Intellectual Property

  • December 18, 2024

    The Biggest Trademark Decisions Of 2024

    The Pennsylvania State University emerged victorious in arguably the most closely watched trademark trial of the year against an online retailer that sold merchandise bearing historic Penn State marks, and the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an attorney's attempt to register "Trump Too Small" as a trademark. Here are Law360's picks for the biggest trademark decisions of 2024.

  • December 18, 2024

    Class Counsel In NCAA-NIL Suits Seek $500M-Plus In Fees

    The attorneys who represent the athletes in two name, image and likeness class actions that were settled with the NCAA have requested more than half a billion dollars total in fees and costs, citing the "substantial risks and complex issues" involved.

  • December 17, 2024

    Authors Seek OpenAI Docs About Its Future Models In IP Case

    Authors alleging that ChatGPT creator OpenAI Inc. is copying protected works asked a California federal judge Tuesday to order the company to produce documents about its large language models in development, information OpenAI argued would be burdensome to produce and not relevant to the proposed class action.

  • December 17, 2024

    Lewis Brisbois Wins $543K In Fees In Name TM Spat In Texas

    Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP is entitled to $543,146.81 in fees after securing a $1.5 million judgment in a trademark lawsuit it prosecuted against the owners of a mediation business that took the BigLaw behemoth's name, a Texas federal judge said Tuesday.

  • December 17, 2024

    Corteva Rips Inari's 'Shrill' Claim Of Sham Seed Patent Suit

    Corteva Agriscience LLC has fired back at Inari Agriculture Inc.'s claim that a suit alleging Inari infringes Corteva's seed patents amounts to "objectively baseless" sham litigation, saying its rival is making "shrill assertions" that "cannot be squared" with an earlier ruling in the case.

  • December 17, 2024

    Copyright Officials Say Rest Of AI Report To Come Next Year

    The U.S. Copyright Office says it won't be until early next year that it plans to submit the remainder of a report on the intersection of artificial intelligence and copyright law.

  • December 17, 2024

    DOD Expands Data Rights For Small Biz R&D Program Cos.

    The U.S. Department of Defense on Tuesday issued rules expanding the data rights retained by small business research and development program participants, and codifying that unique rules for architectural and engineering contracts cover orders under multiple-award contracts.

  • December 17, 2024

    Ex-Ga. Tech Prof 'Lucky' To Beat Criminal Charges, Judge Says

    A Georgia federal judge appeared unsympathetic on Tuesday to a former Georgia Tech professor who said he was the victim of a mishandled internal audit that led to his indictment on racketeering charges, telling the professor's civil attorney his client was "lucky that he's not in prison."

  • December 17, 2024

    TM Group Weighs In On Preclusion In 2nd Circ. Winery Fight

    A trademark group has said a Trademark Trial and Appeal Board decision upheld by a New York federal court in an Italian winemaker's fight against a Napa Valley, California, rival over similarly named wines is at odds with a separate board decision in a dispute that made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. 

  • December 17, 2024

    Judge Cuts Upper Deck's Disney Card Game Suit

    A Washington federal judge has pared down a toy company's suit accusing a competitor of improperly luring away a former contractor and infringing copyrighted material in making a Disney-branded game, partially letting claims involving unfair competition and fraudulent misrepresentations proceed while dismissing others.

  • December 17, 2024

    PQA Wants Members' Identities Kept From VLSI, Public

    Patent Quality Assurance LLC has disclosed its members to a Virginia federal court after initial resistance, but urged the judge to keep that information under seal, saying the company suing it would likely "harass and smear" its members.

  • December 17, 2024

    Canadian Gets 2 Years For Stealing Secrets Tesla Bought

    A New York federal judge on Monday sentenced a Canadian businessman to two years in prison after he pled guilty to charges he helped his Chinese business partner use trade secrets from his former employer that was acquired by Tesla in 2019.

  • December 17, 2024

    Kat Von D Defends Tattoo Copyright Win At 9th Circ.

    The reality TV tattoo artist Kat Von D has told the Ninth Circuit that a photographer who mounted a failed copyright lawsuit over a photo of the jazz great Miles Davis is now ignoring "most of the facts" by appealing the jury verdict that rejected the infringement case. 

  • December 17, 2024

    Miss America-Tied Ch. 11 Tossed Amid Ownership Spat

    A Florida bankruptcy judge on Tuesday dismissed the Chapter 11 case of an entity connected to the Miss America pageant, after the debtor noted it realized it owns none of the operations or debt associated with the competition, punting questions over who owns pageant-related assets to a state court.

  • December 17, 2024

    Laser Maker Loses Bid To Trim Patent Suit In Mass.

    A Massachusetts federal judge has shot down laser maker NKT Photonics' bid to dodge allegations it infringed one of the patents asserted in a lawsuit from a company owned by a University of Michigan professor.

  • December 17, 2024

    Win For Ole Miss Coach In Copyright Suit By 'Serial Litigant'

    A lawsuit accusing University of Mississippi football coach Lane Kiffin of copyright infringement over a social media post was thrown out by a Mississippi federal judge, who scolded the plaintiff for making Kiffin the latest stop on his "traveling litigation show.''

  • December 17, 2024

    The Biggest Copyright Decisions Of 2024

    The U.S. Supreme Court made it possible for copyright plaintiffs to pursue damages for periods longer than three years — while leaving lawyers speculating about how long the ruling will stand — and the Second Circuit put an end to a free digital library. Here are Law360's picks for the top copyright decisions of 2024.

  • December 17, 2024

    Biden Enacts Law Setting Exception To Some USPTO Fines

    President Joe Biden signed a bill into law Tuesday that gives the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office the ability to waive fines for patent applicants who falsely claim they are entitled to fee reductions, if the error was made in good faith.

  • December 17, 2024

    Stanford Profs Say Roche's Trade Secret Claims Time-Barred

    Stanford University's trustees and three of its professors have asked a California federal court to dismiss trade secret theft claims bought by subsidiaries of F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, arguing that the allegations are time-barred because the companies were on notice of the purported misappropriation for over three years before filing suit.

  • December 17, 2024

    Rival Says In-Flight Internet Provider Gogo Foils Competitors

    SmartSky Networks LLC is seeking more than $1 billion in damages in a new lawsuit accusing Gogo Business Aviation LLC of blocking its entry in the market for internet service on business flights, building on an intellectual property dispute between the companies.

  • December 17, 2024

    Perkins Coie Hit With DQ Bid In Face Recognition IP Dispute

    Perkins Coie LLP's representation of tech company Jumio Corp. in a patent suit is a "betrayal," facial recognition technology firm FaceTec Inc. said in a motion seeking to disqualify the law firm from the California case because it had previously represented FaceTec in many matters, including the patent currently in dispute.

  • December 17, 2024

    Another Rimon Atty Joins Colleagues At Potomac Law Group

    Potomac Law Group has hired its fourth Rimôn PC partner in the past three months, the firm announced Monday. He focuses his practice on intellectual property, artificial intelligence and blockchain matters.

  • December 16, 2024

    Circuit-By-Circuit Guide To 2024's Most Memorable Moments

    One judge said a litigant's position would cause "an effing nightmare," and another decried the legal community's silence amid "illegitimate aspersions." Public officials literally trashed one court's opinion, and fateful rulings dealt with controversial politicians, social media and decades of environmental policy. Those were just a few appellate highlights in 2024, a year teeming with memorable moments both substantive and sensational.

  • December 16, 2024

    USPTO Chief Of Staff Steps Up To Acting Deputy Director

    U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced Monday Shirin Bidel-Niyat, the agency's chief of staff, is its newest acting deputy director, stepping into the role as office leadership is shaken up by the departure of former Director Kathi Vidal.

  • December 16, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Vacates Centripetal Patent Win At PTAB

    The Federal Circuit has thrown out a Patent Trial and Appeal Board decision that found the Silicon Valley-based cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks failed to show that a Centripetal Networks patent for a way to improve the flow of data was invalid, kicking the case back to the board.

Expert Analysis

  • When Arbitration Is Effective For Employment And IP Cases

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    Widespread adoption of arbitration has revolutionized conflict resolution in employment law, and the benefits of speed, expertise and confidentiality make it an increasingly attractive alternative for resolving patent conflicts — but arbitration is not a silver bullet, say Brandon Miller at Fisher Phillips and Camilla Bykhovsky at Turner Boyd.

  • US Intellectual Property-Based Sanctions Could Be Imminent

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    A recent presidential delegation suggests that regulators may be ready to wield the sanctions authority found in the Protecting American Intellectual Property Act, which has been unutilized for the first 22 months of its life, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Key Territory-Split Licensing Lessons For Life Sciences Cos.

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    Territory-split deals can allow life sciences companies to maximize products' potential across a range of geographic areas, but these deals also present unique challenges requiring highly bespoke structures that can make or break the value of an asset, say attorneys at Covington.

  • A Look At 2024 NIL Rights And Economies In College Sports

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    Permutations in the arena of name, image and likeness affecting collegiate athletics have continued unabated this year, and practitioners and industry representatives should anticipate significant activity at schools and continuing legal changes at the state level, say attorneys at Pillsbury.

  • Legislation Most Likely To Pass In Lame Duck Session

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    As Congress begins its five-week post-election lame duck session, attorneys at Greenberg Traurig break down the legislative priorities and which proposals can be expected to pass.

  • Copyright Questions Surround AI Music Platform Suits

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    If recent lawsuits filed by the Recording Industry Association of America against two artificial intelligence music platform developers — who maintain that use of copyrighted works to train AI models constitutes fair use — go to trial, this novel issue will make for potentially precedent-setting decisions, says intellectual property lawyer Eric Lane.

  • Patent Marking Steps After Fed. Circ. Opens Lanham Act Door

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    Following the Federal Circuit’s recent ruling in Crocs v. Effervescent, which seemingly revives private actors’ ability to bring false patent marking claims under the Lanham Act, marketing and legal teams should be careful to avoid advertisement language that implies nonexistent patent rights, says Jeffrey Ratinoff at Spencer Fane.

  • Litigation Strategies In View Of New Double Patenting Rulings

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    Recent Federal Circuit decisions, including in Allergan v. MSN, raise several issues that patent owners should understand and consider addressing proactively regarding obviousness-type double patenting, at least in their prosecution strategies, say attorneys at Dentons.

  • Promoting Diversity In The Selection Of ADR Neutrals

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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    Choosing neutrals from diverse backgrounds is an important step in promoting inclusion in the legal profession, and it can enhance the legitimacy and public perception of alternative dispute resolution proceedings, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • Series

    Playing Ultimate Makes Us Better Lawyers

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    In addition to being fun, ultimate Frisbee has improved our legal careers by emphasizing the importance of professionalism, teamwork, perseverance, enthusiasm and vulnerability, say Arunabha Bhoumik and Adam Bernstein at Regeneron. 

  • Tracking The Slow Movement Of AI Copyright Cases

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    The tech community may be expecting a prompt resolution on whether products generated by artificial intelligence are a fair use of copyrighted works, but legal history shows that a response to this question — at the heart of over 30 pending cases — will take years, say attorneys at White & Case.

  • The EU Design System Changes US Cos. Need To Know About

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    With a number of major reforms to the European Union's design protection system set to take effect in the first half of 2025, U.S. companies need to stay informed about specific details to maintain effective intellectual property management in the EU market, say lawyers at Finnegan.

  • Curious Case Of FTC's Amicus Brief In Teva Fed. Circ. Appeal

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    Attorneys at BCLP explore the Federal Trade Commission's backing of Amneal's Orange Book-delisting efforts on Teva ahead of a key Federal Circuit hearing in a case between the two pharmaceutical companies, and wonder if the FTC amicus brief indicates a future trend, especially in the next administration.

  • E-Discovery Quarterly: Recent Rulings On Metadata

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    Several recent rulings reflect the competing considerations that arise when parties dispute the form of production for electronically stored information, underscoring that counsel must carefully consider how to produce and request reasonably usable data, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • When 'Patented' Goes Beyond Inventorship In False Ad Cases

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    The Federal Circuit's recent false advertising holding in Crocs v. Effervescent is significant because it offers a nuanced yet realistic understanding of what false claims about a product's status as "patented" can mean, say attorneys at McDermott.

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