglomerate Honeywell and its Japan-based rival should be kicked to the Federal Circuit, which has jurisdiction over all patent-related lawsuits.
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April 29, 2025
Full Fed. Circ. Urged To Undo 'Onerous' Jepson Claim Ruling
Xencor has urged the full Federal Circuit to review a decision rejecting its application for an antibody patent that used the so-called Jepson claim format, saying the case set an "onerous requirement" that is nearly impossible to meet and "eliminates any incentive" to use the format.
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April 29, 2025
NCAA Says NY Case's Demise Dooms NC State '83 Team's Suit
The NCAA told North Carolina's business court that a New York federal judge's decision to throw out a proposed antitrust class action against it brought by former men's basketball players should also doom a similar suit brought by the 1983 North Carolina State University men's basketball national championship team.
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April 29, 2025
Fed. Circ. Backs TM Denial Of Dark Green Gloves As Generic
The Federal Circuit on Tuesday adopted a test for determining if trademarks are generic when considering claims on distinctive colors, affirming a trademark board precedent used to reject an Indonesian medical supply company's efforts to claim a trademark for dark green surgical gloves.
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April 29, 2025
Chicken Joint Sticky's Gets $2M Sale After Turnaround Woes
Chicken restaurant Sticky's won a Delaware bankruptcy judge's tentative permission Tuesday to sign a contract to sell its assets to an investment fund for $2 million after surging poultry prices and New York City's congestion pricing program imperiled the company's Chapter 11 turnaround plan.
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April 29, 2025
Drinkers Not Vexed By Brand In 'Sea Of Tequilas,' 5th Circ. Told
A Fifth Circuit panel seemed hesitant to accept a U.S. tequila startup's argument that it was selling its product in a "sea of tequilas" that all have similar marks, questioning Tuesday whether its branding had enough similarities to an older Mexican brand called "Clase Azul" to confuse consumers.
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April 29, 2025
Mexico Put On Latest USTR Priority IP Watch List
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on Tuesday issued its annual global intellectual property report that has placed close trading partner Mexico on its list of countries to keep the closest eye on.
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April 29, 2025
Cooley Life Sciences Ace Rejoins Latham In Bay Area
Latham & Watkins LLP has welcomed back an intellectual property attorney who spent the past nine years at Cooley LLP to bolster its healthcare and life sciences practice, including advising clients about licensing and transactional matters.
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April 29, 2025
Boston Seafood Co. Says Salmon Exec Stole Trade Secrets
A former C-suite executive and head of salmon accounts at a Boston-area seafood distributor spent months emailing sensitive trade secrets from his work account to a Norwegian competitor before joining it to launch a rival business in the U.S., according to a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday.
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April 29, 2025
Judge Tosses Chalmers' NIL Suit, Hands NCAA Major Victory
In a significant win for the NCAA against a wave of college athletes suing for past name, image and likeness compensation as a multibillion-dollar settlement awaits approval, a New York federal judge dismissed a proposed class action by 16 former men's basketball players accusing the NCAA of exploiting them long after their careers ended.
Expert Analysis
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Opinion
Inconsistent Injury-In-Fact Rules Hinder Federal Practice
A recent Third Circuit decision, contradicting a previous ruling about whether consumers of contaminated products have suffered an injury in fact, illustrates the deep confusion this U.S. Supreme Court standard creates among federal judges and practitioners, who deserve a simpler method of determining which cases have federal standing, says Eric Dwoskin at Dwoskin Wasdin.
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Takeaways From Oral Argument In High Court Trademark Case
Unpacking oral arguments from Dewberry Group v. Dewberry Engineers, which the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on this year, sheds light on the ways in which the decision could significantly affect trademark infringement plaintiffs' ability to receive monetary damages, say attorneys at Buchanan Ingersoll.
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In-House Counsel Pointers For Preserving Atty-Client Privilege
Several recent rulings illustrate the challenges in-house counsel can face when attempting to preserve attorney-client privilege, but a few best practices can help safeguard communications and effectively assert the privilege in an increasingly scrutinized corporate environment, says Daniel Garrie at Law & Forensics.
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Improving Comms Between Trial Attys And Tech Witnesses
In major litigation involving complex technology, attorneys should employ certain strategies to collaborate with companies' technical personnel more effectively to enhance both the attorney's understanding of the subject matter and the expert's ability to provide effective testimony in court, say attorneys at Buchalter.
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Navigating Title IX Compliance In The NIL Era
As universities push to move more name, image and likeness activity in-house, it's unclear how the NCAA and its members will square implementation of the House settlement with Title IX requirements, say attorneys at Buchanan Ingersoll.
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Series
Collecting Rare Books Makes Me A Better Lawyer
My collection of rare books includes several written or owned by prominent lawyers from early U.S. history, and immersing myself in their stories helps me feel a deeper connection to my legal practice and its purpose, says Douglas Brown at Manatt Health.
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DeepSeek AI Investigation Could Lead To IP Law Precedents
The investigation by OpenAI and Microsoft into DeepSeek's artificial intelligence model raises interesting legal concerns involving intellectual property and contract law, including potential trade secret appropriation and fair use questions, say Saishruti Mutneja and Raghav Gurbaxani.
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Opinion
New DOJ Leaders Should Curb Ill-Conceived Prosecutions
First-of-their-kind cases have seemingly led to a string of overly aggressive prosecutions in recent years, so newly sworn-in leaders of the U.S. Department of Justice should consider creating reporting channels to stop unwise prosecutions before they snowball, says Jonathan Porter at Husch Blackwell.
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Opinion
Judge Should Not Have Been Reprimanded For Alito Essay
Senior U.S. District Judge Michael Ponsor's New York Times essay critiquing Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito for potential ethical violations absolutely cannot be construed as conduct prejudicial to the administration of the business of the courts, says Ashley London at the Thomas R. Kline School of Law of Duquesne University.
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A Look At Drug Price Negotiation Program's Ongoing Impact
More than two years after the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act and the rapid implementation of the drug price negotiation program, attorneys at Ropes & Gray discuss how the IRA has influenced licensing strategies, and how maximum fair prices under the law have economically affected certain drugs.
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Opinion
Congress Must Consider Accurate Data About Patent Thickets
If Congress revisits a controversial bill this year aimed at limiting the number of patents pharmaceutical manufacturers could assert, it must make sure to act based on accurate reports — such as a recent U.S. Patent and Trademark Office study that found no evidence of patent thicketing, says David Kappos at the Council for Innovation Promotion.
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Lights, Camera, Ethics? TV Lawyers Tend To Set Bad Example
Though fictional movies and television shows portraying lawyers are fun to watch, Hollywood’s inaccurate depictions of legal ethics can desensitize attorneys to ethics violations and lead real-life clients to believe that good lawyers take a scorched-earth approach, says Nancy Rapoport at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
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Opinion
DOGE Should Address Inefficiency In The Patent Marketplace
Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency is well positioned to identify to Congress the necessary variability needed among individual patent rights, ensuring that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's current inefficiencies do not impede promising inventions from reaching the market, says John Powers at Powers IP.
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Perspectives
Accountant-Owned Law Firms Could Blur Ethical Lines
KPMG’s recent application to open a legal practice in Arizona represents the first overture by an accounting firm to take advantage of the state’s relaxed law firm ownership rules, but enforcing and supervising the practice of law by nonattorneys could prove particularly challenging, says Seth Laver at Goldberg Segalla.
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AI Will Soon Transform The E-Discovery Industrial Complex
Todd Itami at Covington discusses how generative artificial intelligence will reshape the current e-discovery paradigm, replacing the blunt instrument of data handling with a laser scalpel of fully integrated enterprise solutions — after first making e-discovery processes technically and legally harder.