Intellectual Property

  • December 04, 2024

    Penn State Eyes Ban, Atty Fees After Trial Win Against Retailer

    The Pennsylvania State University has asked a federal court in the Keystone State to permanently block an online retailer and its owner from selling merchandise that a jury found infringed the university's trademarks, and said it is entitled to attorney fees from the "serial infringers."

  • December 04, 2024

    Fleetwood Mac Producer, Playwright Settle IP Dispute

    A producer of the 1977 Fleetwood Mac album "Rumours" and the author of the play "Stereophonic" have resolved claims that the Broadway show infringed copyrighted material from a memoir about making the record, according to a filing in New York federal court.

  • December 04, 2024

    Amazon, Stanley Tumbler Maker Sue Alleged Counterfeiters

    Amazon and the maker of the popular "Stanley" tumbler are suing several marketplace vendors in Washington federal court, accusing them of peddling counterfeit drink ware in the e-commerce platform's latest legal push to crack down on brand-stealing sellers.

  • December 04, 2024

    Ace Hardware Looks To Nail Screw-Selling Rival Over TM Use

    Ace Hardware Corp. said Tuesday that a home improvement chain sharing the Ace name is watering down its decades of name recognition and goodwill while creeping in on Ace's turf and leading confused consumers astray.

  • December 04, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Judge Condemns 'Nonsense' Law In Antibody Fight

    U.S. Circuit Judge Todd Hughes called the Federal Circuit's case law on interpreting preambles in patent claims "nonsense" on Wednesday, expressing frustration as a panel tried to work through whether Xencor Inc.'s antibody patent application was too broad.

  • December 04, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Backs NY Judge In Freeing Meta From Patent Suit

    The Federal Circuit on Wednesday wouldn't revive a software company's suit claiming Meta Platforms Inc. infringed patents on digital data storage and organization, agreeing with a decision that the evidence couldn't back a finding that the Meta features at issue covered all parts of the patent claims.

  • December 03, 2024

    Samsung Foe Wants More Money After $192M Patent Win

    A small Silicon Valley outfit that makes wireless chargers wants U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap to potentially triple the $192 million willful infringement verdict the company won against Samsung, citing the smartphone maker's "egregious" conduct during trial in Texas federal court in Marshall.

  • December 03, 2024

    Wheeling & Appealing: The Latest Must-Know Appellate Action

    December's appellate forecast calls for a squall of showdowns in a tiny time period before the holidays, including arguments involving recent U.S. Supreme Court cases, Big Tech's patents and popular purveyors of health food. In addition, winds of change are swirling around the White House's litigation posture and judicial nominations, and we'll quiz you on the latter in this edition of Wheeling & Appealing.

  • December 03, 2024

    Bearing Maker Settles With RTX, Rival In Trade Secrets Case

    A Connecticut roller bearing company has settled its lawsuits accusing military supplier RTX and a competitor of misusing trade secrets related to the design of a U.S. military bomb, after earlier delays in reaching an agreement.

  • December 03, 2024

    Meta, Jawbone Strike Deal Ending VR Headset Patent Case

    Meta Inc. said Tuesday it has reached a settlement with Jawbone Innovations to end a lawsuit in Texas federal court claiming its virtual reality headsets infringe a series of Jawbone's patents.

  • December 03, 2024

    USPTO Abandons Polarizing Proposal Over Double Patenting

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has withdrawn an extremely controversial proposal tied to double patenting, citing "resource constraints" in a Federal Register notice set to be published Wednesday.

  • December 03, 2024

    OpenAI Must Disclose Execs' Messages To News Orgs.

    The New York Times, Daily News, other news organizations and writers can gain access to the social media messages of executives at OpenAI in their litigation accusing the company of using copyright-protected material to train ChatGPT after a New York judge rejected efforts to block the disclosure of the messages.

  • December 03, 2024

    Fla. Vape Maker Sues Colo. Rival Alleging Infringed Patent

    Florida-based VPR Brands LP sued O.Pen Vape LLC in Colorado federal court on Tuesday, alleging that the Colorado-based seller is distributing electronic cigarettes that infringe a VPR patent.

  • December 03, 2024

    Vidal Aimed To Put USPTO Rulemaking In The Spotlight

    Kathi Vidal's tenure as director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has been marked by dedication to making the agency's decisions and processes more transparent, attorneys said ahead of her mid-December departure.

  • December 03, 2024

    2nd Circ. Says It's Too Late To Fight Over Funkadelic Songs

    The Second Circuit has decided that it's a few decades too late for the courts to weigh in on a "genuine" copyright dispute between two feuding record labels that both claim to own some songs written by Funkadelic bandleader George Clinton in the late 1960s.

  • December 03, 2024

    Colo. Judge Says Oil Co. Misled Competitor In Patent Fight

    A federal magistrate judge in Colorado has recommended that an oil and gas equipment maker be sanctioned in a contentious patent dispute it brought against a rival business, finding the manufacturer knowingly misled the competitor about the priority dates for a trio of patents.

  • December 03, 2024

    Intel's License Fight With VLSI In Texas Gets May Trial Date

    A Texas federal judge has set a May trial date for Intel's claim that it already has a license to VLSI's chip patents in their multibillion-dollar dispute.

  • December 03, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Won't Revive Vehicle Security Patent Suit

    The Federal Circuit on Tuesday backed a lower court's finding that a vehicle security patent owned by consumer electronics company VOXX International Corp. was invalid as abstract, handing a win to a company it targeted in an infringement suit.

  • December 03, 2024

    No Standing In 'Threadbare' Voice Assistant Suit, Google Says

    Google wants a D.C. federal judge to toss a lawsuit accusing the tech giant of blocking rival voice assistant products from running on Android and other devices, contending that the complaint has failed to articulate an injury "with even a modicum of detail."

  • December 03, 2024

    Nike Drops $4M Damages Bid In Air Jordan Knockoff Suit

    Nike has dropped its bid for $4 million in damages from a small clothing company and its founder, who were blocked by a New Jersey federal judge last month from selling knockoffs of the brand's iconic Air Jordan 1 High sneakers.

  • December 02, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Questions Reynolds' Bid To Undo $95M Patent Loss

    The Federal Circuit probed R.J. Reynolds' challenge to a $95 million damages award against it for infringing Philip Morris' vape patents, questioning Monday the company's argument that the amount was not supported by the evidence.

  • December 02, 2024

    Judge Isn't Seeing 'Good Faith' Compliance In Probiotic Feud

    A Maryland federal judge said Monday that a drug company is, yet again, failing to make "good faith substantial compliance" with the terms of an injunction that followed a $15 million jury verdict in a dispute over a proprietary probiotic formula.

  • December 02, 2024

    PTAB Presses Play On Playrix's Challenge To Video Game IP

    A ruling from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office director changing the meaning of a claim in a video game patent was enough for the agency's administrative board to now move forward with a challenge over patented software cited in a Texas lawsuit lodged against mobile game developer Playrix.

  • December 02, 2024

    Influencer Hasn't Shown She's 'Special' In IP Row, Rival Says

    An influencer hasn't backed up her claims that she's "unique" and "special" in her case accusing a competitor of copying her social media aesthetic, the rival told a Texas federal court, asking it to reject a magistrate judge's recommendations to keep much of the case alive.

  • December 02, 2024

    Filmmaker Says He Didn't Infringe IP With Beirut Documentary

    An independent filmmaker and his company have launched a suit in Ohio federal court seeking a declaration that they never infringed any copyright owned by a nonprofit while making a documentary about the 1983 U.S. Marine barracks bombings in Beirut.

Expert Analysis

  • Video Game Release Highlights TM Pitfalls Of App Store

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    The upcoming release of poker video game Balatro in Apple's App Store underscores the tradeoff of keyword advertising and trademark protection for indie developers who, unlike corporate counterparts, lack resources but seek to maximize the reach of their game, say Parmida Enkeshafi and Simon Pulman at Pryor Cashman.

  • 5 Credibility Lessons Trial Attys Can Learn From Harris' Run

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    In launching a late-stage campaign for president, Vice President Kamala Harris must seize upon fresh attention from voters to establish, or reestablish, credibility — a challenge that parallels and provides takeaways for trial attorneys, says Ken Broda-Bahm at Persuasion Strategies.

  • Patent Owner Estoppel Questions In The Wake Of SoftView

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    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's seldom-litigated Rule 42.73(d)(3) on Patent Trial and Appeal Board estoppel was recently brought to the forefront in the Federal Circuit's SoftView v. Apple decision, highlighting uncertainties in this aspect of patent practice, say David Haars and Richard Crudo at Sterne Kessler.

  • Copyright Termination Opinion Departs From Long-Held Views

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    In Vetter v. Resnik, a federal court recently held for the first time that termination rights under Section 304 of the Copyright Act recapture domestic and foreign rights where the original grant was for "worldwide" rights — misinterpreting a basic principle of international copyright treaties, say Rebecca Benyamin and Eric J. Schwartz at Mitchell Silberberg.

  • 3 Patent Considerations For America's New Quantum Hub

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    Recent developments signal an incredibly bright future for Chicago as the new home of quantum computing, and it is crucial that these innovators — whose technology has the potential to transform many industries — prioritize intellectual property strategy, says Andrew Velzen at McDonnell Boehnen.

  • Fed. Circ. Ruling Creates New Rule For Certification Marks

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    The Federal Circuit's decision last month in Bureau National Interprofessionnel du Cognac v. Cologne & Cognac Entertainment is significant in that it establishes a new standard for assessing evidence of third-party uses of a certification mark in deciding whether the mark is famous, say Samantha Katze and Lisa Rosaya at Manatt.

  • A Preview Of AI Priorities Under The Next President

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    For the first time in a presidential election, both of the leading candidates and their parties have been vocal about artificial intelligence policy, offering clues on the future of regulation as AI continues to advance and congressional action continues to stall, say attorneys at Mintz.

  • 11 Patent Cases To Watch At Fed. Circ. And High Court

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    As we head into fall, there are 11 patent cases to monitor, touching on a range of issues that could affect patent strategy, such as biotech innovation, administrative rulemaking and patent eligibility, say Edward Lanquist and Wesley Barbee at Baker Donelson.

  • Why India May Become A Major Patent Litigation Forum

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    India is reinventing itself with the goal of becoming a global hot spot for patent litigation, with recent developments at the Delhi High Court creating incentives for plaintiffs to assert patent rights in India, say Ranganath Sudarshan at Covington and IP litigator Udit Sood.

  • Opinion

    To Lower Drug Prices, Harris Must Address Patent Thickets

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    If Vice President Kamala Harris is serious about her pledge to address high drug prices, she must begin by closing loopholes that allow pharmaceutical companies to develop patent thickets that can deter generic or biosimilar companies from entering the market, says Tahir Amin at the Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge.

  • How Methods Are Evolving In Textualist Interpretations

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    Textualists at the U.S. Supreme Court are increasingly considering new methods such as corpus linguistics and surveys to evaluate what a statute's text communicates to an ordinary reader, while lower courts even mull large language models like ChatGPT as supplements, says Kevin Tobia at Georgetown Law.

  • 5 Ways To Confront Courtroom Technology Challenges

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    Recent cybersecurity incidents highlight the vulnerabilities of our reliance on digital infrastructure, meaning attorneys must be prepared to navigate technological obstacles inside the courtroom, including those related to data security, presentation hardware, video playback and more, says Adam Bloomberg at IMS Legal Strategies.

  • The Fed. Circ. In August: Secret Sales And Public Disclosures

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    Two recent Federal Circuit rulings — Sanho v. Kaijet and Celanese International v. ITC — highlight that inventors should publicly and promptly disclose their inventions, as a secret sale will not suffice as a disclosure, and file their patent applications within a year of public disclosure, say Sean Murray and Jeremiah Helm at Knobbe Martens.

  • Trending At The PTAB: Obviousness In Director Reviews

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    Three July decisions from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office favoring petitioners indicate a willingness by the director to review substantive issues, such as obviousness, particularly in cases where the director believes the Patent Trial and Appeal Board provided incorrect or inadequate rationale to support its decisions, say attorneys at Finnegan.

  • AI Art Ruling Shows Courts' Training Data Cases Approach

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    A California federal court’s recent ruling in Andersen v. Stability AI, where the judge refused to throw out artists’ copyright infringement claims against four companies that make or distribute software that creates images from text prompts, provides insight into how courts are handling artificial intelligence training data cases, say attorneys at Skadden.

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