Intellectual Property

  • May 08, 2024

    AI Art Cos. Fight Uphill To Toss Artists' Copyright Suit

    Attorneys for four companies that make or distribute software that creates images with text prompts urged a California federal judge Wednesday to rethink his tentative opinion to allow some claims by a proposed class of artists to move forward, with one warning it could lead to hundreds of thousands of similar suits.

  • May 08, 2024

    Amazon Seeks To Ax $525M Verdict Over Data Storage Patents

    Amazon asked an Illinois federal judge Wednesday to throw out a jury's verdict that the e-commerce giant owes $525 million for infringing three of Kove IO's patents relating to cloud data storage technology, saying the Chicago software company didn't actually prove infringement.

  • May 08, 2024

    Arendi Seeks Revival Of Google, Oath IP Rows At Fed. Circ.

    Arendi SARL has urged the Federal Circuit to revive its two data system patent lawsuits alleging infringement by Google and Oath Holdings, arguing in part that the lower court erred when it failed to find the patents eligible.

  • May 08, 2024

    Split 6th Circ. Says Digital Media TM Case Has To Stay In Tenn.

    The Sixth Circuit on Wednesday held that a trademark fight between two companies that digitally preserve home movies, photos and other media will have to play out in a Tennessee federal court, after the panel split over how many customers are enough to extend jurisdiction in the trademark dispute.

  • May 08, 2024

    Black & Decker's Stud Finder Patent Win Gets Fed. Circ. OK

    The Federal Circuit on Wednesday upheld a decision clearing Stanley Black & Decker Inc. in a stud finder patent suit by rival Zircon Corp., backing the U.S. International Trade Commission's finding that Zircon didn't show it has a domestic industry of products protected by the patents.

  • May 08, 2024

    Teva Must Face Bulk Of Asthma Inhaler Antitrust Suit

    A Massachusetts federal judge largely refused Tuesday to toss antitrust claims accusing Teva of a decadelong anticompetitive scheme to delay generic competition for its blockbuster QVAR asthma inhalers, finding it plausible that Teva paid off a would-be rival and forcibly switched doctors and patients to a new product.

  • May 08, 2024

    Gambling Cos. Can't Knock Out 4 Location Software Patents

    DraftKings and several other gambling companies have failed to persuade the Patent Trial and Appeal Board to invalidate a quartet of patents covering location software that were issued to a patent lawyer who has sued at least 10 major betting brands.

  • May 08, 2024

    Sorority Fails To Get Fed. Circ. To Revive TM Case

    A one-line Federal Circuit ruling Wednesday upheld a decision shooting down a popular sorority's efforts to obtain a trademark registration covering the acronym "ZTA" for use in the consumer goods market. 

  • May 08, 2024

    DLA Piper, Cooley Lead Software Firm Silvaco's $114M IPO

    Electronic design automation software company Silvaco Group Inc. on Wednesday priced an $114 million initial public offering at the top of its range, represented by DLA Piper and underwriters' counsel Cooley LLP.

  • May 08, 2024

    Trashing Of IP Case Wrongly Cut Atty Fees, Del. Justices Told

    An attorney for a client who saw all claims against him dropped before trial in a suit focused on allegedly purloined trash-handling trade secrets urged Delaware's Supreme Court on Wednesday to reverse the Chancery Court's purported failure to hear his attorney fee claim.

  • May 08, 2024

    Blue Bottle Coffee Loses Suit Over 'Blue Brew' TM

    A California federal judge has handed a loss to Blue Bottle Coffee LLC in its trademark infringement case against a company selling coffee gear and accessories using the phrase "Blue Brew," saying there wasn't any evidence that customers would be confused.

  • May 08, 2024

    IP Owners Call For PTAB Amendment Plan To Be Permanent

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has received a series of comments on its plans to formalize a Patent Trial and Appeal Board pilot program to assist patent owners in amending challenged claims, including from groups such as the Intellectual Property Owners Association and the Council for Innovation Promotion.

  • May 08, 2024

    Levi Strauss Settles TM Suit Over Rival's Tab Label Design

    Jeans maker Levi Strauss & Co. has settled its suit in California federal court alleging Italian clothing company Brunello Cucinelli infringed on Levi's tab trademark in an effort to sow customer confusion and reap profits.

  • May 08, 2024

    Dr. Martens Accuses Temu Of Google Search TM Use

    Dr. Martens has accused Chinese ultra-fast fashion giant Temu of paying Google to show its knockoffs of the British shoemaker's famous black boots in the search results of online shoppers.

  • May 07, 2024

    GOP Reps. Want IP Enforcers To Get Tougher On Infringers

    Republican lawmakers complained at a Tuesday congressional hearing about the Biden administration's move to end the controversial Trump-era "China Initiative" aimed at curbing suspected economic espionage and questioned administration officials over how diligently they have pursued intellectual property cases on behalf of U.S. manufacturers, retailers, movie studios and vape companies.

  • May 07, 2024

    Amazon, Epson Unite To Go After Printer Ink Counterfeiters

    Amazon and Seiko Epson have teamed up to go after several bad actors in Turkey and the United Kingdom that are allegedly hawking knockoff Epson printer ink bottles and cartridges on Amazon's platform, according to a trademark infringement action filed in the Western District of Washington.  

  • May 07, 2024

    Iceberg Image Closes Pacira Drug Patent Infringement Trial

    A generic drugmaker on Tuesday used imagery to argue that the information in a Pacira Biosciences Inc. painkiller patent is just the proverbial tip of the iceberg, positing that regulators would have rejected the application if all the data on the medicine had been revealed.

  • May 07, 2024

    Judge Limits Valve's Arguments In Controller Patent Fight

    A federal judge in Seattle has partly granted a bid from Ironburg Inventions Ltd. to block Valve Corp. from raising certain arguments when challenging a video game controller patent at district court based on estoppel rules from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

  • May 07, 2024

    DC Circ. Examines Timing In ITC's Bid To Investigate Expert

    The D.C. Circuit on Tuesday scrutinized the U.S. International Trade Commission's bid to revive an investigation into a former expert witness retained by Qualcomm for allegedly breaching a protective order, questioning whether the expert's successful suit to stop the probe was premature, as the commission claims.

  • May 07, 2024

    In Calif. Case, Samsung Contractor Points To Waco Verdict

    A Samsung contractor says a Texas jury verdict that cleared the South Korean phone maker from a $4 billion patent suit should free it from similar allegations in a case in California.

  • May 07, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Seems Wary Of Broad's CRISPR Inventorship Win

    Federal Circuit Judge Todd Hughes on Tuesday suggested that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board cited the correct standard when reviewing who first invented a particular use of the gene-editing technology CRISPR-Cas9, but then applied an improper standard when ruling in favor of a Massachusetts research team.

  • May 07, 2024

    NBA's Dominique Wilkins Sues Amerihealth Partners Over NIL

    NBA slam-dunk legend Dominique Wilkins and his management team are suing AmeriHealth Partners LLC in Atlanta federal court for allegedly using his name, image and likeness without his permission to market pharmaceutical products nationwide in 74,000 drug stores.

  • May 07, 2024

    Tax Software Co. Still Can't Trim Rival's Trade Secrets Suit

    A corporate-focused tax preparation software company still can't pare back a suit alleging that it poached workers from its rival's recently acquired company, a Pennsylvania federal judge ruled Tuesday.

  • May 07, 2024

    Meta Gets PTAB To Wipe Out Photo-Tagging Patent In Calif. Suit

    The Patent Trial and Appeal Board has wiped out all challenged claims in a patent owned by a company that is suing Meta in California federal court.

  • May 07, 2024

    Ways And Means Chairs Decry China Tariff Review 'Inaction'

    The chairs of the House Ways and Means Committee and its Trade Subcommittee chided U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai in a letter Tuesday over her office's purported "inaction" in reviewing tariffs covering $300 billion worth of goods from China.

Expert Analysis

  • Rebuttal

    Double-Patenting Ruling Shows Terminal Disclaimers' Value

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    While a recent Law360 guest article seems to argue that the Federal Circuit’s Cellect decision last year robs patent owners of lawful patent term, the ruling actually identifies how terminal disclaimers are the solution to the problem of obviousness-type double patenting, say Jane Love and Robert Trenchard at Gibson Dunn.

  • Series

    Swimming Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Years of participation in swimming events, especially in the open water, have proven to be ideal preparation for appellate arguments in court — just as you must put your trust in the ocean when competing in a swim event, you must do the same with the judicial process, says John Kulewicz at Vorys.

  • How Courts Are Interpreting Fed. Circ. IPR Estoppel Ruling

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    In the year since the Federal Circuit’s Ironburg ruling, which clarified the scope of inter partes and post-grant review estoppel, district court decisions show that application of IPR or PGR estoppel may become a resource-intensive inquiry, say Whitney Meier Howard and Michelle Lavrichenko at Venable.

  • Should NIL Collectives Be Allowed Tax-Favored Status?

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    Arguments are being made for and against allowing organizations to provide charitable contribution tax deductions for donations used to compensate student-athletes, a practice with impacts on competition for student-athletes and overall tax fairness, but ultimately it is a question for Congress, say Andres Castillo and Barry Gogel at the University of Maryland School of Law.

  • What 100 Federal Cases Suggest About Changes To Chevron

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    With the U.S. Supreme Court poised to overturn or narrow its 40-year-old doctrine of Chevron deference, a review of 100 recent federal district court decisions confirm that changes to the Chevron framework will have broad ramifications — but the magnitude of the impact will depend on the details of the high court's ruling, say Kali Schellenberg and Jon Cochran at LeVan Stapleton.

  • Patent Damages Jury Verdicts Aren't Always End Of The Story

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    Recent outcomes demonstrate that patent damages jury verdicts are often challenged and are overturned approximately one-third of the time, and successful verdict challenges typically occur at the appellate level and concern patent validity and infringement, say James Donohue and Marie Sanyal at Charles River.

  • Manufacturers Should Pay Attention To 'Right-To-Repair' Laws

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    Oregon’s recently passed "right-to-repair" statute highlights that the R2R movement is not going away, and that manufacturers of all kinds need to be paying attention to the evolving list of R2R statutes in various states and consider participating in the process, says Courtney Sarnow at Culhane.

  • Why High Court May Have Rejected IP Obviousness Appeal

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    Attorneys at Womble Bond analyze possible reasons the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Vanda Pharmaceuticals' request to review the Federal Circuit’s reasonable expectation of success standard for determining obviousness, including that the court was unpersuaded by the company's argument that Amgen v. Sanofi places a bind on drug developers.

  • Opinion

    Viral Deepfakes Of Taylor Swift Highlight Need For Regulation

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    As the nation grapples with addressing risk from artificial intelligence use, the recent circulation of AI-generated pornographic images of Taylor Swift on the social platform X highlights the need for federal legislation to protect nonconsenting subjects of deepfake pornography, say Nicole Brenner and Susie Ruiz-Lichter at Squire Patton.

  • A Guide To Using The DTSA For Misappropriation Recourse

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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    Nicholas Armington at Mintz explains the ins and outs of drafting a misappropriation complaint under the Defend Trade Secrets Act, and how and why companies should think strategically about federal and state law when filing a claim.

  • How Cos. Can Protect IP In Light Of FTC Noncompete Rule

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    While several groups are challenging the Federal Trade Commission’s recently approved rule banning noncompetition agreements, employers should begin planning other ways to protect their valuable trade secrets, confidential information and other intellectual property, says Thomas Duston at Marshall Gerstein.

  • The Fed. Circ. In April: Hurdles Remain For Generics

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    The Federal Circuit’s recent Salix v. Norwich ruling — where Salix's brand-name drug's patents were invalidated — is a reminder to patent practitioners that invalidating a competitor's patents may not guarantee abbreviated new drug application approval, say Sean Murray and Jeremiah Helm at Knobbe Martens.

  • Don't Use The Same Template For Every Client Alert

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    As the old marketing adage goes, consistency is key, but law firm style guides need consistency that contemplates variety when it comes to client alert formats, allowing attorneys to tailor alerts to best fit the audience and subject matter, says Jessica Kaplan at Legally Penned.

  • Series

    Walking With My Dog Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Thanks to my dog Birdie, I've learned that carving out an activity different from the practice of law — like daily outdoor walks that allow you to interact with new people — can contribute to professional success by boosting creativity and mental acuity, as well as expanding your social network, says Sarah Petrie at the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office.

  • The Secret Sauce For Trademarking Viral Food Products

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    Three recent high-profile trademark disputes in the food industry illustrate the importance of protecting brands early — especially for any company aiming for viral fame — and underscore the value of intent-to-use applications, say Elliot Gee and Matthew Dowd at Dowd Scheffel.

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