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Intellectual Property
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July 15, 2024
Fed. Circ. Upholds Some HVAC Patent Claims In Google Fight
The Federal Circuit has affirmed a Patent Trial and Appeal Board decision that handed a partial win to EcoFactor Inc. in a patent challenge brought by Google LLC.
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July 15, 2024
Nike Suit Seeks More Than $60M From Counterfeit 'Empire'
Nike filed a federal lawsuit on Monday for more than $60 million against a popular Los Angeles company producing pricey customized sneakers that the sportswear giant claims unlawfully uses Nike's designs and intellectual property, saying the company and its founder are even offering "Nike Counterfeiting 101" classes.
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July 15, 2024
Judge Keeps Most Of TM Suit Against Musk's X Corp. Intact
Elon Musk's Twitter rebrand X Corp. suffered a setback Monday when a Florida federal judge kept intact most of a trademark infringement complaint by X Social Media LLC, an advertising agency for attorneys, with only one claim dismissed from the suit.
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July 15, 2024
Crocs Dodges Clog Competitor's Counterclaims In IP Battle
A Colorado federal judge has tossed a pair of counterclaims alleging anticompetitive conduct by Crocs in the shoe company's intellectual property lawsuit against a smaller rival, with the judge concluding that the rival never claimed Crocs said anything untrue or in bad faith.
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July 15, 2024
Carl Sagan Co. Drops TM Fight Over Astronomer's Name
A company managing the works of famed astronomer Carl Sagan has agreed to drop claims that a Michigan software company is using Sagan's name without permission to benefit from his reputation, according to a stipulation of dismissal that said the parties reached a settlement.
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July 15, 2024
Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court
Chancery Court news was full of fees and settlements last week, with three multimillion-dollar deals getting a court OK, and a daylong discussion over a potentially multibillion-dollar fee award for attorneys who got Tesla CEO Elon Musk's astronomical pay package thrown out. The court also banged the gavel in cases involving e-payment venture SwervePay and managed care company Centene Corp., and heard arguments from software company SAP SE and biotech Renmatix Inc.
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July 15, 2024
Litigation Funder Wants Apple's Bid For Docs Moved To Calif.
A litigation funding company is urging a Delaware federal judge to transfer Apple Inc.'s bid for documents related to a patent dispute with Finnish company MPH Technologies Oy. to California federal court, saying the motion to compel should be adjudicated in the Golden State.
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July 15, 2024
Quinn Emanuel Barred From Repping X In Scraping Case
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP can no longer represent social media giant X Corp. in the company's lawsuit against Bright Data Ltd., with a California federal judge finding the law firm violated its duty of loyalty to Bright Data after previously representing it in a "substantially related" case.
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July 15, 2024
Rising Star: Irell's Stephen Payne
Stephen Payne of Irell & Manella LLP has advised clients on disputes worth hundreds of millions, including as part of the team that secured what his firm calls the third-largest patent verdict in the U.S. on behalf of chipmaker Netlist Inc., earning him a spot among the fund formation law practitioners under age 40 honored by Law360 as Rising Stars.
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July 15, 2024
Dow Chemical Seeks Recusal After Settlement Offer Gaffe
The Dow Chemical Co. asked an Ohio federal judge to recuse himself from a trade secrets suit brought by a Cleveland technology firm accusing it of misappropriating confidential information to recreate the firm's copyrighted software after the tech company showed the court a settlement offer without Dow Chemical's approval.
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July 12, 2024
Rising Star: Gibson Dunn's Jaysen Chung
Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP's Jaysen Chung has represented numerous big name clients — such as Pfizer, Dell and Apple — in successful patent litigation throughout his career, earning him a spot among the intellectual property law practitioners under age 40 honored by Law360 as Rising Stars.
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July 12, 2024
Law360 Names 2024's Top Attorneys Under 40
Law360 is pleased to announce the Rising Stars of 2024, our list of 158 attorneys under 40 whose legal accomplishments belie their age.
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July 12, 2024
Winery Gets $666K Fees After Winning $666K Trademark Row
An Italian winemaker won $666,214 in fees and postjudgment interest for prevailing against a Napa Valley, California, rival in a trademark dispute over similarly named wines, after a New York federal judge said the case was "exceptional," considering the defendants' continued use of the infringing name even after being sued and agreeing to stop.
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July 12, 2024
10th Circ. Tosses Prof's Conviction In 'China Initiative' Case
A split Tenth Circuit panel has reversed the conviction of a former University of Kansas professor accused of hiding the fact that he was pursuing a job in China, ruling that prosecutors hadn't offered enough evidence to prove that his omission was material to any federal agency funding decision.
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July 12, 2024
Ramey Says 'Any Competent' Atty Wouldn't Seek Sanctions Yet
Ramey LLP, counsel for mobile payment company AuthWallet LLC, has urged a Texas federal judge to reject a bank's attempt to sanction the company's attorney, saying the request is premature since the case doesn't have a prevailing party yet.
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July 12, 2024
Fed. Circ. Upholds Natera's Injunction In Cancer Test IP Fight
The Federal Circuit on Friday upheld a preliminary injunction barring NeoGenomics Laboratories Inc. from selling certain cancer tests while a North Carolina federal court decided whether they infringed Natera Inc. patents.
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July 12, 2024
Fed. Circ. Probes Case With Apple Watch Import Ban At Stake
In a case that could lead to a U.S. International Trade Commission import ban on the Apple Watch amid a patent dispute with AliveCor, Federal Circuit judges asked both companies Friday why a patent office tribunal that invalidated the patents didn't see evidence from the ITC case.
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July 12, 2024
VW Lawyers Win Fees From 'Sloppy' Texas Patent Atty
A federal judge in Houston has said a lawyer behind over 700 patent lawsuits over the past three years is personally liable to pay Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner LLP's fees over his "sloppy" and "offensive" case against Volkswagen.
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July 12, 2024
VLSI Continues Fight Against Intel In Patent Litigation
VLSI has launched a fight in Texas federal court against an argument that Intel made in Delaware federal court that it had a license to various patents.
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July 12, 2024
Lenovo Dodges Deposition Bid In Texas Software Patent Fight
Lenovo has skirted a subpoena seeking witness testimony in a patent case involving two rival software companies and the computer giants HP and Dell, with a North Carolina federal judge finding that the request was "overbroad" and not well justified given that Lenovo isn't part of the suit.
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July 12, 2024
Tequila Co. Wants Out Of Brewer's 'Dragon's Milk' TM Suit
A Mexican tequila company said a judge should dismiss a trademark action filed by a Michigan craft brewer to protect its use of the name "Dragon's Milk," saying it hasn't threatened to assert infringement of its "Casa Dragones" mark.
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July 12, 2024
AIG Says Ex-Execs Who Started Rival Co. Stole Trade Secrets
Insurance giant American International Group is accusing three of its former senior executives of unlawfully using confidential company information to launch a startup New Jersey insurance company.
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July 12, 2024
Zimmer Biomet Owes Despite Expired Patents, 7th Circ. Says
Zimmer Biomet Holdings shouldn't have stopped paying royalties on knee replacement devices it developed using an orthopedic surgeon's various patents after those patents expired, the Seventh Circuit said Friday, backing a lower court's decision affirming an arbitration ruling in favor of the surgeon's estate.
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July 12, 2024
Steris Infringing 'AST' Trademark, Medical Equipment Co. Says
Medical supply company Steris Corp. is allegedly infringing the "AST" trademark of a Washington engineering and medical equipment firm, according to a complaint filed Friday in Washington federal court.
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July 12, 2024
Fed. Circ. To PTAB Detractor: Didn't We Do This Already?
The Federal Circuit seemed confused Friday by Arbor Global Strategies' argument that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board was acting outside the Administrative Procedure Act when it invalidated the company's processor module patent claims, since they'd tackled that question in an earlier precedential opinion.
Expert Analysis
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F1 Driver AI Case Sheds Light On Winning Tactics In IP Suits
A German court recently awarded damages to former F1 driver Michael Schumacher's family in an artificial intelligence dispute over the unlicensed use of his image, illustrating how athletes are using the law to protect their brands, and setting a precedent in other AI-generated image rights cases, William Bowyer at Lawrence Stephens.
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8th Circ. Insurance Ruling Spotlights Related-Claims Defenses
The Eighth Circuit’s recent Dexon v. Travelers ruling — that the insurer must provide a defense despite the policy’s related-acts provision — provides guidance for how policyholders can overcome related-acts defenses, say Geoffrey Fehling and Jae Lynn Huckaba at Hunton.
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Counterfeits At The Olympics Pose IP Challenges
With the 2024 Olympic Games quickly approaching, the proliferation of counterfeit Olympic merchandise poses a difficult challenge to the protection of intellectual property rights and the preservation of the Olympic brand's integrity, says Kimiya Shams at Devialet.
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Series
Playing Chess Makes Me A Better Lawyer
There are many ways that chess skills translate directly into lawyer skills, but for me, the bigger career lessons go beyond the direct parallels — playing chess has shown me the value of seeing gradual improvement in and focusing deep concentration on a nonwork endeavor, says attorney Steven Fink.
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Patent Lessons From 7 Federal Circuit Reversals In May
A look at recent cases where the Federal Circuit reversed or vacated decisions by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board or a federal district court provide guidance on how to succeed on appeal by clarifying the obviousness analysis of design patents, the finality of a judgment, and more, say Denise De Mory and Li Guo at Bunsow De Mory.
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Litigation Inspiration: Attys Can Be Heroic Like Olympians
Although litigation won’t earn anyone an Olympic medal in Paris this summer, it can be worthy of the same lasting honor if attorneys exercise focused restraint — seeking both their clients’ interests and those of the court — instead of merely pursuing every advantage short of sanctionable conduct, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.
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Lean Into The 'Great Restoration' To Retain Legal Talent
As the “great resignation,” in which employees voluntarily left their jobs in droves, has largely dissipated, legal employers should now work toward the idea of a “great restoration,” adopting strategies to effectively hire, onboard and retain top legal talent, says Molly McGrath at Hiring & Empowering Solutions.
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Momofuku Chili War May Chill Common Phrase TM Apps
Momofuku’s recent trademark battle over the “Chili Crunch” mark shows that over-enforcement when protecting exclusivity rights may backfire not just in the public eye, but with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as well, says Anthony Panebianco at Davis Malm.
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Trademark In Artistic Works 1 Year After Jack Daniel's
In the year since the U.S. Supreme Court's Jack Daniel's v. VIP Products ruling, courts have applied Jack Daniel's inconsistently to deny First Amendment protection to artistic works, providing guidance for dismissing trademark claims relating to film and TV titles, say Hardy Ehlers and Neema Sahni at Covington.
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NCAA Settlement May End The NIL Model As We Know It
The recent House v. NCAA settlement in California federal court, in which the NCAA agreed to allow schools to directly pay March Madness television revenue to their athletes, may send outside name, image and likeness collectives in-house, says Mike Ingersoll at Womble Bond.
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Legal Battles Show Brands' Dilemma In Luxury Resale Trend
Recent litigation, such as Chanel's pending case against The RealReal, underscores the intricate balance luxury brands must strike between protecting their trademarks and embracing the burgeoning secondhand market that values sustainability, says Prachi Ajmera at Michelman & Robinson.
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AI-Generated Soundalikes Pose Right Of Publicity Issues
Artificial intelligence voice generators have recently proliferated, allowing users to create new voices or manipulate existing vocals with no audio engineering expertise, and although soundalikes may be permissible in certain cases, they likely violate the right of publicity of the person who is being mimicked, says Matthew Savare at Lowenstein Sandler.
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Why Jurors Balk At 'I Don't Recall' — And How To Respond
Jurors often react negatively to a witness who responds “I don’t remember” because they tend to hold erroneous beliefs about the nature of human memory, but attorneys can adopt a few strategies to mitigate the impact of these biases, say Steve Wood and Ava Hernández at Courtroom Sciences.
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Beware Of Trademark Scammers Leveraging USPTO Data
Amid a recent uptick in fraudulent communications directed at trademark applicants, registrants must understand how to protect themselves and their brand from fraudulent schemes and solicitation, say Michael Kelber and Alexandra Maloney at Neal Gerber.
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Series
Fishing Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Atop the list of ways fishing makes me a better lawyer is the relief it offers from the chronic stress of a demanding caseload, but it has also improved my listening skills and patience, and has served as an exceptional setting for building earnest relationships, says Steven DeGeorge at Robinson Bradshaw.