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Intellectual Property
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Featured
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.
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December 05, 2024
DOJ Is Eyeing Foreign Patent Litigation Funding, GAO Says
The U.S. Department of Justice is examining the role foreign countries might be playing in funding patent litigation in the U.S., the Government Accountability Office said in a report released Thursday exploring the benefits and pitfalls of the proliferation of third-party intellectual property litigation financing.
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December 05, 2024
Gov't Efficiency Push Is A 'New Day,' House Speaker Says
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., spoke excitedly Thursday about the new government efficiency operation helmed by billionaire Elon Musk and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and touted the budding bipartisan lineup of a congressional caucus that will work with it.
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December 05, 2024
Judge Snubs Bid For $1M Bond On $22M 'Comfy' IP Verdict
An Arizona federal judge on Wednesday rejected a retailer's bid to pay a $1 million bond while appealing a $22 million judgment against it for infringing the patents of Cozy Comfort Co., the maker of the "Comfy" sweatshirt featured on "Shark Tank."
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December 05, 2024
Sanctioned VLSI Patent Challenger Must ID Members In Va.
VLSI Technology LLC won a major victory Thursday in litigation where it's looking for compensation from a mysterious company that tried to extort it at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, with a Virginia federal judge ordering that company to disclose its members.
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December 05, 2024
Infringing Phone Mounts Permanently Blocked In Patent Case
A Washington federal judge agreed on Thursday to block a maker of electronic device mounts from selling certain products that have infringed a patent owned by a rival.
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December 05, 2024
Face-Swapping App Can't Ax Reality TV Star's Suit At 9th Circ.
The Ninth Circuit on Thursday refused to toss a reality TV star's proposed class action accusing a face-swapping app of misusing his likeness, finding his statutory right-of-publicity claim isn't preempted by the federal Copyright Act since the claim involves his likeness and "not a work of authorship."
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December 05, 2024
NCAA's NIL Settlement 'Illegal' In Many States, Lawmakers Say
The National Collegiate Athletic Association's $2.78 billion settlement with athletes over name, image and likeness compensation, now awaiting final court approval, would be "illegal" in several states because of their current NIL laws, a group of current and former lawmakers said Thursday.
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December 05, 2024
Fed. Circ. Unlikely To Help Realtek Pursue ITC Sanctions
A Federal Circuit panel seemed baffled Thursday as a K&L Gates attorney argued that the U.S. International Trade Commission wrongly stopped his client from pursuing sanctions, with the panel repeatedly noting that the semiconductor company wasn't even a party in the import dispute.
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December 05, 2024
9th Circ. Skeptical Starz Ripped Off Play For Strip Club Drama
A Ninth Circuit panel appeared dubious Thursday of a playwright's bid to revive claims that Starz Entertainment copied her stage musical for the strip club drama series "P-Valley," with one of the appellate judges noting that the works "could not be more different."
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December 05, 2024
PrizePicks Faces Second Claim Of Fantasy Platform Ripoff
Atlanta-based sports betting platform PrizePicks has been hit with a second lawsuit in as many years from business-to-business sports tech company Vetnos, claiming Wednesday that PrizePicks ripped off its concept of daily fantasy betting games with the help of a former Vetnos employee.
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December 05, 2024
Skadden Adds A&O Shearman IP Litigator In Silicon Valley
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP continues expanding its technology team, announcing Thursday it has brought in an Allen Overy Shearman Sterling intellectual property litigator as a partner in its Silicon Valley office.
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December 05, 2024
Fed. Circ. Backs Mixed PTAB Ruling In Circuit Patent Fight
The Federal Circuit on Thursday affirmed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's finding that Dutch semiconductor maker NXP was able to show that some claims in a pair of Bell Semiconductor circuit patents were invalid but was unable to prove other claims were unpatentable.
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December 05, 2024
Insulet Wins $452M In Trade Secret Theft Trial
A Massachusetts federal jury has awarded Insulet Corp. $452 million after concluding that a South Korean company stole its trade secrets for a wearable insulin patch pump, marking one of the largest trade secrets verdicts of the decade.
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December 04, 2024
Withers IP Partners Hop To Sullivan & Worcester
Sullivan & Worcester LLP has said the Boston firm picked up a team of five intellectual property lawyers, including two partners, from Withers who have expertise in filing patents and working on deals for biotech startups.
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December 04, 2024
Intel, VLSI Agree To Pause Del. IP Fight Ahead Of Texas Trial
Prodded by a federal judge in Delaware, Intel Corp. and VLSI Technology LLC agreed Wednesday to stay motions to dismiss or transfer an Intel Corp. suit over claims that it already holds licenses to patents that VLSI asserts it controls, as a similar patent battle moves forward in Texas.
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December 04, 2024
Fed. Circ. Sinks Patent Fight Over Intel's CPU Chips
The Federal Circuit on Wednesday rubber-stamped a ruling out of Delaware federal court that cleared Intel of allegations that the chipmaker infringed patents by a University of Maryland professor who purportedly developed an important idea in the world of "parallel computing" in 2006.
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December 04, 2024
Novartis Fails To Stop Generic Drug Release At Fed. Circ.
Novartis could not persuade Federal Circuit judges to grant an injunction Wednesday protecting its blockbuster heart failure medication from facing generic competition, with the appeals court backing a Delaware federal judge's opinion that it was unlikely that one of the generic drug's ingredients is "amorphous."
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December 04, 2024
JSR Wins As Fed. Circ. Axes Cytiva Antibody Isolation Patents
In a precedential opinion, the Federal Circuit held Wednesday that all the claims that JSR Corp. challenged in three Cytiva Bioprocess antibody isolation patents are invalid as obvious, backing the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's invalidation of many claims while reversing its decision to uphold others.
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December 04, 2024
Meta Persuades PTAB To Ax 2 Earphone Patents
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board has found that Meta was able to show that every claim in a pair of earphone patents owned by Eight kHz is invalid, holding they are obvious.
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December 04, 2024
Fed. Circ. Sends UC System LED Patent Claims Back To PTAB
The Federal Circuit on Wednesday found that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board has to partially rethink its finding that claims in a filament LED light bulb patent owned by the University of California system were too obvious to warrant patent protection.
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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."
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Editor's Picks
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Why Many Drugs Remain Pricey 40 Years After Hatch-Waxman
In the four decades since Congress passed the Hatch-Waxman Act in an effort to make generic drugs more available, the pharmaceutical industry has used patent thickets, "evergreening" and pay-for-delay tactics to block competition and keep prices of life-saving specialty drugs astronomical, several legal experts told Law360, while the industry argues other parties shoulder more of the blame.
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Full Fed. Circ. Looks To Clarify Damages In Google Case
The full Federal Circuit has agreed to review EcoFactor's $20 million infringement award against Google, a move that attorneys say should provide much-needed guidance for both judges and parties when calculating damages.
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Who Wore '8' Better? Jackson, Aikman Locked In TM Battle
Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson is banking his popularity will make consumers think of him when they see the number "8" on products he sells, but a beer company associated with Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman — who wore the same jersey number — doesn't see it that way, as the players square off in a trademark fight.
Expert Analysis
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Corporate Liability Issues To Watch In High Court TM Case
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in a trademark dispute between Dewberry Group and Dewberry Engineers next week, presenting an opportunity for the court to drastically alter the fundamental approach to piercing the corporate veil, or adopt a more limited approach and preserve existing norms, say attorneys at Bracewell.
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Trending At The PTAB: Collateral Estoppel Continues Evolving
We are starting to see brighter lines on collateral estoppel involving Patent Trial and Appeal Board proceedings, illustrated by two recent cases that considered whether collateral estoppel should apply to factual findings on prior art from the PTAB in a later district court litigation, say attorneys at Finnegan.
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Series
Gardening Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Beyond its practical and therapeutic benefits, gardening has bolstered important attributes that also apply to my litigation practice, including persistence, patience, grit and authenticity, says Christopher Viceconte at Gibbons.
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Litigation Inspiration: Reframing Document Review
For attorneys — new ones especially — there is much fulfillment to find in document review by reflecting on how important, interesting and pleasant it can be, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.
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What Fed. Circ. Ruling Means For Patent Case Dismissals
The Federal Circuit's recent decision in UTTO v. Metrotech is significant because it specifically authorizes district courts to dismiss patent infringement lawsuits without a separate Markman hearing, but only when the meaning of a claim term is clear and case-dispositive, says Peter Gergely at Merchant & Gould.
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The Fed. Circ. In October: Anti-Suit Injunctions And SEPs
The Federal Circuit's holding in Ericsson v. Lenovo, a complex global case involving standard-essential patents, will likely have broad consequences for practitioners, including by making it easier to obtain an anti-suit injunction, say attorneys at Knobbe Martens.
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Declaring Unexpected Results: Pitfalls For Rule 132 At PTAB
Rule 132 declarations are frequently used in life sciences patent prosecution for rebutting obviousness rejections by establishing that an applicant's invention produces unexpected results, and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's Eidschun ruling highlights when this important tool may be ineffective, say attorneys at Morrison Foerster.
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IP Ruling Likely To Limit Arguments Against Qualified Experts
The Federal Circuit's recent decision in Osseo v. Planmeca, clarifying when experts may offer testimony from the perspective of a skilled artisan, provides helpful guidance on expert qualifications and could quash future timing arguments regarding declarants' expertise, says Whitney Jenkins at Marshall Gerstein.
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Dissecting The Obviousness-Type Double Patenting Debate
The Federal Circuit's recent decision in Allergan v. MSN highlights the ongoing evolution of the obviousness-type double patenting doctrine, revealing increasing tension between expiration-based interpretations and procedural flexibility, says Jeremy Lowe at Leydig Voit.
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Series
Flying Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Achieving my childhood dream of flying airplanes made me a better lawyer — and a better person — because it taught me I can conquer difficult goals when I leave my comfort zone, focus on the demands of the moment and commit to honing my skills, says Ivy Cadle at Baker Donelson.
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9th Circ.'s High Bar May Limit Keyword Confusion TM Claims
A recent Ninth Circuit ruling that a law firm did not infringe upon a competitor’s trademarks by paying Google to promote its website when users searched for the rival’s name signals that plaintiffs likely can no longer win infringement suits by claiming competitive keyword advertising confuses internet-savvy consumers, say attorneys at Mitchell Silberberg.
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Trump Patent Policy May Be Headed In Unexpected Direction
While commentators have assumed that the patent policy of President-elect Donald Trump's second administration will largely mirror the pro-patent policy of his first, these predictions fail to take into account the likely oversized influence of Elon Musk, says Jorge Contreras at the University of Utah.
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Best Practices For Influencer Trademark Protection
Though the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board recently decided that an influencer couldn't qualify for a retail services trademark registration for posting affiliate links to a third-party website, there are other trademark protections that influencers can pursue for their branding and marketing services, say attorneys at Nixon Peabody.
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What Trump's Next Term May Mean For Biz Immigration
Leonard D'Arrigo at Harris Beach discusses the employment-based immigration policies businesses can potentially expect during President-elect Donald Trump’s second term, based on policies enacted during his first administration, statements made during his campaign and proposals in Project 2025.
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Racing Patents To The Fed. Circ.: Collateral Estoppel Lessons
As more and more parties find themselves in two different forums addressing the same issues and then competing in a race to the Federal Circuit, certain strategies can help despite unanswered questions on when Patent Trial and Appeal Board determinations trigger collateral estoppel, say attorneys at Akin.