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Intellectual Property
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Featured
Trademark Cases To Watch In The Second Half Of 2024
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in a trademark infringement case regarding disgorgement of profits from corporate affiliates, and The Pennsylvania State University is headed to trial against a sports apparel retailer in a case with potentially huge ramifications for merchandise licensing. Here is a look at the trademark cases to watch for the rest of the year.
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July 29, 2024
Gilstrap Finds Nothing Between The Lines Of Barcode Patents
A handful of barcode scanning patents issued to prolific litigant Leigh Rothschild met their fate in Texas, with U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap deciding they "recite no more than generic computer operations."
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July 29, 2024
Vaccine Co. Was Sanctioned For Deliberately Hiding Testing
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director Kathi Vidal backed sanctions for Longhorn Vaccines & Diagnostics' "egregious abuse" of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board system because of the patent owner's "deliberate scheme to hide" harmful evidence from the board, she said in an opinion made public Friday.
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July 29, 2024
Realtor.com Parent Fights Uphill For CoStar Injunction
A California federal judge appeared skeptical Monday of a preliminary injunction request from Realtor.com's parent company seeking to block rival CoStar from misappropriating trade secrets and unlawfully accessing its computers, saying the alleged theft doesn't appear to involve a secret "formula" but rather website content.
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July 29, 2024
'Words Matter,' Says Judge Upon Ending Intel Patent Suit
It's lights out for a long-running Delaware patent lawsuit against Intel, after a judge Friday pointed to contradictory language used at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and declared that one can't "have his claim and eat it, too."
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July 29, 2024
7th Circ. Judge Praised After Surviving Senate 'Gauntlet'
During U.S. District Judge Nancy Maldonado's brief tenure in Chicago federal court, she tackled several issues without direct precedent, including the intricacies of sound recording copyright protections. Now, after an especially bruising confirmation process, she'll be in a position to set precedent on the Seventh Circuit.
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July 29, 2024
Western Digital Hit With $262M Verdict Over Data Storage IP
A California federal jury found Friday that hard drive behemoth Western Digital owes MR Technologies more than $262 million in royalties for infringing its patents for increasing storage capacity on disk drives, after nearly two weeks of trial and four hours of deliberations.
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July 29, 2024
TikTok Loses Bid To Have Chinese Co. Identify Trade Secrets
A California federal court has denied TikTok's bid to force Beijing Meishe Network Technology Co. Ltd. to further identify trade secrets in a complaint that accuses the social media platform of stealing them, with the judge saying that the suit includes enough information for now and that discovery should proceed quickly.
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July 29, 2024
Immigration Firm Wants Injunction In Trade Secret Fight
A Washington-based immigration law firm is arguing that a Colombian ex-employee helped a Houston immigration law firm poach its offshore employees in Colombia and copy its business model for building a large-scale firm, and that the court must declare a preliminary injunction to stop "irreparable harm."
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July 29, 2024
Nixon Peabody Hires Morgan Lewis IP Atty
Nixon Peabody LLP has hired a Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP associate whose practice focuses on the gamut of intellectual property matters, like representing clients on patent, trademark, and trade secret disputes, the firm announced Monday.
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July 29, 2024
Foley Hoag Elevates IP Pro To Co-Managing Partner
Foley Hoag LLP has hired a longtime Boston-based senior partner in the intellectual property department as co-managing partner, the firm said Monday.
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July 29, 2024
Morgan Lewis Grows German Presence With 3 New Partners
Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP announced Monday that it has hired three new partners to further strengthen its German offerings.
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July 29, 2024
Reebok Rips Shoe Rival's 'Underhanded' Conduct In TM Case
Reebok asked a Massachusetts federal judge to sanction an Italian shoemaker and strike nearly three dozen witnesses who were disclosed at the last minute in a trademark case, the latest claim by the shoe and apparel giant of "underhanded" tactics.
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July 26, 2024
Apple Commits To White House Guidelines For Responsible AI
Apple Inc. has signed onto the Biden administration's voluntary guidelines for "responsible" artificial intelligence innovation, joining the likes of Amazon.com Inc., Google LLC, Microsoft Corp. and a dozen other leading tech companies, the White House announced Friday.
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July 26, 2024
Off The Bench: NBA Signs Mega Deals, Jerry Jones Settles
In this week's Off The Bench, the NBA signed $77 billion worth of telecast and streaming deals while longtime league broadcaster TNT challenged the decision, Jerry Jones' suit against his alleged daughter settled while jurors were at lunch, and Pennsylvania's high court agreed to hear an appeal relating to Pittsburgh's jock tax, a fee applied to nonresident professional athletes.
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July 26, 2024
Copyright Cases To Watch In The Second Half Of 2024
The first copyright trial arising from an artificial intelligence platform could provide intellectual property attorneys with insight into dozens of pending suits against AI companies, while the Tenth Circuit is reconsidering whether Netflix made fair use of a funeral clip in its "Tiger King" docuseries.
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July 26, 2024
NCAA's $2.8B NIL Deal, Revenue-Sharing Plan Sent To Judge
A $2.78 billion deal to settle a massive class action targeting the NCAA's name, image and likeness compensation rules was submitted to a California federal judge for preliminary approval Friday, allowing for revenue sharing with athletes across all sports.
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July 26, 2024
Fed. Circ. Upholds PTAB Estoppel Rule, But Limits Its Reach
The Federal Circuit on Friday upheld a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rule that can lead to Patent Trial and Appeal Board decisions rendering patent claims invalid in later office proceedings, but found in a case involving Apple and Motorola that the rule doesn't apply to issued claims.
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July 26, 2024
Amazon And Google Face New Suits Over Japanese Patents
A litigation outfit trying to cash out on patents issued to Japanese electronics company JVCKenwood has expanded its campaign against Amazon and Google with a second set of lawsuits in Virginia federal court.
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July 26, 2024
Del. Court Won't Let Generic Co. Walk Back Invalidity Promise
Generic-drug maker Mankind Pharma is bound to its promise not to challenge the validity of a patent covering Allergan's glaucoma drug Lumigan after a federal judge in Delaware shot down its argument that recent rulings on obviousness-type double patenting altered the litigation landscape.
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July 26, 2024
Jam Band Phish Can Seize Bootleg Merch, Judge Says
Jam band Phish has been given the green light by a Boston federal judge to confiscate counterfeit merchandise being sold outside its concerts this summer.
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July 26, 2024
HP Calls Dolby, Philips, Mitsubishi Patent Fees A 'Money Grab'
Computer maker HP Inc. has claimed Dolby Laboratories, Mitsubishi and Philips are attempting a "money grab" by attempting to overcharge on licensing fees for ultra-high-definition streaming patents, according to a complaint filed in Massachusetts state court.
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July 26, 2024
Illinois Cases To Watch In 2024: Midyear Report
Illinois attorneys say they are considering the path forward for Springfield corruption prosecutions following a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, as well as paying attention to what comes next in Motorola Solutions' trade secret contempt fight and potential new guidelines for music copyright cases. Here are the cases to watch in Illinois for the rest of 2024.
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July 26, 2024
Washington Cases To Watch 2024: A Midyear Report
Two Washington tribes are testing whether they can hold Big Oil companies accountable in state court for climate change-related catastrophes, the attorney general is defending a ban on large-capacity gun magazines, and a key test of the state's anti-patent troll law is set for trial.
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July 26, 2024
UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London
This past week in London has seen U.K. band The 1975 face action by Future Sound Asia after its performance in Malaysia resulted in a festival's cancelation, Spectrum Insurance hit by The Motoring Organization following their dispute over information misuse, and a former police constable pursue defamation against a colleague for allegedly instigating a campaign of harassment against her. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.
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July 25, 2024
Blue Bottle Won't Be Sanctioned Or Pay Atty Fees In TM Row
Blue Bottle won't be sanctioned nor ordered to pay $1.15 million in fees for losing its trademark suit against a company selling "Blue Brew" brand accessories, with a California federal judge ruling Wednesday that its infringement claims weren't frivolous and that its likelihood of confusion argument was "rooted in good faith."
Editor's Picks
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Fed. Circ.'s Fight With Newman: A Year In Review
One year has passed since it came to light that the Federal Circuit's judges were investigating whether their colleague, U.S. Circuit Judge Pauline Newman, was mentally competent to remain on the court. In that time, Judge Newman has garnered support from many in the patent community, but has faced a series of setbacks in her legal challenges.
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Why IP Attys Are Watching This $2B Trade Secrets Battle
A case of alleged corporate espionage involving two software companies that resulted in a $2 billion verdict has all the hallmarks of a legal thriller, and attorneys are watching the appeal closely to see how it could impact trade secrets litigation.
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Trials After PTAB Invalidity Rulings Present Tricky Issues
A recent case illustrates that Patent Trial and Appeal Board decisions finding patents invalid do not necessarily preclude a district court from holding an infringement trial on the same patents, though attorneys say such a scenario could raise some challenging issues.
Expert Analysis
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Think Like A Lawyer: Dance The Legal Standard Two-Step
From rookie brief writers to Chief Justice John Roberts, lawyers should master the legal standard two-step — framing the governing standard at the outset, and clarifying why they meet that standard — which has benefits for both the drafter and reader, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.
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Alice Step 2 Trends Show Courts' Extrinsic Evidence Reliance
A look at recent trends in how district courts are applying Step 2 of the Alice framework shows that courts have increasingly relied on extrinsic evidence to help determine whether a claimed invention is "well-understood, routine, and conventional," says Jonathan Tuminaro at Sterne Kessler.
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Recent Settlement Shows 'China Initiative' Has Life After Death
Though the U.S. Department of Justice shuttered its controversial China Initiative two years ago, its recent False Claims Act settlement with the Cleveland Clinic Foundation demonstrates that prosecutors are more than willing to civilly pursue research institutions whose employees were previously targeted, say attorneys at Benesch.
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How Orange Book Antitrust Scrutiny Is Intensifying
Pharmaceutical patent holders should be reviewing Orange Book listing practices, as the Federal Trade Commission takes a more aggressive antitrust approach with actions such as the Teva listing probe, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration calls attention to potentially improper listings, say attorneys at McDermott.
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Trending At The PTAB: 1 Year Of Denials Of Institution
An analysis of Patent Trial and Appeal Board denials of institutions between May 2023 and May of this year highlights the board’s common reasons for denial, which can provide insight to both petitioners and patent owners in future proceedings, say Kevin Rodkey and Victor Palace at Finnegan.
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Questions Linger About DTSA's Scope After Motorola Ruling
The Seventh Circuit’s recent ruling in Motorola v. Hytera, which held that the Defend Trade Secrets Act applies extraterritorially, does not address whether an act that furthers misappropriation must be committed by the defendant in order to satisfy the law's extraterritoriality requirement, say Ilissa Samplin and Grace Hart at Gibson Dunn.
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Opinion
Conception Is The Proper Test For AI-Assisted Inventions
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office should adopt the conception standard for reviewing AI-assisted inventions, and require the disclosure of artificial intelligence prompts and responses because they are material to patentability, which would then simplify the patent examiner’s invention decision, says Thomas Hamlin at Robins Kaplan.
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What High Court TM Rulings Tell Us About Free Speech
Recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings show tension between free speech and trademark law, highlighting that while political mockery is protected, established brands may be forced to adapt to evolving cultural values, says William Scott Goldman at Goldman Law Group.
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Series
Being A Luthier Makes Me A Better Lawyer
When I’m not working as an appellate lawyer, I spend my spare time building guitars — a craft known as luthiery — which has helped to enhance the discipline, patience and resilience needed to write better briefs, says Rob Carty at Nichols Brar.
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Series
After Chevron: Uncertainty In Scope Of ITC Oversight
The U.S. International Trade Commission's long-standing jurisprudence on some of the most disputed and controversial issues is likely to be reshaped by the Federal Circuit, which is no longer bound by Chevron deference in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Loper Bright decision, say Kecia Reynolds and Madeleine Moss at Paul Hastings.
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Lead Like 'Ted Lasso' By Embracing Cognitive Diversity
The Apple TV+ series “Ted Lasso” aptly illustrates how embracing cognitive diversity can be a winning strategy for teams, providing a useful lesson for law firms, which can benefit significantly from fresh, diverse perspectives and collaborative problem-solving, says Paul Manuele at PR Manuele Consulting.
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How In-House IP Counsel Can Deal With AI's Rise
Generative artificial intelligence is poised to revolutionize intellectual property law, especially for smaller and midsize enterprises, meaning IP in-house counsel need to prioritize AI implementation to navigate the coming changes, says Friedrich Laub at Diasorin.
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7th Circ. Motorola Ruling Raises Stakes Of DTSA Litigation
The Seventh Circuit’s recent ruling in Motorola v. Hytera gives plaintiffs a powerful tool to recover damages, greatly increasing the incentive to bring Defend Trade Secrets Act claims against defendants with large global sales because those sales could generate large settlements, say attorneys at MoFo.
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1 Year At The UPC: Implications For Transatlantic Disputes
In its first year, the Unified Patent Court has issued important decisions on procedures like provisional measures, but complexities remain when it comes to coordinating proceedings across jurisdictions like the U.S. due to differences in timelines and discovery practices, say attorneys at McDermott.
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Patent Ruling Shows A Minor Typo Can Lead To A Major Loss
A federal court’s recent ruling in SIPCO v. Jasco, where patent infringement claims were dismissed because of a typo made during prosecution, highlights key moments in the terminal disclaimer application process where double-checking the patent number is especially crucial, say attorneys at Mintz.