Intellectual Property

  • October 03, 2024

    Mintz IP Partner Is Equal Parts BigLaw And Punk Rock

    A member of five different New York-area bands playing upward of 50 shows per year, Mintz partner Brad Scheller is used to trading in his suit and tie after hours for a punk rock T-shirt.

  • October 03, 2024

    US, France Extend Patent Prosecution Highway

    French and American authorities announced plans Thursday to extend their deal to fast-track patent examinations for IP already approved in the other jurisdiction for another five years.

  • October 02, 2024

    Kirkland Accuses Ex-IP Atty Of Delaying Bias Suit Discovery

    Kirkland & Ellis LLP told a California federal magistrate judge Wednesday that a former Kirkland intellectual property associate has delayed discovery production in her discrimination lawsuit against the firm, arguing that her discovery responses cite an erroneous legal standard, are non-committal and are "not even close to being proper."

  • October 02, 2024

    Sonos Beats Remaining Claims Of Google Speaker IP Suit

    A California federal judge on Wednesday dropped the remaining patent infringement claims in Google's wireless technology battle against speaker maker Sonos Inc., rejecting the tech giant's contention that there was substantial evidence of infringement.

  • October 02, 2024

    Google Hit With Renewed Voice Assistant Antitrust Case

    Sensory Inc. has accused Google of illegally maintaining its monopolies over search and the advertising that appears alongside search results in part by blocking rival voice assistant products from running on Android and other devices.

  • October 02, 2024

    Chancery To Mull Receiver In Drug Co. Consulting Bill Row

    Delaware's Supreme Court has appointed a Superior Court judge to sit as a vice chancellor in a suit seeking a receiver for a Dubai-headquartered bio-pharmaceutical company that has run up nearly $600,000 in $3,000-per-day sanctions and counting for failing to comply with an initial $180,000 judgment.

  • October 02, 2024

    Avadel Tells Fed. Circ. It Should Be Free To Test Sleep Drug

    Specialty-drug maker Avadel Pharmaceuticals says a Delaware federal court went too far in blocking it from testing a narcolepsy drug to treat an uncommon sleep disorder after finding that it infringed a patent covering a rival's narcolepsy drug.

  • October 02, 2024

    Amarin Says Sky Isn't About To Fall In Skinny Labels Fight

    Amarin Pharma Inc., the maker of the cardiovascular drug Vascepa, has defended a Federal Circuit decision reviving its skinny label patent case against a rival U.K. drugmaker, telling the appeals court that the sky is not "going to fall on the generic pharmaceutical industry."

  • October 02, 2024

    NY Judge Not Confused By Irish Butter Packaging

    The company behind the Kerrygold butter brand has failed to convince a federal judge in New York that consumers were confused by a smaller, newer Irish butter brand, per a ruling that called the businesses' respective packaging "markedly dissimilar."

  • October 02, 2024

    Sports Field Sweeper Inventor Says Sons Infringed Patent

    An Australian company that invented a mechanical sweeper system to clean sports fields alleges in a Colorado federal lawsuit that the sons of the technology's inventor are selling infringing sweepers in the United States.

  • October 02, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Orders Damages Redo In $11M Meat Sorter IP Fight

    The Federal Circuit on Wednesday called for a new damages trial in Provisur Technologies Inc.'s $10.5 million patent infringement win over Weber Inc., taking issue with how a Missouri federal court looked at willfulness and apportionment.

  • October 02, 2024

    NC Judge Ends NIL Ban For State's Public School Athletes

    North Carolina public school athletes can now be compensated for their name, image and likeness, thanks to a preliminary injunction granted by a state judge that overturned a ban by the state board of education.

  • October 02, 2024

    State Farm's Sanctions Bid Nixed In Driver Tech Patent Tangle

    Noting that both parties had unclean hands, a Texas federal judge denied State Farm's request for sanctions in consolidated patent infringement cases brought by an inventor who patented driver monitoring technology that he claims the insurer and automakers Mercedes-Benz and Honda used without permission.

  • October 02, 2024

    Meta Facing Another Author Class Action Over LLM Training

    Another author has launched a proposed class action against Meta Platforms Inc. in California federal court alleging the social media giant swiped material from hundreds of thousands of copyrighted books to train its series of large language models named Llama.

  • October 02, 2024

    FisherBroyles Hit With Malpractice Suit Over Stem Cell Case

    A Southern California stem cell treatment center hit FisherBroyles LLP with a $10 million malpractice suit in state court over the law firm's work defending it in a patent infringement case that settled, claiming the defense was so incompetently handled that it had to hire WilmerHale as the case approached trial.

  • October 02, 2024

    Fleetwood Mac Producer Says 'Stereophonic' Rips Off His Book

    One of the producers of Fleetwood Mac's classic 1977 record album "Rumours," Kenneth Caillat, has accused the author of the play "Stereophonic" of swiping copyrighted material from his memoir "Making Rumours" to make the hit Broadway show.

  • October 02, 2024

    GM Must Face Auto Part Co.'s Raid Conspiracy Counterclaim

    General Motors can't slip an aftermarket car parts company's accusation that the auto giant was behind a government raid of its warehouses, a Michigan federal judge ruled Tuesday, allowing two of Quality Collision's counterclaims in a GM-filed patent infringement suit to stand.

  • October 02, 2024

    Supplement Co. Hits Back At TM Suit, Alleges Fake Reviews

    Supplement-maker Nutranext Business LLC failed to disclose that a doctor promoting its products is a paid influence, artificially inflated its positive reviews on Amazon and misrepresented a study that purports to show the benefits of using its products, according to new counterclaims filed by a competitor it sued for trademark infringement.

  • October 02, 2024

    Fla. Atty Disbarred For Abandoning Pharma Biz Before USPTO

    The Florida Supreme Court on Wednesday disbarred an attorney for taking on intellectual property work for a pharmaceutical company only to later cease communications and keep the business in the dark about maintenance fees, causing its patents to expire.

  • October 01, 2024

    IBM Targets Take-Two In IP Suit After $45M Win Against Zynga

    Less than a month after obtaining a $45 million verdict against San Francisco game company Zynga over patents related to online advertisements, IBM launched a new lawsuit in Delaware federal court against the developer's parent company over different video games. 

  • October 01, 2024

    Nonprofit Finds Bad Patent 'Epidemic' Is Just A Myth

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is more likely to reject patent applications with valid claims than approve applications with invalid claims, according to a new report commissioned by former USPTO directors and Federal Circuit judges who were concerned about an alleged "epidemic" of bad patents. 

  • October 01, 2024

    Fla. Judge Sends 2 Live Crew Rights Dispute To Jury

    A Florida federal judge has trimmed trademark and copyright infringement claims from a suit by music label Lil' Joe Records against members of the hip-hop group 2 Live Crew but said he would send the issue of whether the termination of the label's rights to the songs was effective to a jury next week.

  • October 01, 2024

    Amazon Gets $47M Voice Patent Verdict Slashed By $7M

    Amazon was able to shave off about $7 million from a nearly $47 million verdict against it in a voice software technology patent case by a defunct startup after convincing a Delaware federal court that there was a hole in expert testimony over the online retail giant's Alexa software.

  • October 01, 2024

    Buchalter Grows In Atlanta With Taylor English IP Litigators

    Buchalter PC has continued its expansion in Georgia with the addition of two intellectual property litigators from Taylor English Duma LLP.

  • October 01, 2024

    Febreze Jingle IP Claim Doesn't Pass 2nd Circ. Smell Test

    The Second Circuit on Tuesday rejected an appeal from a New York composer who claims Procter & Gamble's advertisement jingle for Febreze ripped off five notes from a song he wrote in the 1980s, saying those notes by themselves are not protectable under copyright law.

Expert Analysis

  • IP Concerns For Manufacturing Semiconductors In Low Orbit

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    With space habitation companies working to launch private space stations in the near future, semiconductor manufacturers aiming to execute research and development in low or microgravity must consider the unique claim drafting and patent protection issues that will emerge, says Greg Miraglia at Quinn Emanuel.

  • 6 Tips For Trying Cases Away From Home

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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    A truly national litigation practice, by definition, often requires trying cases in jurisdictions across the country, which presents unique challenges that require methodical preparation and coordination both within the trial team and externally, say Edward Bennett and Suzanne Salgado at Williams & Connolly.

  • 3 Coverage Tips As 2nd Circ. 'Swipes Left' On Tinder Claim

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    The Second Circuit's recent opinion in Match Group v. Beazley Underwriting, overturning Tinder's victory on its insurer's motion to dismiss a coverage action, reinforces three best practices policyholders purchasing claims-made coverage should adhere to in order to avoid late-notice defenses, say Lynda Bennett and Alexander Corson at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • USPTO Guidance Suggests 2 Strategies For AI Inventions

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    Analyzing the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's recent guidance, it appears that there are at least two paths for establishing that an artificial intelligence invention is eligible for protection, and that which strategy to use may turn on how broadly the invention is applied, says William Morriss at Frost Brown.

  • A Blueprint For Structuring An Effective Plaintiff Case Story

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    The number and size of nuclear verdicts continue to rise, in part because plaintiffs attorneys have become more adept at crafting compelling trial stories — and an analysis of these success stories reveals a 10-part framework for structuring an effective case narrative, says Jonathan Ross at Decision Analysis.

  • Series

    Round-Canopy Parachuting Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Similar to the practice of law, jumping from an in-flight airplane with nothing but training and a few yards of parachute silk is a demanding and stressful endeavor, and the experience has bolstered my legal practice by enhancing my focus, teamwork skills and sense of perspective, says Thomas Salerno at Stinson.

  • And Now A Word From The Panel: The MDL Map

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    An intriguing yet unpredictable facet of multidistrict litigation practice is venue selection for new MDL proceedings, and the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation considers many factors when it assigns an MDL venue, says Alan Rothman at Sidley Austin.

  • Boeing Ruling Is A Cautionary Tale For Trade Secret Litigants

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    A Washington federal court’s recent ruling canceling a $72 million jury award against Boeing because Zunum Aero had failed to properly identify its trade secrets highlights the value of an early statement of alleged secrets, amended through discovery and used as a framework at trial, says Matthew D'Amore at Cornell.

  • Why Now Is The Time For Law Firms To Hire Lateral Partners

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    Partner and associate mobility data from the second quarter of this year suggest that there's never been a better time in recent years for law firms to hire lateral candidates, particularly experienced partners — though this necessitates an understanding of potential red flags, say Julie Henson and Greg Hamman at Decipher Investigative Intelligence.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Courts Will Still Defer To Feds On Nat'l Security

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    Agencies with trade responsibilities may be less affected by Chevron’s demise because of the special deference courts have shown when hearing international trade cases involving national security, foreign policy or the president’s constitutional authority to direct such matters, say attorneys at Venable.

  • A Look At The Economic Impact Of Drug Patent Differentiation

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    Given the Federal Trade Commission’s recent emphasis on unfair competition based on disputed patent listings, pharmaceutical market participants are likely to require nuanced characterizations of actual and but-for market competition when multiple patents differentiate multiple products, say economists at Competition Dynamics.

  • Google And The Next Frontier Of Divestiture Antitrust Remedy

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    The possibility of a large-scale divestiture in the Google search case comes on the heels of recent requests of business breakups as remedies for anticompetitive conduct, and companies should prepare for the likelihood that courts may impose divestiture remedies in the event of a liability finding, say Lauren Weinstein and Nathaniel Rubin at MoloLamken.

  • Considering Possible PR Risks Of Certain Legal Tactics

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    Disney and American Airlines recently abandoned certain litigation tactics in two lawsuits after fierce public backlash, illustrating why corporate counsel should consider the reputational implications of any legal strategy and partner with their communications teams to preempt public relations concerns, says Chris Gidez at G7 Reputation Advisory.

  • Defamation Law Changes May Be Brewing At Supreme Court

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's significant rightward shift has produced dramatic changes in many areas of the law, and the long-standing "actual malice" standard protecting speech about public figures could be the next precedent to fall, say attorneys at Paul Hastings.

  • Exploring Practical Employer Alternatives To Noncompetes

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    With the Federal Trade Commission likely to appeal a federal court’s recent rejection of its noncompete ban, and more states limiting the enforceability of these agreements, employers should consider back-to-basics methods for protecting their business interests and safeguarding sensitive information, says Brendan Horgan at FordHarrison.

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