Intellectual Property

  • August 16, 2024

    Deal Struck After Jury Clears US Well On Halliburton Patents

    U.S. Well Services LLC and Halliburton Energy Services Inc. have agreed to a settlement in principle to resolve their long-running patent infringement dispute, which has seen several patents invalidated, according to a joint motion the parties filed after a jury cleared U.S. Well of infringing three still-registered Halliburton patents.

  • August 16, 2024

    Cisco Gets Another Shot At Sinking Network Security Patent

    The Federal Circuit on Friday told the Patent Trial and Appeal Board to take another look at a ruling upholding language in a network security technology patent at the heart of Cisco Systems Inc.'s fight with a litigation outfit.

  • August 16, 2024

    2nd Circ. Faults 'Sophisticated Plaintiff' Logic In Axing IP Case

    The Second Circuit on Friday said a Manhattan federal judge wrongly dismissed a photography studio's copyright complaint as time-barred by concluding that a "sophisticated plaintiff" such as the studio could not avail itself of the discovery rule, a judicial doctrine holding that copyright claims accrue when an alleged infringement is discovered.

  • August 16, 2024

    Farmers Insurance Hits Former Agents With Trade Secrets Suit

    Farmers Insurance on Friday filed a lawsuit in Colorado federal court accusing two of its former agents of walking away from the company with trade secrets to divert customers to their own agency with a third former Farmers agent.

  • August 16, 2024

    Apple Needs To Wait Its Turn In ITC, Masimo Tells Fed. Circ.

    Apple wants to speed up its appeal over a U.S. International Trade Commission patent ruling that forced the company to disable an Apple Watch feature that measures the oxygen in blood, but both its courthouse rival and the agency itself say there's no compelling reason to cut in line.

  • August 16, 2024

    Mich. Judge Won't Raise $350K Award Against Ford To $15M

    A Michigan federal judge refused to increase a California tech company's $350,000 jury award to $15 million in a dispute over Ford Motor Co.'s misuse of an interface module, finding that the parties' agreement to Ford's sales numbers at trial barred him from changing the jury's decision.

  • August 16, 2024

    Anthropic Says IP Suit Doesn't Show AI Users Infringed Lyrics

    Artificial intelligence company Anthropic has asked a California federal court to toss the bulk of a copyright suit from several music publishers that allege their song lyrics were ripped off to train Anthropic's chatbot Claude, arguing among other things that the plaintiffs have not shown any infringing acts by Claude users.

  • August 16, 2024

    $117M Interest Ruled 'Not A Windfall' On $262M Patent Verdict

    A California federal judge approved $117 million in prejudgment interest for an Austrian inventor's company on top of the $262 million royalty verdict in its favor against hard drive maker Western Digital Technologies Inc., ruling that the interest "does not amount to a windfall or a punitive award."

  • August 16, 2024

    Attys Eye $10.5M In Fees From Pegasystems Securities Deal

    Attorneys for lead plaintiffs in a shareholder class action against Pegasystems are seeking $10.5 million in attorney fees from the $35 million settlement that ended claims that the software company failed to properly disclose a rival's trade secret litigation that led to a since-vacated $2 billion verdict.

  • August 16, 2024

    UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

    This past week in London has seen Barry Manilow sued by music rights company Hipgnosis, a struck-off immigration lawyer take on the Solicitor's Disciplinary Tribunal and the former CEO of a collapsed bridging loan firm start proceedings against the FCA. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

  • August 16, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Urged Not To Rehear $20M Google Royalty Ruling

    EcoFactor Inc. urged the Federal Circuit to reject Google LLC's bid for a full court rehearing of its split panel decision to uphold a $20 million patent infringement damages award in EcoFactor's favor, arguing that Google is looking to create a "rigid rule" that will only enable more patent infringement.

  • August 15, 2024

    Eminem Publisher Chided By Judge In Losing Spotify IP Fight

    A Tennessee federal judge on Thursday granted summary judgment to Spotify in a copyright infringement lawsuit brought by Eminem's music publisher, with the judge chiding the music publisher for using a "wait-and-sue strategy" to increase the potential damages owed by the music-streaming behemoth.

  • August 15, 2024

    Baker Botts, Sumner Schick $14M Fee Hit As 'Unreasonable'

    Baker Botts LLP and Sumner Schick LLP's request for $14.3 million in attorney fees plus $1.8 million in costs following their client Computer Sciences Corp.'s $168.4 million trade secrets verdict against Tata Consultancy Services is "facially unreasonable," the consulting firm told a Texas federal judge Wednesday.

  • August 15, 2024

    Philips' Fitness Tracker Patent Suit Is Back On Course

    The Federal Circuit on Thursday breathed new life into a patent suit by electronics giant Philips targeting fitness trackers made by Garmin.

  • August 15, 2024

    Hytera Says Diligent Radio Retool Should Head Off Contempt

    Hytera Communications Corp. Ltd. says it should not be held in contempt for allegedly failing to pay Motorola Solutions royalties on mobile radios it redesigned after getting slapped with a trade secret theft verdict, arguing that evidence proves that Hytera redesigned its products "module by module, line by line."

  • August 15, 2024

    Nvidia Illegally Scraped Videos To Train AI, YouTuber Says

    Artifical intelligence technology titan Nvidia Corp. has been collecting millions of YouTube videos without creators' permission and using them to train its deep-learning AI software, according to a proposed class action filed Wednesday in California federal court.

  • August 15, 2024

    Trump's Use Of Isaac Hayes Song Sparks IP Political Tension

    Donald Trump’s habit of closing his speeches with the song "Hold On (I’m Coming)” has angered the family of the late legendary soul singer Isaac Hayes, the latest election-year example of political candidates upsetting artists or their families who don’t want their music associated with a particular campaign.

  • August 15, 2024

    Yearbook Site Has 'Tortured View' Of Suit Waiver, Judge Says

    A Washington federal judge criticized the company behind Classmates.com on Thursday for arguing someone could've waived their right to sue the company for using their photo without ever visiting the website, calling it a "tortured view" of the Terms of Services language.

  • August 15, 2024

    You Can Drive 100 Miles, Albright Tells Texas Instruments

    Dallas-based Texas Instruments Inc. failed Thursday to persuade U.S. District Judge Alan Albright of the Western District of Texas to let a patent lawsuit leave his jurisdiction, in part because of the "less than 100 miles" between Waco and the federal courthouse in Dallas.

  • August 15, 2024

    'What Is An NFT?': 9th Circ. Mulls Novel Bored Ape TM Fight

    A Ninth Circuit judge considering whether a trial court correctly found artists owe millions for ripping off trademarks on the Bored Ape Yacht Club nonfungible token collection questioned Thursday whether the NFT market is comparable to typical consumer markets, rhetorically asking, "What are we even talking about? What is an NFT?"

  • August 15, 2024

    Juul License Doesn't Negate R.J. Reynolds' Royalties, Altria Says

    The parent company of Philip Morris is pushing back on what it described as a delayed bid by R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co. to skirt paying royalties on a pod-style vape, telling a North Carolina federal court that an "after-the-fact sublicense" with Juul isn't enough to undo the ongoing payments.

  • August 15, 2024

    Ex-Mushroomhead Singer Sues Bandmate Over Royalties

    The co-founder of metal band Mushroomhead has filed a copyright infringement and breach of contract suit in Ohio federal court accusing his fellow co-founder of failing to pay him royalties and income from tours and merchandise sales, and failing to rightfully attribute his ownership of many of the band's original musical works.

  • August 15, 2024

    No Dismissal Yet In Dispute Over Education Law Firm TM

    A Philadelphia-based education law firm's suit seeking to cancel registration for its competitor's trademark "The Education Lawyers" must continue because open questions remain, a Pennsylvania federal judge said.

  • August 15, 2024

    Texas Trio Willfully Stole Lewis Brisbois Name, Judge Says

    A Texas mediation service that named itself after BigLaw behemoth Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP and told the firm to "come and take it" has infringed Lewis Brisbois' trademark and must pay its attorney fees from the bitter suit, which racked up over 300 docket entries in under two years, a Texas federal judge has ruled.

  • August 15, 2024

    Pharma Co. TM Dispute Doesn't Belong In Florida, Judge Says

    A trademark lawsuit between two drug companies with similar names does not belong in a Florida federal court, a judge in West Palm Beach has ruled.

Expert Analysis

  • 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.

  • 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.

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