Fed. Circ. Voids Allergan's $39M Trial Win Over Eyelash Patent

By Theresa Schliep

The Federal Circuit on Tuesday reversed a $39 million verdict against Sandoz in Allergan's suit accusing it of infringing an eyelash growth drug patent, finding a Colorado federal jury should have found the patent claim at issue invalid for inadequate written description.

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4th Circ. Restores Trade Secrets Suit Against Insurance Execs

By Elliot Weld

The Fourth Circuit on Tuesday revived insurer Sherbrooke Corp.'s claims of trade secrets theft against three former executives, disagreeing with a district judge who found that the company had not made enough of an effort to guard the software in question.

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Agilent Wants Justices To Eye Invalidation Of CRISPR Patents

By Adam Lidgett

Agilent Technologies wants the U.S. Supreme Court to take up its challenge to a Federal Circuit finding that claims in a pair of its patents on the gene-editing tool CRISPR were invalid, arguing the decision conflicts with rules on which side faces the burden of proving invalidity.

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Atty Asks 5th Circ. To Address Outlying Matters In TM Case

By Elliot Weld

An attorney locked in a trademark battle with Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP asked the Fifth Circuit to address the case again Tuesday, saying it did not get to several outstanding issues that will affect the case in district court when it vacated the firm's $1 million damages award against him.

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DSW Faces Sony IP Suit Amid Jurisdictional Issues For Others

By Ivan Moreno

A California federal judge has ruled that Sony Music Entertainment and other music companies can proceed with a lawsuit that accuses DSW Shoe Warehouse of infringing song copyrights with social media ads, but the plaintiffs must do more to establish jurisdiction over other defendants.

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Judge Says Texas, Toronto Exchange Logos Seem Dissimilar

By Spencer Brewer

A Texas federal judge expressed skepticism that the Toronto Stock Exchange has much of a leg to stand on in its attempt to get the Texas Stock Exchange to change its logo, saying during a hearing Tuesday that the logos look dissimilar enough for most people to tell the difference.

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IBM, Qualcomm Lead Public Cos. In Patented Inventions

By Dani Kass

IBM Corp. holds the most patent families of all S&P 100 companies, followed by Qualcomm Inc. and Microsoft Corp., according to an IFI Claims Patent Services report released Tuesday.

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MVP: Gibson Dunn's Brian Rosenthal

By Ivan Moreno

Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP partner Brian Rosenthal was lead counsel during three trial victories for Cisco Systems Inc., including a rare directed verdict in the patent-friendly Western District of Texas with $121 million at stake, earning him a spot as one of the 2025 Law360 Intellectual Property MVPs.

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Fed. Circ. Won't Check Decision Eroding $4M IP Judgment

By Adam Lidgett

The Federal Circuit won't rethink any part of a panel's decision that overruled most of a New York federal judge's $4 million infringement judgment against two hospitality providers in a multifaceted appeal over hookless shower curtains.

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Polaris Hits Back At 'Settled Expectations' Fed. Circ. Fight

By Adam Lidgett

Polaris PowerLED says Sandisk Technologies Inc.'s Federal Circuit challenge to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's denial of patent reviews based on a patent owner's "settled expectations" is not any different from similar cases that have been rejected by the circuit court.

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Merck Wins Final PTAB Fight Against Johns Hopkins

By Dani Kass

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board invalidated a cancer treatment patent owned by Johns Hopkins University, marking a full victory on the nine challenges Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC initiated against the university's patents. 

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J&J Unit Fights $12M Verdict While Rival Wants More Money

By Dani Kass

A Delaware federal jury was wrong when it determined that Johnson & Johnson subsidiary DePuy Synthes should pay RSB Spine $12 million for infringing spinal fusion patents under the doctrine of equivalents, DePuy said Monday.

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TP-Link Accuses Wi-Fi Rival Netgear Of 'Smear Campaign'

By Rae Ann Varona

TP-Link Systems Inc. has filed suit in Delaware federal court, accusing rival Wi-Fi hardware maker Netgear Inc. of again pushing an "unlawful smear campaign" that falsely casts TP-Link products as infiltrated by the Chinese government, despite agreeing in a recent settlement that it would no longer make disparaging claims about TP-Link's business.

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Brief

USPTO Petitioners Can Detail How They Found Prior Art

By Adam Lidgett

The head of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has told all users of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board that there will be a new option for patent challengers to explain how they found prior art they allege renders a patent invalid.

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Mass. Judge Axes Co.'s 'Second Bite' Dairy Trade Secrets Suit

By Elliot Weld

A Massachusetts federal judge has dismissed trade secret theft allegations brought by a dairy farm products company against two former business partners, saying an ongoing case between some of the same parties in Minnesota was too similar.

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Warner Bros. Appeals Village Roadshow's Ch. 11 Rights Sale

By Clara Geoghegan

Hollywood studio Warner Brothers asked a Delaware bankruptcy judge on Tuesday to pause the $18.5 million sale of its bankrupt former business partner Village Roadshow's derivative film rights while it challenges the deal.

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Miss America Fight Heats Up With Competing Sanctions Bid

By Madison Arnold

In a Florida federal court battle over the ownership of the Miss America pageant, the defendants have filed a competing sanctions motion against the plaintiffs and their counsel for "false narratives" following the latter parties' own bid for sanctions filed in September.

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Litigation Funding Could Create Ethics Issues For Attorneys

A litigation investor’s recent complaint claiming a New York mass torts lawyer effectively ran a Ponzi scheme illustrates how litigation funding arrangements can subject attorneys to legal ethics dilemmas and potential liability, so engagement letters must have very clear terms, says Matthew Feinberg at Goldberg Segalla.

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Bonus Spotlight

Cravath Unveils Associate Bonuses, Multiple Firms Follow

By Aebra Coe

Multiple firms swiftly fell in line Tuesday evening just hours after Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP announced associate bonuses in line with those offered last year, continuing a long tradition of BigLaw firms following Cravath's lead on compensation.

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Pillsbury Winthrop Latest Firm Targeted By Data Breach Suit

By Hailey Konnath

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP on Tuesday was hit with a proposed class action stemming from a data breach the firm says happened in April, adding to the growing litigation firms are facing in the aftermath of cyberattacks.

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Analysis

Perkins Coie's Trump Fight Doesn't Scare Off UK Suitor

By Chris Villani

Perkins Coie LLP's ongoing fight with the Trump administration did not deter a proposed combination with British law firm Ashurst, signaling that the legal community is not worried about fallout from the president's suspension of the firm's security clearances.

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Republican Senators Seek Judge Boasberg's Suspension

By Courtney Bublé

Six Republican senators, three of whom sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee, are asking that Chief U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg of the District of Columbia be administratively suspended while Congress considers his impeachment.

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Sanctioned Atty Convinces Mo. Court Errors Not Caused By AI

By Emily Sawicki

A Missouri federal judge sanctioned former counsel for Liberty Mutual Personal Insurance Co. Monday for including citation errors in a motion this fall, finding that, although the attorney likely inserted the errors herself without the use of AI software, "such carelessness, exacerbated by a lack of internal guardrails, is entirely unacceptable."

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Brief

Conn. Atty Fined $500 For AI-Generated Errors In Wage Suit

By Emily Sawicki

In an order that noted an attorney's remorse, a Connecticut federal judge sanctioned a solo practitioner $500 this week for submitting a brief packed with false, AI-generated case citations, finding the fake authorities wasted court resources, risked misleading a pro se litigant and undermined trust in the judicial system.

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Disbarred NC Atty Must Pay $5.2M For Escrow Fund Misuse

By Abigail Harrison

A disbarred attorney was ordered to pay $5.2 million in restitution and serve four years of probation during a Tuesday sentencing hearing in North Carolina federal court, after he pled guilty to a criminal wire fraud charge related to the misuse of escrow funds.

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Judge Upholds NY Law Blocking ICE Courthouse Arrests

By Andrea Keckley

New York beat back a federal lawsuit challenging the state's policy barring immigration officials from arresting people near its courthouses, after a federal judge rejected the U.S. Department of Justice's preemption claims.

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NY AG James Blasts 'Outrageous Conduct' Behind Indictment

By Adrian Cruz

New York Attorney General Letitia A. James has told a Virginia federal court to dismiss the U.S. government's indictment of her, calling it "patently unconstitutional" and "outrageous conduct."

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McGuireWoods Is Delaying Defamation Case, NC Justices Told

By Hayley Fowler

The former CEO of a managed care organization who alleges McGuireWoods and one of its ex-partners defamed him during a press conference more than seven years ago has told North Carolina's top court not to take up the case, panning their petition as yet another stalling tactic.

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Brief

Missouri Federal Judge To Take Senior Status

By Courtney Bublé

U.S. District Judge Douglas Harpool of the Western District of Missouri has given notice he will take senior status upon the confirmation of state Judge Megan Benton, whose nomination to the federal bench President Donald Trump announced Friday.

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CFPB's Gradler Takes Deputy Post Amid Agency Uncertainty

By Jon Hill

Geof Gradler, a former industry lobbyist who recently joined the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's front office, said that he is taking over as the agency's deputy director, a job that positions him as a potential successor to acting director Russell Vought.

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