Intellectual Property

  • October 08, 2024

    Limp Bizkit's $200M Suit Says UMG Hid Royalties

    Rock band Limp Bizkit hit Universal Music Group Inc. on Tuesday with a suit seeking more than $200 million, alleging that the music company created and used technology that allows it to hide royalties from its artists and hoard profits.

  • October 08, 2024

    3rd Circ. Directs Court To Explain If Natera Ads 'Literally False'

    A Third Circuit panel on Tuesday sent allegations of false advertising against medical test maker Natera back to district court, directing the judge to determine whether a jury had sufficient evidence last year to find that eight of the company's advertisements were "literally false."

  • October 08, 2024

    Ex-Clients Say BakerHostetler Can't Keep Suit In Fed. Court

    Former clients of BakerHostetler strengthened their request to send to Georgia state court a suit alleging the firm mishandled their patent application for a smart wardrobe system, arguing that the case doesn't raise patent law questions and thus shouldn't remain in federal court.

  • October 08, 2024

    Judge Clarifies Licensing Curbs On Paul Newman Foundation

    The foundation established by the actor Paul Newman cannot license his publicity and intellectual property rights to any university or other nonprofit, studio or publisher or any luxury brand for advertising, a Connecticut state court judge has said, responding to a request to clarify a preliminary injunction she issued.

  • October 08, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Revives Debit Card Patent Suit Against Aetna

    The Federal Circuit on Tuesday restored patent litigation targeting Aetna's Visa- and Mastercard-branded debit cards, while holding that certain aspects of dismissal decisions should be reviewed from scratch on appeal.

  • October 08, 2024

    NC Judge Scolds Clinic And Hospital Over Bids To Seal TM Case

    A North Carolina federal judge chastised a weight loss center, a hospital and a community health provider for their bids to seal a large swath of information in a trademark infringement lawsuit, invoking the secretive medieval court that gave rise to the phrase "star chamber."

  • October 08, 2024

    Exporting Chips To China Didn't Merit 7 Years, 9th Circ. Told

    Counsel for a former UCLA electrical engineering professor urged the Ninth Circuit on Tuesday to reduce his seven-year prison sentence for illegally exporting high-powered semiconductor chips to China, saying the conduct did not amount to an evasion of national security controls.

  • October 08, 2024

    Axinn Rebrands Ahead Of NYC Relocation

    Axinn Veltrop & Harkrider LLP announced Tuesday a new image rebrand in advance of the planned relocation of its New York office to Rockefeller Center at the end of the year.

  • October 07, 2024

    Apple Beats Masimo's Allegations Of Misleading USPTO

    Apple did not deceive the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office when obtaining design patents, a Delaware federal judge ruled Monday, shooting down a key argument from Masimo Corp. as the parties continue to fight over the market for smartwatches.

  • October 07, 2024

    Skiplagged Cost American Airlines $18M, Jury Hears

    American Airlines Inc. claims that airfare search engine Skiplagged Inc. cost it $18 million by masquerading as an authorized agent of the airline, but Skiplagged told a Texas jury Monday that American sued it to limit customers' "freedom of choice."

  • October 07, 2024

    PetSmart Can't Shear Down Dog Food Trademark Suit

    A Kentucky federal judge declined PetSmart's bid to narrow a dog food company's intellectual property lawsuit against the pet products retailer, holding that the case qualifies for an exception that allows courts to intervene in pending matters before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

  • October 07, 2024

    9th Circ. Asked To Take Another Look At 'Patent Misuse' Case

    Atrium Medical Corp. has urged the full Ninth Circuit to reconsider a panel ruling siding with rival medical product maker C.R. Bard in a $52.8 million lawsuit over patent royalty provisions, saying the panel "inappropriately dispensed with the evidence adduced below and the district court's fact-finding."

  • October 07, 2024

    ITC Judge Pushes For Import Ban In Liver Drug Secrets Row

    The U.S. International Trade Commission's chief judge is recommending the agency block a Hong Kong-listed drug developer from potentially marketing unapproved treatments for a type of liver disease for the next seven years, a win for another company behind a different unapproved treatment for the same type of liver disease.

  • October 07, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Questions If Safer OxyContin Profits Came From IP

    An attorney for Purdue Pharma didn't seem to find much purchase at the Federal Circuit on Monday as he argued that the company's patents for abuse-deterrent OxyContin weren't obvious, claiming other companies had ample opportunity to reach a solution and failed to do so.

  • October 07, 2024

    Music Label Says 2 Live Crew Songs Were Works For Hire

    The owner of music label Lil' Joe Records took the stand Monday as he began to make the case that the members of hip-hop group 2 Live Crew were employees, not independent contractors, when they produced their hits and therefore cannot claw back their rights to the recordings.

  • October 07, 2024

    Mylan, Novo Nordisk Settle Ozempic Patent Dispute

    Mylan Pharmaceuticals and Novo Nordisk have asked the Patent Trial and Appeal Board to terminate Mylan's request to review whether a patent covering Novo Nordisk's blockbuster diabetes and weight-loss drug Ozempic holds up, telling the board the two sides have resolved their dispute.

  • October 07, 2024

    New Bill Would Enact 'Commonsense' Litigation Disclosures

    A top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee announced Monday he introduced legislation to require the disclosure of parties receiving payments in civil lawsuits, a phenomenon known as "third-party litigation financing," in order to prevent abuses in the legal system.

  • October 07, 2024

    5 Decisions To Know By Outgoing Mass. Chief Judge

    Chief Massachusetts U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV, who announced Monday that he will step back from full-time judicial service next summer, has presided over numerous significant cases in recent years, including a dispute over the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's disgorgement powers and a birth defects suit against GlaxoSmithKline.

  • October 07, 2024

    Apple Doesn't Infringe Digital Identity Patents, Jury Finds

    A federal jury in Austin, Texas, has rejected a $361 million patent case from a longtime ExxonMobil employee who had targeted in-house cybersecurity hardware used in Apple iPhones.

  • October 07, 2024

    Contractor Passed 20K Accounts To Rivals, Security Co. Says

    A Connecticut home security monitoring company has accused a sales contractor of purchasing a list of 20,000 of its accounts from a service technician and trying to lure a colleague into helping him sell the secret data to competitors, causing an alleged "substantial loss of customers."

  • October 07, 2024

    Judge Backs $3.3M DOD Sole-Source Parts Deal For Boeing

    A Court of Federal Claims judge has denied a protest over a $3.3 million Defense Logistics Agency sole-source contract with Boeing, covering helicopter spare parts the protester argued it could also provide, ruling the DLA reasonably determined Boeing was the only available source.

  • October 07, 2024

    NCAA Wins Preliminary OK For Revised $2.78B NIL Settlement

    A California federal judge on Monday preliminarily approved the NCAA's revised $2.78 billion antitrust settlement with athletes suing over the organization's name, image and likeness compensation rules.

  • October 07, 2024

    Willkie Tech Patent Litigation Chair Joins Covington In DC

    The former chair of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP's tech patent litigation group, who has more than two decades of experience litigating computer hardware and software matters for major corporations, has moved his practice to Covington & Burling LLP's Washington, D.C., office, the firm announced Monday.

  • October 07, 2024

    6 High Court Cases To Watch For Trial Attorneys

    As the U.S. Supreme Court lifts the curtain on a new term, the justices are slated to consider a variety of cases impacting the work of trial litigators, including a death penalty case over a state-disavowed conviction, the boundaries of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, and corporate veil piercing.

  • October 07, 2024

    Justices Snub Musician's 'Rockstar' IP Feud With Nickelback

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a copyright complaint from a musician who sued Canadian band Nickelback for allegedly ripping off his song to make their hit record "Rockstar."

Expert Analysis

  • Consider Best Legal Practices For Commissioning Public Art

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    Commissioning public art for real estate projects can provide many benefits to real estate developers and the public, but it's important to understand the unique legal and contracting aspects of the process to ensure that projects are completed on time and on budget, says Sarah Conley Odenkirk at ArtConverge.

  • A Look At The PTAB's Assessment Of Prior Art Exceptions

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    The Patent Trial and Appeal Board's approach over the last 10 years to assessing Section 102(b) prior art exceptions reveals a few trends, including that evidence of common ownership may have a higher likelihood of successfully disqualifying prior art under Section 102(b)(2)(C) at the institution stage, say Louis Panzica and David Holman at Sterne Kessler.

  • Series

    Playing Diplomacy Makes Us Better Lawyers

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    Similar to the practice of law, the rules of Diplomacy — a strategic board game set in pre-World War I Europe — are neither concise nor without ambiguity, and weekly gameplay with our colleagues has revealed the game's practical applications to our work as attorneys, say Jason Osborn and Ben Bevilacqua at Winston & Strawn.

  • How Patent Litigation Is Changing Amid Decline In Filings

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    Marked by a notable decline in case filings and preferred venue shifts, patent litigation has undergone significant changes over the last decade and litigation hot spots have shifted, encouraging a more strategic approach to patent disputes, says Saishruti Mutneja at Winston & Strawn.

  • Primer On Chinese Trade Secret Disputes For US Practitioners

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    Increasing cross-border disputes over trade secret misappropriation between U.S. and Chinese entities emphasize the need for U.S. practitioners to navigate China's legal landscape following recent reforms that enhance the viability of litigation in Chinese courts, say attorneys at Jones Day.

  • Mental Health First Aid: A Brief Primer For Attorneys

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    Amid a growing body of research finding that attorneys face higher rates of mental illness than the general population, firms should consider setting up mental health first aid training programs to help lawyers assess mental health challenges in their colleagues and intervene with compassion, say psychologists Shawn Healy and Tracey Meyers.

  • Licensing And Protections For Voice Actors In The Age Of AI

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    While two recently enacted California laws and other recent state and federal legislation largely focus on protecting actors and musicians from the unauthorized use of their digital likenesses by generative artificial intelligence systems, the lesser-known community of professional voice actors also stands to benefit, says attorney Scott Mortman.

  • Opinion

    Failure To Use Apportionment Has Distorted Patent Damages

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    Apportionment is the solution to the problem of inflated patent infringement damages, and courts should return to focusing on the smallest saleable unit as the starting point for apportionment analysis, say William Lee at WilmerHale and Mark Lemley at Stanford Law School.

  • Series

    Collecting Art Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    The therapeutic aspects of appreciating and collecting art improve my legal practice by enhancing my observation skills, empathy, creativity and cultural awareness, says attorney Michael McCready.

  • Takeaways From Novo Nordisk's Fight For Market Exclusivity

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    Generic competitors’ challenge to Novo Nordisk’s patents in hopes of capturing a portion of the rapidly expanding Type 2 diabetes and obesity treatment market highlights the role of abbreviated new drug application litigation, inter partes review and multidistrict litigation in patent defense, says Pedram Sameni at Patexia.

  • Using Primacy And Recency Effects In Opening Statements

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    By understanding and strategically employing the primacy and recency effects in opening statements, attorneys can significantly enhance their persuasive impact, ensuring that their narrative is both compelling and memorable from the outset, says Bill Kanasky at Courtroom Sciences.

  • Opinion

    Bill Is Key To Protecting US Economy From Patent Piracy

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    It is critical that Congress pass a recently introduced bill that would protect U.S. investors from intellectual property theft by restoring court-ordered injunctions as the default remedy in patent infringement cases to ensure inventors get the justice they deserve, says Andrei Iancu at Sullivan & Cromwell.

  • Defending AI, Machine Learning Patents In Life Sciences

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    Ten years after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Alice v. CLS Bank, artificial intelligence and machine learning technology remain at risk for Alice challenges, but reviewing recent cases can help life sciences companies avoid common pitfalls and successfully defend their patents, say attorneys at Mintz.

  • Litigation Inspiration: Honoring Your Learned Profession

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    About 30,000 people who took the bar exam in July will learn they passed this fall, marking a fitting time for all attorneys to remember that they are members in a specialty club of learned professionals — and the more they can keep this in mind, the more benefits they will see, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.

  • From Concept To Capital: 5 Stages Of Evolving IP Needs

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    Companies must understand the shifting intellectual property needs throughout an organization’s life cycle in order to protect innovation, which can be done by fortifying the IP portfolio, expanding and leveraging IP assets, and more, says Keegan Caldwell at Caldwell Law.

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