Intellectual Property

  • September 04, 2024

    2nd Circ. Says Free E-Book Library Not Fair Use

    The Second Circuit on Wednesday rejected a nonprofit digital library's fair use defense of its practice of distributing copyrighted e-books for free, ruling in favor of a group of book publishers in a closely watched case.

  • September 04, 2024

    Buchalter IP Ace Jumps To Snell & Wilmer In LA

    Snell & Wilmer LLP is growing its California team, announcing Tuesday it is adding a Buchalter PC intellectual property expert as a partner in its Los Angeles office.

  • September 04, 2024

    McCarter & English Rips Challenge To Malpractice Win In NJ

    McCarter & English LLP panned a pharmaceutical company's attempt to undo the firm's victory in a malpractice case last month, telling a New Jersey state court that issues the company raised in its motion to reconsider had "no impact" on the decision granting the firm a win.

  • September 04, 2024

    AI Musician Duped Streaming Giants To Steal $10M, Feds Say

    A North Carolina man streamed thousands of artificial intelligence-generated songs to dupe streaming giants like Spotify and YouTube and generate $10 million in an elaborate scam, federal prosecutors in Manhattan charged Wednesday in a first-of-its-kind case.

  • September 03, 2024

    3rd Trial In T.I.'s IP Fight With MGA Kicks Off In Calif.

    An attorney for hip-hop moguls T.I. and Tiny Harris on Tuesday told a California federal jury during opening statements in a retrial of his clients' intellectual property dispute with MGA Entertainment that the company's line of O.M.G. dolls stole their look and name from the OMG Girlz group.

  • September 03, 2024

    WDTX Judge Agrees To Ship Apple E-Wallet Patent Case To Calif.

    An Austin federal judge sent a patent case against Apple to California, finding "especially weighty" the tech giant's assertion that no employees relevant to the e-wallet infringement case brought by a Canadian company are located in the Western District of Texas and most are in the Golden State.

  • September 03, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Mulls PTAB Ruling's Effect On Liquidia Drug Launch

    A Federal Circuit panel on Tuesday grappled with whether a Delaware judge was correct to hold that Liquidia Technologies could launch a hypertension drug after a United Therapeutics patent the company was found to infringe was held unpatentable by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

  • September 03, 2024

    ITC Clears Amazon In Video Processing Patent Case

    The U.S. International Trade Commission has voted to reject infringement claims against Amazon over patents in the field of video processing, affirming a judge's initial finding with some modest adjustments.

  • September 03, 2024

    Paul Newman's Daughters Must Lose IP Suit, Charity Says

    Two daughters of late Hollywood actor and philanthropist Paul Newman lack standing to pursue a Connecticut state court lawsuit that accuses their father's charity of failing to provide certain funds for donations and misusing his publicity and intellectual property rights, the organization said in seeking summary judgment.

  • September 03, 2024

    R.J. Reynolds Stresses Reason To End $95M Royalties To Altria

    Tobacco giant R.J. Reynolds is pushing hard on a bid to end $95 million in royalty payments it owes to the parent company of Philip Morris after a patent infringement verdict, emphasizing to a North Carolina federal court that its deal with Juul to license vape pen technology can in fact be enforced retroactively.

  • September 03, 2024

    Tribe Of Two Loses Fed. Circ. Appeal Over Rival's 'TT' Mark

    The Federal Circuit on Tuesday rejected an appeal from a small handbag designer that claimed a potential rival wanted to register a trademark that used the letters "TT" in a similar way.

  • September 03, 2024

    Nike Wins Pause Of Bra Patent Row As It Seeks PTAB Review

    Nike has been granted a pause of a case alleging its pocket-adorned sports bras violate a small Florida-based apparel company's patents while the athletic wear giant argues to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board that such bras are "far from new."

  • September 03, 2024

    Colo. Panel Doubts Jury Instruction Can Upend $1.8M Award

    Colorado appellate judges appeared skeptical Tuesday that a state trial court was responsible for what an investor described as poor jury instructions that resulted in a nearly $1.85 million civil theft judgment, which he insisted was far too high, with one judge asking why the investor didn't sue his trial counsel over the supposed error.

  • September 03, 2024

    Amazon Prevails In Targeted Programming IP Fight At Fed. Circ.

    A patent licensing outfit trying to assert patents related to developing "video-on-demand" programming for cable companies was told Tuesday by the Federal Circuit that they cover abstract ideas.

  • September 03, 2024

    HQ Specialty Looks To Fix Patent Flaws After Delaware Trial

    HQ Specialty Pharma Corp. said Tuesday that it will correct flaws in its patent for an injectable calcium supplement that led a federal jury in Delaware to find it partially invalid last week and then will seek a court order to stop generic-drug maker Fresenius Kabi USA LLC from selling its allegedly infringing product.

  • September 03, 2024

    Teva Patents Don't Belong In Orange Book, Fed. Circ. Told

    Amneal Pharmaceuticals Inc. is urging the Federal Circuit to preserve a lower court decision ejecting inhaler device patents from an important government database, arguing that the delisting, won in an infringement lawsuit from Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc., properly separated out device patents from drug patents.

  • September 03, 2024

    Aesthetic Laser Co. Tells Jury Of Rival's 'Corporate Raid'

    Medical aesthetic business Cynosure told a Boston federal jury Tuesday that two former employees and an industry rival launched a "calculated corporate raid" by poaching dozens of sales and marketing personnel, violating a host of noncompete and non-solicitation agreements while the departing workers pocketed trade secrets on their way out the door.

  • September 03, 2024

    Judge Skeptical Navy Owes Millions For IP Infringement

    A Federal Circuit judge appeared skeptical Tuesday about a software firm's demand for $85.9 million in damages for the Navy's unauthorized copies of its software, suggesting the company hadn't proven its eligibility for more than the $154,400 it was previously awarded.

  • September 03, 2024

    NC Suit Over Blackbeard Ship Survives Another Attack

    North Carolina's cultural resources agency isn't responsible for enforcing the terms for third-party usage of an image and video of Blackbeard's shipwreck, the state's Business Court ruled Friday in paring damages claims by the organization that discovered the pirate's wreckage.

  • September 03, 2024

    Simplot Wins Fry Design Patent Trial, Gets $0 In Damages

    After a seven-day trial in Idaho federal court, a jury found that McCain Foods USA Inc. willfully infringed its frozen french fry rival J.R. Simplot Co.'s design patent and that McCain Foods' own fry design patent was invalid, but also found that J.R. Simplot should not collect any damages from the infringement.

  • September 03, 2024

    3rd Circ.: Biotech Must Pay Royalties Despite Expired Patents

    A cancer drug biotechnology company must pay royalties to a research firm despite the expiration of the applicable patents, a Third Circuit panel ruled in a precedential decision Tuesday, concluding that the biotech's royalty obligation is calculated differently than the one in a U.S. Supreme Court case it cited.

  • September 03, 2024

    VLSI Asks Fed. Circ. To Nix Intel's Extraterritoriality Patent Win

    Licensing company VLSI has urged the Federal Circuit to overturn a ruling granting Intel Corp. a win in VLSI's $900 million patent fight, arguing that the trial judge wrongly concluded on summary judgment that VLSI hasn't shown that Intel's alleged chip patent infringement occurred in the U.S., among other alleged errors.

  • September 03, 2024

    Gov't Backs 9th Circ. Bid To Revive Invisalign Monopoly Case

    The U.S. Department of Justice has told the Ninth Circuit that a lower court applied the wrong standard when tossing a pair of class actions accusing the maker of Invisalign of monopolizing markets for clear dental aligners and teeth scanners.

  • September 03, 2024

    Shkreli Hands Over 15 Copies Of Wu-Tang Clan Album

    Martin Shkreli turned over 15 copies of the one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang Clan album he once owned after a New York federal judge ordered him to surrender any copies to his attorneys amid an ongoing lawsuit.

  • September 03, 2024

    USPTO Launches PTAB Clinic With Ex-Judges

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday rolled out a new free initiative in which former judges from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board will answer questions and offer guidance on proceedings before the board in one-on-one meetings with members of the public.

Expert Analysis

  • Exploring An Alternative Model Of Litigation Finance

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    A new model of litigation finance, most aptly described as insurance-backed litigation funding, differs from traditional funding in two key ways, and the process of securing it involves three primary steps, say Bob Koneck, Christopher Le Neve Foster and Richard Butters at Atlantic Global Risk LLC.

  • Businesses Should Take Their AI Contracts Off Auto-Renew

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    When subscribing to artificial intelligence tools — or to any technology in a highly competitive and legally thorny market — companies should push back on automatic renewal contract clauses for reasons including litigation and regulatory risk, and competition, says Chris Wlach at Huge Inc.

  • Del. IP Ruling May Mark Limitation-By-Limitation Analysis Shift

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    A Delaware federal court's recent ruling in Lindis Biotech v. Amgen, which involved complex technology where the complaint contained neither facts nor a specific allegation directed to a claim limitation, might spark a shift away from requiring a limitation-by-limitation analysis, say Ted Mathias and Ian Swan at Axinn.

  • Trump Hush Money Case Offers Master Class In Trial Strategy

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    The New York criminal hush money trial of former President Donald Trump typifies some of the greatest challenges that lawyers face in crafting persuasive presentations, providing lessons on how to handle bad facts, craft a simple story that withstands attack, and cross-examine with that story in mind, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.

  • Cell Therapy Cos. Must Beware Limits Of Patent Safe Harbors

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    Though developers of gene and cell therapy products commonly assume that a legal safe harbor protects them from patent infringement suits, recent case law shows that not all preapproval uses of patented technology are necessarily protected, say Natasha Daughtrey and Joshua Weinger at Goodwin.

  • ITC Ruling Has Serious IP Implications For Foreign Imports

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    While a recent U.S. International Trade Commission decision is a win for trade secret owners who can show injury to a U.S. domestic industry, the decision also means that companies operating in foreign jurisdictions will be subject to the requirements of U.S. trade secret law, say Paul Ainsworth and Cristen Corry at Sterne Kessler.

  • What The Justices' Copyright Damages Ruling Didn't Address

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    While the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Warner Chappell v. Nealy clarified when a copyright owner may recover damages in jurisdictions that apply the so-called discovery rule, it did not settle the overriding question of whether the Copyright Act even permits applying the rule, say Ivy Estoesta and William Milliken at Sterne Kessler.

  • Series

    Teaching Yoga Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Being a yoga instructor has helped me develop my confidence and authenticity, as well as stress management and people skills — all of which have crossed over into my career as an attorney, says Laura Gongaware at Clyde & Co.

  • How Clinical Trials Affect Patentability In US And Europe

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    A comparison of recent U.S. and European patent decisions — concerning the effect of disclosures in clinical trials on the patentability of products — offers guidance on good practice for companies dealing with public use issues and prior art documents in these commercially important jurisdictions, say lawyers at Finnegan.

  • TTAB Ruling Raises Foreign-Language Mark Questions

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    The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board's recent decision to cancel the Veuve Olivier registration due to its similarity to Veuve Clicquot brings new focus to the treatment of foreign terms and the doctrine of foreign equivalents, say attorneys at Finnegan.

  • A Vision For Economic Clerkships In The Legal System

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    As courts handle increasingly complex damages analyses involving vast amounts of data, an economic clerkship program — integrating early-career economists into the judicial system — could improve legal outcomes and provide essential training to clerks, say Mona Birjandi at Data for Decisions and Matt Farber at Secretariat.

  • Measuring Early Impact Of Rule 702 Changes On Patent Cases

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    Since Federal Rule of Evidence 702 was amended to clarify the standards for admitting expert witness testimony five months ago, emerging trends in patent cases suggest that it may be easier to limit or exclude expert testimony, and hold key practice takeaways for attorneys, say Manuel Velez and Nan Zhang at Mayer Brown.

  • Protecting IP May Be Tricky Without Noncompetes

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    Contrary to the Federal Trade Commission's view, trade secret law cannot replace noncompetes' protection of proprietary information because intellectual property includes far more than just trade secrets, so businesses need to closely examine their IP protection options, say Aimee Fagan and Ching-Lee Fukuda at Sidley.

  • 8 Legal Issues Influencing Investors In The Creator Economy

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    The rapidly expanding digital creator economy — funding for which more than doubled in the U.S. in the first quarter — comes with its own set of unique legal issues investors must carefully consider before diving in, say Louis Lehot and Alan Pate at Foley & Lardner.

  • E-Discovery Quarterly: Recent Rulings On Text Message Data

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    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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