The U.S. Supreme Court's majority opinion Thursday that plaintiffs in copyright ownership disputes can recover damages past the three-year statute of limitations could lead to an increase in claims for infringing acts that occurred decades before, while leaving uncertainty about whether the so-called discovery rule that widened the time window for claims even exists, according to attorneys.
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Intellectual Property
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Analysis

High Court Leaves Discovery Rule Question For Another Day

By Ivan Moreno

The U.S. Supreme Court's majority opinion Thursday that plaintiffs in copyright ownership disputes can recover damages past the three-year statute of limitations could lead to an increase in claims for infringing acts that occurred decades before, while leaving uncertainty about whether the so-called discovery rule that widened the time window for claims even exists, according to attorneys.

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Justices Say Copyright Damages Can Go Beyond 3 Years

By Ivan Moreno

The U.S. Supreme Court concluded Thursday that plaintiffs in copyright ownership disputes can recover damages beyond the three-year statute of limitations for bringing a claim, rejecting Warner Chappell Music's argument that the only time that could happen is in cases involving fraud.

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Fed. Circ. Skeptical Allergan Illegally Extended Exclusivity

By Dani Kass

A Federal Circuit panel seemed doubtful Thursday that a patent covering Allergan's bowel treatment drug Viberzi should have its life cut short based on the expiration date of related patents, in oral arguments over obviousness-type double patenting.

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Fed. Circ. Wary Of Undoing Gilstrap's Toss Of Banking IP Suit

By Nadia Dreid

The Federal Circuit didn't seem convinced Thursday morning that a patent case against online stockbroker TD Ameritrade had been wrongly tossed out of court, with a judge at one point telling banking patent owner Island Intellectual Property that "this is all abstract."

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USPTO Says TM Applicants' Data Was Accidentally Leaked

By Adam Lidgett

About 14,000 trademark applicants have been notified by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that some of their personal information had accidentally been released publicly, with the agency saying it happened over an eight-month period.

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Lynk Labs Says Tech Group Is Samsung's 'Mouthpiece'

By Adam Lidgett

Lynk Labs Inc. has asked the Federal Circuit to throw out a brief from the High Tech Inventors Alliance in support of Samsung in a case where the tech giant won a Patent Trial and Appeal Board challenge to a Lynk Labs LED patent.

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Wisconsin Co., Hong Kong Biz To Drop Cup Holder IP Dispute

By Andrew Karpan

A Wisconsin business and a Hong Kong furniture maker are looking to end their long-winding patent and trade dress dispute over cup holders, years after a jury handed the Badger State company a $100 million award that was later significantly reduced by the court.

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Texas Judge Slashes Nike Atty Fee Request In Trademark Suit

By Elaine Briseño

A Texas federal judge was not convinced Nike's attorneys and staff spent more than 750 hours to defend a trademark infringement suit brought by a digital creator, awarding them $25,000 instead of the $570,000 in attorney fees the company requested.

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PATENTS

Fed. Circ. Lifts Ban On Generic Cos.' Bladder Drugs

By Andrew Karpan

The Federal Circuit on Thursday rejected Astellas Pharma's latest effort to stop the launch of generic drugs that would compete with its own blockbuster overactive bladder medication and lifted a temporary ban that was put in place by the appeals court in April.

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Judge Clarifies Gilead Didn't Directly Infringe HIV Drug IP

By Gina Kim

A Delaware federal judge on Thursday rejected Gilead Sciences' request to amend her judgment finding that two medications in its HIV prevention regimen, Truvada and Descovy, directly infringed the government's invalidated patents, but clarified her judgment to say that non-party patients or physicians committed the infringement.

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Nintendo Gets Switch Suit Stay Pending Patent Review

By Rachel Riley

A Seattle federal judge agreed Thursday that Nintendo could pause an intellectual property suit against it while it seeks to challenge the validity of the patents at issue, saying the plaintiff could not now complain about delays since it waited six years to file its complaint.

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COPYRIGHTS & TRADEMARKS

AI-Created Database Isn't Copyrightable, Job Search Co. Says

By Henrik Nilsson

Job searching platform Tarta.ai has urged a California federal judge to toss a suit accusing it of stealing rival Jobiak LLC's automated database and using it for its own job postings, arguing that Jobiak's website is not subject to copyright protection because it's powered by artificial intelligence.

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LICENSING

FICO Blasts Discovery 'Sideshows' In VantageScore Suit

By Lauraann Wood

An Illinois federal judge handling antitrust claims targeting the credit-scoring market should disregard the "sideshows" customers lodged by requesting confidential settlement records and other documents that are too far removed from the case's core issues, Fair Isaac Corp. argued on Wednesday.

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EXPERT ANALYSIS

Does Expert Testimony Aid Preliminary IPR Responses?

Dechert attorneys analyze six years of patent owners' preliminary responses to inter partes review petitions to determine whether the elimination of the presumption favoring the petitioner as to preinstitution testimonial evidence affected the usefulness of expert testimony in responses.

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IP Considerations For Companies In Carbon Capture Sector

As companies collaborate to commercialize carbon capture technologies amid massive government investment under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a coherent intellectual property strategy is more important than ever, including proactively addressing and resolving questions about ownership of the technology, say Ashley Kennedy and James De Vellis at Foley & Lardner.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

King & Spalding Accused Of Anti-White, Pro-LGBTQ Bias

By Ryan Boysen

A straight white woman is suing King & Spalding LLP alleging discrimination after getting a rare green light from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, claiming she incurred "significant damages" when she was dissuaded from applying to a summer associate program open only to "diverse" applicants.

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Former Akin Chairman R. Bruce McLean Dies At 77

By Tracey Read

Former Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP Chairman R. Bruce McLean — who helped transform Akin into an international powerhouse — died Thursday, the firm said. He was 77.

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Fox Rothschild Hires Ex-Seed IP Trio On The West Coast

By Andrea Keckley

Fox Rothschild is bringing on more intellectual property talent on the West Coast, announcing Friday that it had added three former Seed IP attorneys to its Seattle offices.

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Titan Of The Plaintiffs Bar: Pomerantz's Murielle Steven Walsh

By Adrian Cruz

For Murielle Steven Walsh, the concept of standing up for the underdog came early in her life, as the longtime Pomerantz LLP partner described her constant battles with Catholic school teachers as some of the first motivating factors that led her to pursue a legal career that involves representing shareholders suing some of the world's biggest corporations.

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Cohen Urged To Stop Trashing Trump As Testimony Nears

By Rachel Scharf, Frank G. Runyeon and Stewart Bishop

The Manhattan judge overseeing Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial made clear Friday that he wants star witness Michael Cohen to stop talking publicly about the charges as the former president's erstwhile attorney prepares to take the stand as soon as Monday.

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Coverage Recap: Day 11 Of Trump's NY Hush Money Trial

By Stewart Bishop

Law360 reporters are providing live updates from the Manhattan criminal courthouse as Donald Trump goes on trial for allegedly falsifying business records related to hush money payments ahead of the 2016 election. Here's a recap from Friday, day 11 of the trial.

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The Week In Trump: All Eyes On NY As Other Cases Lag

By Phillip Bantz

Donald Trump's Manhattan hush money trial took center stage with dramatic testimony from adult film actress Stormy Daniels, while the former president's criminal cases in Georgia and Florida ran into delays that could last through Election Day.

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Dem Lawmakers Call For 5th Circ. Judge To Exit CFPB Case

By Jack Rodgers

Six Democratic lawmakers sent a letter admonishing the Judicial Conference, saying Friday it was "undermining the integrity of the judiciary" by allowing a Fifth Circuit judge to participate in a matter in which he has a significant conflict of interest.

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Now Hiring: Michigan AG Seeks Attys For Climate Change Suits

By Madeline Lyskawa

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is looking for attorneys and law firms to serve as assistant attorneys general to pursue litigation related to climate change on behalf of the state of Michigan.

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SEC Asks For Win Following Ex-Apple Atty's Guilty Plea

By Sydney Price

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission moved for summary judgment Friday on insider trading claims against a former senior attorney at Apple Inc., arguing there is no need to relitigate claims since the lawyer already pled guilty to criminal charges related to a lucrative insider trading scheme.

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Feds Seek 20 Mos. For Ex-Baltimore State's Atty

By Elliot Weld

Prosecutors asked a Maryland federal court to sentence former state's attorney Marilyn Mosby to 20 months in prison after she was convicted of lying to obtain money from a retirement fund and conning a lender to obtain a vacation home, saying she "could not be trusted to tell the truth" despite her position of public trust.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP, Lewis Law Firm PLLC and Kleppin Firm PA lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court determined that plaintiffs in copyright ownership disputes can recover damages beyond the three-year statute of limitations for bringing a claim.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

Help for lawyers in dealing with legal data challenges has come, thanks to corporate and law firm leaders who founded a new industry framework called Legal Data Intelligence. And at least one U.S. senator is questioning Amazon and Walmart's use of new tech to create "dynamic pricing" that may harm consumers.

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In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360

For those who missed out, here's a look back at the law firms, stories and expert analyses that generated the most buzz on Law360 last week.

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E-Discovery Quarterly: Recent Rulings On Text Message Data

Electronically stored information on cellphones, and in particular text messages, can present unique litigation challenges, and recent court decisions demonstrate that counsel must carefully balance what data should be preserved, collected, reviewed and produced, say attorneys at Sidley.

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LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

Akin Gump

Alston & Bird

Baker & Hostetler

Baker Donelson

Bunsow De Mory

Carmichael IP PLLC

Casimir Jones

Cohen Milstein

Cooley LLP

Covington & Burling

Cowan Liebowitz

Cravath Swaine

DLA Piper

Daignault Iyer

Dechert LLP

Emmet Marvin

Epstein Becker

Foley & Lardner

Fox Rothschild

Gibson Dunn

Goodwin Procter

GrayRobinson

Greenberg Traurig

Haynes & Boone

Jeffer Mangels

Kantor & Kantor

King & Spalding

Kirkland & Ellis

Knobbe Martens

Kramer Levin

Latham & Watkins

LeVan Stapleton

Lewis Brisbois

Littler Mendelson

Locke Lord

Locks Law Firm

Lowe Graham

Marino Tortorella

Marshall Gerstein

Martin LLP

Mayer Brown

McCarter & English

McDermott Will & Emery

Mertzel Law

Michael Best & Friedrich LLP

Mintz Levin

MoloLamken

Morgan Lewis

NechelesLaw

Omni Legal Group

Paul Hastings

Paul Weiss

Polsinelli PC

Pomerantz LLP

Potter Anderson

Proskauer Rose

Quainton Law

Quinn Emanuel

Reinhardt Wendorf

Renaker Scott

Richards Layton

Robbins Geller

Robins Kaplan

Saul Ewing

Scott&Scott

Seed IP

Sidley Austin

Skadden Arps

Spector Roseman

Sullivan & Cromwell

Troutman Pepper

Waters Kraus

Weil Gotshal

WilmerHale

Winston & Strawn

COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

AGNC Investment Corp.

AbbVie Inc.

Activision Blizzard Inc.

Allergan PLC

Amazon.com Inc.

American Bar Association

American College of Trial Lawyers

American Jewish Committee

Apple Inc.

Aspen Technology Inc.

Astellas Pharma Inc.

CBS Corp.

Canoo Inc.

Chamber of Progress

Chevron Corp.

Citigroup Inc.

Computer & Communications Industry Association

Corporate Legal Operations Consortium

CrowdStrike Holdings Inc.

Equifax Inc.

Experian PLC

Exxon Mobil Corp.

Fair Isaac Corporation

FuelCell Energy Inc.

GNC Holdings Inc.

Gilead Sciences Inc.

Google LLC

Johnson & Johnson

Leadership Council on Legal Diversity

LinkedIn Corp.

Livent Corp.

Masimo Corp.

McDonald's Corp.

McKinsey & Co. Inc.

Microsoft Corp.

Nike Inc.

Nintendo Co. Ltd.

Northrop Grumman Corp.

Paramount Global

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.

Scholastic Corporation

Seattle University

Simon & Schuster Inc.

Sleep Number Corp.

Sun Life Financial Inc.

T-Mobile US Inc.

TD Ameritrade Holding Corp.

Tesla Inc.

The Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

TikTok Inc.

TransUnion LLC

Trump Organization Inc.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Uber Technologies Inc.

University of Virginia

VantageScore Solutions LLC

Walmart Inc.

Warner/Chappell Music Inc.

Workday Inc.

Wynn Resorts Ltd.

Zeughauser Group LLC

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Commodity Futures Trading Commission

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Delaware Court of Chancery

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Federal Trade Commission

International Trade Commission

Manhattan District Attorney's Office

National Labor Relations Board

U.S. Attorney's Office

U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Delaware

U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland

U.S. Copyright Office

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

U.S. Department of Energy

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona

U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland

U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

U.S. Senate

U.S. Supreme Court

United States District Court for the District of Nevada

United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin

United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio