Intellectual Property

  • August 06, 2024

    Music Licensor Settles Disco Song Row With Detroit Eatery

    Music licensor Broadcast Music Inc. and two other major recording companies have settled a copyright infringement lawsuit against a Detroit restaurant, resolving claims of unauthorized performances of three popular disco songs.

  • August 06, 2024

    Harvard Says Samsung Chips Infringe Chemical Patents

    Harvard University's president and fellows sued Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and multiple affiliated entities in the Eastern District of Texas, claiming that the production process for some of its microprocessors and memory chips infringe two patents on chemical layering assigned to the school.

  • August 06, 2024

    Subway, Chick-Fil-A Ink Deals In Mystery Shopper IP Suit

    Subway and Chick-Fil-A Inc. have entered agreements with Fall Line Patents LLC to resolve the patent company's claims that they infringed its data management patent with their respective mobile apps, according to a pair of joint filings with the Eastern District of Texas.

  • August 06, 2024

    Penn Says BioNTech Owes Royalties For COVID-19 Vax

    BioNTech was hit with a breach of contract suit Monday in Pennsylvania federal court by the University of Pennsylvania over alleged unpaid royalties on global net sales of its blockbuster COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty, which was developed using the school's crucial messenger RNA patents and has made more than $75 billion.

  • August 06, 2024

    Jones Day Slams Ex-Client's Bid To Exit $2M Fee Fight

    Jones Day wants to prevent former client Soverain Software LLC from exiting a decade-long spat over $2 million in unpaid legal fees, telling an Illinois state court that Soverain's bid to bring the litigation to a close "is a house of cards that collapses with the slightest breeze."

  • August 06, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Knocks Out Scottish Search Co.'s Patent Case

    A Scottish tech company failed to breathe new life into patents that cover supposed advances in reverse image searching on the internet when the Federal Circuit on Tuesday ended its suit against a different, more successful rival.

  • August 06, 2024

    DC Circ. Rules Russia Is Immune From Suit Over Jewish Texts

    The D.C. Circuit ruled Tuesday that the federal court never had jurisdiction over a Jewish group's decades-old allegations that Russia is illegally holding on to its long-lost sacred texts, finding that the country has sovereign immunity and voiding nearly $200 million in fines levied against Russia.

  • August 06, 2024

    Lowe's Must Face Retail Logistics Co.'s Software IP Suit

    Lowe's Home Centers LLC lost its bid to dismiss a retail logistics company's claims it ripped off a merchandise return management software and breached its contract with that software's manufacturer, with a North Carolina federal judge declining to fully toss any of the claims but flagging that some contradicted each other.

  • August 05, 2024

    No Atty Fees For Either Side After $8K Copyright Verdict

    A Washington federal judge refused Monday to grant plaintiff Enterprise Management's request for over $920,000 in fees after winning an $8,000 copyright verdict, finding that although it was the prevailing party, it "filed meritless claims, knowingly pursued baseless claims, and sought settlement amounts that exceeded the value of this case."

  • August 05, 2024

    $96M Award Cut To $34M After Justices' Lanham Act Ruling

    An Oklahoma federal judge on Monday reduced a $96 million trademark infringement award that went to the U.S. Supreme Court to about $34.4 million after justices concluded last year the Lanham Act applies only to domestic conduct in commerce.

  • August 05, 2024

    30 Wig Cos. Targeted At ITC In Patent Suit By JBS Hair

    A small Georgia company that calls itself "a leading innovator in the synthetic and human hair industry" is going to the U.S. International Trade Commission to complain about some 30 rivals it says are importing patent-infringing synthetic wigs, including one that was promoted by actress Vivica Fox.

  • August 05, 2024

    Inari Agriculture Can't Sink Patent Case Over Corn Seed

    A legal fight between a DowDuPont spinoff and a Massachusetts plant breeding startup over the exporting of patent-protected corn seed will continue to grow in Delaware federal court, unimpeded by DuPont researchers' decision to publicly deposit their seeds. 

  • August 05, 2024

    Fanatics Wants Disputed Deal With Cardinals Rookie Sealed

    Seeking to protect "sensitive, nonpublic commercial information" about its breach of contract suit against NFL rookie Marvin Harrison Jr., Fanatics asked a New York state court Monday to seal all unredacted parts of the complaint and of several related filings, including Harrison's motion to dismiss the suit.

  • August 05, 2024

    Full Fed. Circ. Won't Eye Ruling Clarifying Foreign Damages

    The full Federal Circuit declined Monday to review a decision that clarified how to apply a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling on foreign damages in patent cases while rejecting Trading Technologies' bid to increase a $6.6 million verdict it won against IBG LLC.

  • August 05, 2024

    Music, Movie Orgs. Address Deepfake Proposals

    Representatives from the music, movie and video game industries were among the speakers Monday at a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office roundtable regarding what legislation may be needed to address the explosion of deepfakes created with the growing power of artificial intelligence.

  • August 05, 2024

    Google, OpenAI Accused Of Using YouTube Videos To Train AI

    A California man has hit Google and OpenAI with separate proposed class actions in federal court accusing the companies of unlawfully transcribing YouTube videos and using them to train their large language model artificial intelligence products without the permission of the people who uploaded those videos.

  • August 05, 2024

    Pegasystems Slams Appian's 'Animus' After $2B Verdict Axed

    Business software maker Pegasystems says rival Appian's "animus" is behind a series of what it says are irrelevant, premature and burdensome discovery requests, after a Virginia appeals court vacated a $2 billion trade secrets judgment against Pegasystems.

  • August 05, 2024

    J&J, Generics Spar In Remand On Schizophrenia Drug Patent

    Following a Federal Circuit ruling that gave generics makers Teva and Viatris a new shot at trying to invalidate the last remaining patent on Johnson & Johnson's blockbuster schizophrenia drug Invega Sustenna, the parties are sparring over the impact of the appeals court's decision.

  • August 05, 2024

    Mattel Beats $46M Contract Suit Over Reality Show Idea

    A California jury has entered a verdict for Mattel Inc. in a $46 million contract suit brought against it by the company of "Lone Survivor" producer Norton Herrick alleging that the toy-maker stole its idea for a reality show in which inventors pitch toys to child judges, concluding there was no contract breach.

  • August 05, 2024

    Musk Accuses OpenAI Of Fraud, RICO Over Business Model

    Elon Musk on Monday accused OpenAI Inc. and its leaders of violating several laws related to fraud, conspiracy, contract violations and false advertising by claiming he was wrongly told the company would remain a nonprofit, in a suit filed in California federal court.

  • August 05, 2024

    Kirkland & Ellis Adds Ex-Prosecutor As IP Partner In Calif.

    Kirkland & Ellis LLP has bolstered its intellectual property litigation capabilities in its Bay Area office with the addition of a seasoned senior federal prosecutor, who has experience with high-profile cases like that of the attempted kidnapping of then-Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and the attack on her husband.

  • August 02, 2024

    Judge Knocks Stuffing Out Of Build-A-Bear's Missouri IP Suit

    A Missouri federal judge on Friday tossed Build-A-Bear Workshop's lawsuit seeking a declaration that its new Skoosherz stuffed toy line doesn't infringe trade dress rights claimed by Kelly Toys' popular Squishmallows, finding that the Missouri court doesn't have jurisdiction over the IP dispute, which is also being litigated in California.

  • August 02, 2024

    Boeing Wins Trim Of Rival Engineering Co.'s IP Case, For Now

    A Washington federal judge has significantly trimmed an aerospace engineering firm's suit accusing Boeing of stealing patented technology, agreeing with Boeing that many of the claims are inadequate to proceed at this stage, but giving the firm the opportunity to amend them.

  • August 02, 2024

    Ex-Exec Can't Escape Drug Co.'s Trade Secret Suit

    The North Carolina Business Court refused to give a win before trial to the former president of a United Therapeutics Corp. subsidiary on a claim that he took trade secrets to a rival, with the court reasoning the drug company took reasonable steps to protect the secrets beyond a three-year limit in his employment agreement.

  • August 02, 2024

    Wheeling & Appealing: The Latest Must-Know Appellate Action

    In this inaugural edition of Wheeling & Appealing, Law360 recaps recent appellate opinions that made waves, quizzes readers about a new word for judicial grievances, and previews August arguments in circuit courts over controversial wage rules and a seven-figure attorney fee award after a digital age intellectual property trial.

Expert Analysis

  • 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.

  • How Copyright Office AI Standards Depart From Precedent

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    The U.S. Copyright Office's recent departure from decades of precedent for technology-assisted works, and express refusal to grant protection to artificial intelligence-assisted works, may change as the dust settles around ancillary copyright issues for AI currently pending in litigation, says Kristine Craig at Hanson Bridgett.

  • IP Considerations For Companies In Carbon Capture Sector

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    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.

  • Does Expert Testimony Aid Preliminary IPR Responses?

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    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.

  • Rebuttal

    Double-Patenting Ruling Shows Terminal Disclaimers' Value

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    While a recent Law360 guest article seems to argue that the Federal Circuit’s Cellect decision last year robs patent owners of lawful patent term, the ruling actually identifies how terminal disclaimers are the solution to the problem of obviousness-type double patenting, say Jane Love and Robert Trenchard at Gibson Dunn.

  • Series

    Swimming Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Years of participation in swimming events, especially in the open water, have proven to be ideal preparation for appellate arguments in court — just as you must put your trust in the ocean when competing in a swim event, you must do the same with the judicial process, says John Kulewicz at Vorys.

  • How Courts Are Interpreting Fed. Circ. IPR Estoppel Ruling

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    In the year since the Federal Circuit’s Ironburg ruling, which clarified the scope of inter partes and post-grant review estoppel, district court decisions show that application of IPR or PGR estoppel may become a resource-intensive inquiry, say Whitney Meier Howard and Michelle Lavrichenko at Venable.

  • Should NIL Collectives Be Allowed Tax-Favored Status?

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    Arguments are being made for and against allowing organizations to provide charitable contribution tax deductions for donations used to compensate student-athletes, a practice with impacts on competition for student-athletes and overall tax fairness, but ultimately it is a question for Congress, say Andres Castillo and Barry Gogel at the University of Maryland School of Law.

  • What 100 Federal Cases Suggest About Changes To Chevron

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    With the U.S. Supreme Court poised to overturn or narrow its 40-year-old doctrine of Chevron deference, a review of 100 recent federal district court decisions confirm that changes to the Chevron framework will have broad ramifications — but the magnitude of the impact will depend on the details of the high court's ruling, say Kali Schellenberg and Jon Cochran at LeVan Stapleton.

  • Patent Damages Jury Verdicts Aren't Always End Of The Story

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    Recent outcomes demonstrate that patent damages jury verdicts are often challenged and are overturned approximately one-third of the time, and successful verdict challenges typically occur at the appellate level and concern patent validity and infringement, say James Donohue and Marie Sanyal at Charles River.

  • Manufacturers Should Pay Attention To 'Right-To-Repair' Laws

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    Oregon’s recently passed "right-to-repair" statute highlights that the R2R movement is not going away, and that manufacturers of all kinds need to be paying attention to the evolving list of R2R statutes in various states and consider participating in the process, says Courtney Sarnow at Culhane.

  • Why High Court May Have Rejected IP Obviousness Appeal

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    Attorneys at Womble Bond analyze possible reasons the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Vanda Pharmaceuticals' request to review the Federal Circuit’s reasonable expectation of success standard for determining obviousness, including that the court was unpersuaded by the company's argument that Amgen v. Sanofi places a bind on drug developers.

  • Opinion

    Viral Deepfakes Of Taylor Swift Highlight Need For Regulation

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    As the nation grapples with addressing risk from artificial intelligence use, the recent circulation of AI-generated pornographic images of Taylor Swift on the social platform X highlights the need for federal legislation to protect nonconsenting subjects of deepfake pornography, say Nicole Brenner and Susie Ruiz-Lichter at Squire Patton.

  • A Guide To Using The DTSA For Misappropriation Recourse

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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    Nicholas Armington at Mintz explains the ins and outs of drafting a misappropriation complaint under the Defend Trade Secrets Act, and how and why companies should think strategically about federal and state law when filing a claim.

  • How Cos. Can Protect IP In Light Of FTC Noncompete Rule

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    While several groups are challenging the Federal Trade Commission’s recently approved rule banning noncompetition agreements, employers should begin planning other ways to protect their valuable trade secrets, confidential information and other intellectual property, says Thomas Duston at Marshall Gerstein.

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