Expert Analysis

• Growth, Harmonization In Focus As Hague System Turns 100

  

  One hundred years after its establishment, the Hague System has grown into an important pillar of international design protection, offering a promising path toward even greater harmonization in design law as its geographic reach continues to expand, say attorneys at Sterne Kessler.

• AI Litigation Tools Can Enhance Case Assessment, Strategy

  

  Civil litigators can use artificial intelligence tools to strengthen case assessment and aid in early strategy development, as long as they address the risks and ethical considerations that accompany these uses, say attorneys at Barnes & Thornburg.

• Post-Genius Landscape Reveals Technical Stablecoin Hurdles

  

  The Genius Act's implementation has revealed challenges for mass stablecoin adoption, but there are several factors that stablecoin issuers can use to differentiate themselves and secure market share, including interest rate, liquidity, and safety and security, say attorneys at Olshan Frome.

• The Emerging Issues Shaping Real Estate Project Insurance

  

  As real estate faces increasingly complex considerations — such as climate losses, "nuclear verdicts" and regulatory changes — insurance is evolving into a strategic function that should be discussed early in the planning stages of a project, says Jason Adams at Cox Castle.

• How Employers Should Reshape AI Use As Laws Evolve

  

  As laws and regulations on the use of artificial intelligence in employment evolve, organizations can maximize the innovative benefits of workplace AI tools and mitigate their risks by following a few key strategies, including designing tools for auditability and piloting them in states with flexible rules, say attorneys at Cooley.

• How '24 Statements Show FTC's Direction On Political Speech

  

  Two top Federal Trade Commission officials made concurring statements in 2024 that detailed a potential push to protect political speech, which have served as a preview of the commission's potential new focus on investigating social media and financial services firms to secure changes in those companies' internal business practices, says Benjamin Goldman at Montgomery McCracken.

• Attys Beware: Generative AI Can Also Hallucinate Metadata

  

  In addition to the well-known problem of AI-generated hallucinations in legal documents, AI tools can also hallucinate metadata — threatening the integrity of discovery, the reliability of evidence and the ability to definitively identify the provenance of electronic documents, say attorneys at Law & Forensics.

• Navigating Int'l Laws To Protect Children In The Digital World

  

  The European Commission’s recent request to online platforms for information on their measures to protect minors using their services is part of an intensifying focus on safeguarding children, and with an ever-growing worldwide maze of regulations, digital businesses should conduct a holistic assessment to minimize risks, says Anna Morgan at Bird & Bird.

• Lessons From Fed. Circ. On Expert Testimony In Patent Cases

  

  Several recent decisions from the Federal Circuit are notable for their treatment of expert testimony, with relevance to the three pillars of every patent case — infringement, invalidity and damages — and offer lessons on ensuring that expert testimony is both admissible and sufficient to support the jury's verdict, say attorneys at Honigman.

• When Atty Ethics Violations Give Rise To Causes Of Action

  

  Though the Model Rules of Professional Conduct make clear that a violation of the rules does not automatically create a cause of action, attorneys should beware of a few scenarios in which they could face lawsuits for ethical lapses, says Brian Faughnan at Faughnan Law.

• Privacy Lessons From FTC Settlement With Chinese Toymaker

  

  In U.S. v. Apitor Technology, the Federal Trade Commission recently settled with a Chinese toy manufacturer that shared children's physical location with a third-party app provider, but the privacy lessons from the settlement extend beyond companies focusing on children's products, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.

• TikTok Divestiture Deal Revolves Around IP Considerations

  

  The divestiture deal between the U.S. and China to resolve a security dispute over TikTok's U.S. operations is seen as a diplomatic breakthrough, but its success hinges on the treatment of intellectual property and may set a precedent in the global contest over digital sovereignty and IP control, say attorneys at Brownstein Hyatt.

• Trending At The PTAB: A Potential Barrier To Serial Challenges

  

  New rules proposed by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office may appear similar to previous rules at first glance, but are actually much broader in how they would limit petitioners' ability to challenge a patent more than once, say attorneys at Finnegan.

• CFIUS Trends May Shift Under 'America First' Policy

  

  The arrival of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States' latest annual report suggests that the Trump administration's "America First" policy will have a measurable effect on foreign investment, including improved trendlines for investments from allied sources and increasingly negative trendlines for those from foreign adversary sources, say attorneys at Debevoise.

• What CFTC Push For Tokenized Collateral Means For Crypto

  

  The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's recent request for comment on the use of tokenized products as collateral in derivatives markets signals that it is expanding the scope and form of eligible collateral, and could broaden the potential use cases for crypto-assets held in tokenized form, say attorneys at Dechert.