Intellectual Property

  • March 20, 2024

    Future Of Judge-Shopping Reform Hazy After Rule Proposal

    The policymaking body for U.S. courts provoked a stir last week when it proposed a rule designed to curb "judge shopping," with observers saying that the policy does address one type of the practice but that it remains to be seen if individual federal district courts will be willing to adopt even that limited reform.

  • March 19, 2024

    Amazon Prevails In University's Patent Suit Over Alexa

    A New York federal judge has cleared Amazon in a case where a research university said its language processing patent was being infringed by the company's Alexa devices.

  • March 19, 2024

    Insurer Meets 6th Circ. Resistance In Bid To Undo Amway Win

    Sixth Circuit judges appeared skeptical Tuesday of an AIG unit's argument that it shouldn't have to defend and indemnify Amway Corp. in copyright litigation, with one judge saying he doubted Amway's self-insured policies should take priority over an AIG internet policy.

  • March 19, 2024

    J&J Says Former Exec Stole Thousands Of Files In Move To Pfizer

    Johnson & Johnson has sued a former competitive strategy director in New Jersey federal court, claiming he illegally downloaded thousands of confidential files on his way out the door to work for direct competitor Pfizer.

  • March 19, 2024

    Jackpocket App Co. Leaves 2nd Circ. Empty-Handed

    A lottery startup called Jackpocket Inc. that DraftKings Inc. bought last month has failed to persuade the Second Circuit to disturb a ruling out of a New York federal court that rejected its trademark case against a newer U.K. rival that operates a website called Jackpot.com.

  • March 19, 2024

    Warhol Foundation Will Pay $22K To End 'Orange Prince' Row

    The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts has agreed to pay photographer Lynn Goldsmith about $21,500 to settle a dispute that reached the U.S. Supreme Court last year, with the justices holding in a landmark ruling that Warhol's silkscreens of music icon Prince, based on a Goldsmith photo, were not fair use.

  • March 19, 2024

    4 Things To Watch In Reddit's Coming IPO

    Social media platform Reddit Inc. aims to go public this week in a potentially landmark initial public offering that carries distinct risks but, if successful, could energize the broader IPO pipeline. Here, Law360 walks through four things to watch in Reddit's upcoming IPO.

  • March 18, 2024

    Patent Suit Over AstraZeneca's Tagrisso Heads To Jury

    A Delaware federal judge said Monday that there are too many "genuine factual disputes" to end a lawsuit from a Pfizer brand claiming it developed a cancer treatment that's being infringed by a drug that has racked up billions in sales for rival AstraZeneca.

  • March 18, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Won't Block Intel License Defense In Calif. Case

    The Federal Circuit on Monday refused to undo a California judge's order letting Intel argue that it has a license to VLSI's microchip patents in cases with billions of dollars at stake, ruling that VLSI hadn't shown that the appeals court should step in.

  • March 18, 2024

    2nd Circ. Rejects 'New Standard' Of Patent Monopolies

    A Second Circuit panel on Monday revived antitrust allegations accusing Novartis of concealing the true history of an eye syringe treatment's development from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to edge Regeneron out of the market, faulting a district court for holding that antitrust markets can't be "coextensive" with the patent.

  • March 18, 2024

    Corteva Wants Jury Trial In FTC Pesticides Case

    Corteva has demanded a jury trial for the Federal Trade Commission's case in North Carolina federal court accusing Corteva and Syngenta of blocking competition from generic pesticides through rebate programs.

  • March 18, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Won't Order Albright To Ship Apple IP Case To Calif.

    The Federal Circuit on Monday denied an appeal from Apple Inc. of a decision denying its bid to move an infringement suit over authentication and fraud reduction patents from Texas federal court to California.

  • March 18, 2024

    The Biggest Trade Secrets Awards In The Last 5 Years

    Trade secrets cases are having a moment in the spotlight, thanks to some gargantuan damages awards over the past five years and more flexibility for plaintiffs to argue for what they think they are owed.

  • March 18, 2024

    Vidal Tells PTAB To Try Defining 'Biometric Signal' Again

    The head of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has thrown out decisions from the Patent Trial and Trademark Board that found Assa Abloy was unable to show two biometric patents were unpatentable, saying the PTAB used a definition of a critical term that wasn't proposed by Assa Abloy or the patent owner.

  • March 18, 2024

    Texas Judges Pause Wireless Patent Fights For PTAB

    The top two federal judges in Texas handling patent cases have agreed to hold litigation between two automotive brands and a prolific litigation outfit after BMW persuaded the patent board to review "every single claim" involved in litigation over decade-old wireless patents.

  • March 18, 2024

    ​​​​​​​Amyris Gets OK To Settle Pot Co.'s $15M Trade Secret Suit

    A Delaware bankruptcy judge has approved biotechnology company Amyris' $15.1 million settlement with cannabinoid manufacturer Lavvan, resolving yearslong litigation and arbitration proceedings alleging the debtor misused its then-business partner's trade secrets.

  • March 18, 2024

    AI Voice Platform Faces UK Litigation Over 'Deepfake' Songs

    The U.K.'s trade association for recorded music has threatened legal proceedings against a deepfake artificial intelligence platform, alleging that the former Voicify's collection of AI voices infringes artists' rights.

  • March 18, 2024

    'Bootleg' E-Books Not Fair Use, Book Publishers Tell 2nd Circ.

    Four book publishers urged the Second Circuit on Friday to uphold a lower court's finding that the Internet Archive infringed their copyrights with its free e-book lending program, saying the nonprofit distributes "bootleg ebooks from its website to anyone in the world."

  • March 18, 2024

    Brita Brings ITC Filter Patent Row To Federal Circuit

    The Clorox Co.'s Brita brand has urged the Federal Circuit to overturn a decision that found it failed to show that language in a patent covering the brand's "gravity flow" filter was specific enough to earn legal protection.

  • March 18, 2024

    Justices Won't Review PTAB Ax Of Fabric Printing Patents

    The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to hear an appeal arguing that four patents on transferring images to fabric were wrongly invalidated in a challenge by Avery Products and others because the decision did not explain why the patents were obvious.

  • March 15, 2024

    Judiciary Clarifies Judge Shopping Policy After Senator Letter

    The Judicial Conference of the United States said Friday that its updated policy aimed at preventing litigants from shopping for the judge of their choice is not intended to overstep judges' authority or discretion under the law, issuing guidance one day after Republican senators pushed back against the policy.

  • March 15, 2024

    Feds' PACER Gaffe Doesn't Mean A Sure Win For Magnet Co.

    Federal prosecutors may suffer a setback in a case accusing a magnet manufacturer of sharing sensitive military data with China after accidentally publicizing the same information, but they may have an out under a regulation governing publishing in the public domain.

  • March 15, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Says Tube-Mac Execs Co-Invented Gas Tank Patent

    The Federal Circuit ruled Friday that two executives of pipe company Tube-Mac Industries Inc. significantly contributed to the invention of a road trailer for transporting liquefied natural gas, upholding a lower court's finding that they must be credited as co-inventors on the patent.

  • March 15, 2024

    Data Scraper Allowed To Scrap, Replace Patent Claims

    An Israeli web data scraper has convinced judges on an administrative patent board to let it switch up language in a patent that's being challenged, shortly after the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced plans to formalize its pilot program to help patent owners amend challenged claims

  • March 15, 2024

    Jury Awards GeigTech $34.6M In Roller Shade Patent Trial

    A New York federal jury has found that home lighting fixtures company Lutron owes GeigTech $34.6 million for infringing its patent on window shade brackets, while also finding that the infringement was willful.

Expert Analysis

  • A Look At DOJ's New Nationwide Investment Fraud Approach

    Author Photo

    Investment fraud charges are increasingly being brought in unlikely venues across the country, and the rationale behind the U.S. Department of Justice's approach could well be the heightened legal standards in connection with prosecuting investment fraud, says Jonathan Porter at Husch Blackwell.

  • How Cos. Can Protect Privacy In The Age Of AI

    Author Photo

    The rapidly developing landscape of generative AI and the related legal and regulatory concerns means that what is compliant today may not be tomorrow, and companies must take a pragmatic approach to compliance that anticipates future legal changes, say attorneys at Goodwin.

  • Opinion

    USPTO's Changes To Rule 704 Contain Some Inherent Risks

    Author Photo

    The USPTO's changes to Rule 704 relating to patent term adjustments is fraught with peril not only for the applicant but also personal jeopardy for any attorney who uses this rule, says Allen Hoover at Fitch Even.

  • Multiwork Statutory Licenses Offer Models For Generative AI

    Author Photo

    If courts do not find fair use to be an available defense for training large language models, then statutory licenses set forth in the Copyright Act's satellite and cable sections may provide potential standards for a multiwork, multistakeholder statutory license for generative AI purposes, says Gary Greenstein at Wilson Sonsini.

  • 7 NIL Considerations For Brand Deals With Student-Athletes

    Author Photo

    While the constantly changing laws, rules and regulations for name, image and likeness in collegiate athletics are difficult to navigate, the benefits of a brand's successful NIL marketing campaign can outweigh the challenge of traversing this complex framework, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

  • Cos.' Trade Secret Measures Must Adjust To Remote-Work Era

    Author Photo

    Several recent cases demonstrate that companies need to reevaluate and adjust their trade secret protection strategies in this new age of remote work, says Stephanie Riley at Womble Bond.

  • White House AI Order Balances Innovation And Regulation

    Author Photo

    President Joe Biden’s recently issued executive order on artificial intelligence lays out a sprawling list of directives aimed at establishing standards for safety, security and privacy protection, and may help strike the balance between the freedom to innovate and the need to impose regulation in this rapidly evolving space, say Kristen Logan and Martin Zoltick at Rothwell Figg.

  • How Biden's AI Order Stacks Up Against Calif. And G7 Activity

    Author Photo

    Evaluating the federal AI executive order alongside the California AI executive order and the G7's Hiroshima AI Code of Conduct can offer a more robust picture of key risks and concerns companies should proactively work to mitigate as they build or integrate artificial intelligence tools into their products and services, say attorneys at Jenner & Block.

  • ITC Ban On Apple Watch Could Still Be Reversed

    Author Photo

    The U.S. International Trade Commission's recent final decision that the Apple Watch infringed two patents owned by Masimo Corp. was a rare instance of a popular consumer product being hit with an absolute importation ban, but it's possible that President Joe Biden could assert his power to reverse the ITC decision, says Benjamin Horton at Marshall Gerstein.

  • Examining US And Europe Patent Disclosure For AI Inventions

    Author Photo

    As applicants before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the European Patent Office increasingly seek patent protection for inventions relating to artificial intelligence, the applications may require more implementation details than traditional computer-implemented inventions, including disclosure of data and methods used to train the AI systems, say attorneys at Finnegan.

  • Unlocking Value In Carve-Out M&A Transactions

    Author Photo

    Some of the largest mergers and acquisitions in 2023 were carve-out transactions, and despite their unique intricacies and challenges, these transactions offer both buyers and sellers the opportunity to generate outsized returns in an otherwise vigorously competitive landscape, when carefully planned and diligently executed, say Kevin Crews and Rami Totari at Kirkland.

  • Incontinence Drug Ruling Offers Key Patent Drafting Lessons

    Author Photo

    In a long-awaited decision in Astellas v. Teva and Sandoz, an English court found that the patent for a drug used to treat overactive bladder syndrome had not been infringed, highlighting the interaction between patent drafting and litigation strategy, and why claim infringement is as important a consideration as validity, says George McCubbin at Herbert Smith.

  • How Justices Could Rule On A Key Copyright Statute

    Author Photo

    Attorneys at Manatt discuss how the U.S. Supreme Court may choose to address a fundamental accrual issue in Warner Chappell Music v. Nealy, which precedents the court may look to in analyzing the issue and the challenges copyright claimants may face going forward.

  • Fed. Circ. Elekta Holding May Make Patent Prosecution Harder

    Author Photo

    The Federal Circuit's recent analysis of obviousness in its Elekta v. Zap Surgical Systems decision will make prosecuting patents harder, as parties will now need to consider whether to argue that cited patents are nonanalogous, say Sean Murray and Jeremiah Helm of Knobbe Martens.

  • Attorneys, Law Schools Must Adapt To New Era Of Evidence

    Author Photo

    Technological advancements mean more direct evidence is being created than ever before, and attorneys as well as law schools must modify their methods to account for new challenges in how this evidence is collected and used to try cases, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.

Want to publish in Law360?


Submit an idea

Have a news tip?


Contact us here
Can't find the article you're looking for? Click here to search the Intellectual Property archive.
Hello! I'm Law360's automated support bot.

How can I help you today?

For example, you can type:
  • I forgot my password
  • I took a free trial but didn't get a verification email
  • How do I sign up for a newsletter?
Ask a question!