Intellectual Property

Expert Analysis

• Attys Shouldn't Overlook Obligations To Potential Clients

  

  A recent American Bar Association opinion addressing the types of new-client consultations that could lead to disqualification is a reminder that lawyers indeed owe prospective clients certain duties, which call for attention to three best practices, say Sarah Sweeney and Thomas Wilkinson at Cozen O'Connor.

• Noncompete Considerations As Businesses Reopen, Rehire

  

  The lesson from the First Circuit's recent decision in Russomano v. Novo Nordisk is that employers should not assume a rehired or recalled employee will be bound by the post-employment restrictive covenants signed prior to a pandemic-related layoff or termination, say James Hays and Jamie Moelis at Sheppard Mullin.

• Foreign Patent Damages Recovery 2 Years After WesternGeco

  

  While there have been surprisingly few opinions about extraterritorial patent damages since the U.S. Supreme Court's 2018 decision in WesternGeco v. ION, parties should be considering the ruling's potential to immensely increase recovery to plaintiffs, say Jenny Colgate and Sheena Wang at Rothwell Figg.

• Strategies For Associates Seeking Jobs Amid Hiring Slump

  

  Law firms will be hiring conservatively well into 2021 and beyond, but associates eyeing a new firm or market can successfully make a move if they are pragmatic about their requirements, say Rebecca Glatzer and Kate Reder Sheikh at Major Lindsey.

• The Latest Legal Trends In Data Scraping And Ownership

  

  As competitors and courts grapple with different fact patterns involving web scraping, data owners are finding that the law does not provide clear guiding principles for when extraction of information from a website, database or program is legal, say Wesley Horner and Bart Eppenauer at Shook Hardy.

• Can Big Damages Awards Affect Patent Valuation Dynamics?

  

  Last week, a jury in the Eastern District of Texas ordered Apple to pay $506.2 million for willfully infringing patents covering 4G LTE technology. Jack Lu at IPMAP explores what such large damages awards could mean for patent valuations across the litigation, transactions and licensing markets.

• Safeguards Against Legal Malpractice Liability As Claims Rise

  

  History suggests that the COVID-19 crisis will lead to a surge in legal malpractice claims, but proper documentation, regular conflict checks and a few other steps can help minimize exposure, say attorneys at Munger Tolles.

• New Survey Methods May Assess TM Dilution With More Detail

  

  To demonstrate dilution by the blurring of a famous trademark's distinctiveness, research reveals that two new survey methodologies may be more robust than the current association standard used in the recent Oklahoma federal court case BOKF v. DOK, say consultants at Analysis Group and Joel Steckel at NYU.

• What 9th Circ. Qualcomm Licensing Ruling Means For SEPs

  

  As a result of the Ninth Circuit's decision Tuesday that Qualcomm's licensing practices for standard-essential patents don't violate antitrust law, future SEP disputes are likely to be rooted in contract and patent law, and innovators are more likely to aggressively seek 5G wireless-related SEP patents, say attorneys at Sterne Kessler.

• 3 Ways Law Firms Can Guard Diversity Gains During Crisis

  

  Law firm managing partners must institute comprehensive, firmwide policies to ensure tenuous progress made in recruiting and retaining more women and attorneys of color is not lost due to pandemic-related layoffs and budget cuts, says Debra Pickett at Page 2 Communications.

• Statutory Copyright Damages Offer Musicians A Viable Option

  

  Two recent federal court rulings, Sony Music v. Cox and Broadcast Music Inc. v. Buffalo Wing Joint, illustrate how musicians and record companies can use the Copyright Act's statutory damages provision to deter infringement in situations where showing actual damages would be too difficult or economically unfeasible, says Christopher Dyess at Schlam Stone.

• How Orange Book Listings Affect Patent Density, Exclusivity

  

  Analysis of U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved new drug applications in the Orange Book between 2011 and 2019 reveals a nearly 600% increase in patent density for new small-molecule drugs, a rise in marketplace exclusivity due to so-called patent evergreening, and other salient trends, say consultant Omar Robles and former analysts Emily Rothkin and Daniel Yu at NERA.

• Tips For Effective Witness Cross-Examination In Remote Trials

  

  Videoconference court proceedings can stifle much of what makes cross-examination exciting, but the savvy trial lawyer can adjust to make the same truth-inducing impact on a witness as in a live setting, say attorneys at Selendy & Gay.

• What I Learned As A Virtual Summer Associate

  

  It is necessary in a virtual law firm summer program to think twice about asking questions you may be able to answer on your own, but this independence and other aspects of a remote internship may help to instill habits that would be useful for future full-time associates, says law student Kelley Sheehan, who interned at Patterson & Sheridan this summer.

• Sustainable Food Progress May Close Global Regulatory Gap

  

  As the need for sustainable food production grows, the European sector will likely align with less stringent U.S. regulatory standards, which will further enable U.S. companies to expand globally and lead to more sophisticated intellectual property strategies in all regions, say Jane Hollywood and Fiona Carter at CMS Legal.