Intellectual Property

  • July 19, 2024

    Temple U.'s Ken Jacobsen On NCAA-House Deal, What's Next

    Even with a deal of such size and consequence — approximately $2.8 billion, more than 184,000 athletes in the class, all the Power Five conferences named and with decades of court rulings leading up to it — the settlement over name, image and likeness compensation in the Grant House-led class action against the NCAA is best seen as a beginning, rather than an end.

  • July 19, 2024

    PTAB Invalidates Claims In Amsted Railcar Patent

    The Patent Trial and Appeal Board has wiped out several claims in an Amsted Rail Co. Inc. patent covering a way of monitoring the performance of railcars, after the patent had become the subject of a suit between the railcar parts manufacturer and a former executive.

  • July 19, 2024

    Fla. Man Charged With Selling Fake Tribal Jewelry In Wis.

    A Florida man has been charged with several fraud-related counts after he was allegedly caught selling fake Native American jewelry at arts and crafts shows across the country, according to a grand jury indictment handed down in Wisconsin federal court.

  • July 19, 2024

    Calif. Alice Invalidations Block Koss' PTAB Appeal At Fed. Circ.

    The Federal Circuit on Friday said it won't review whether the Patent Trial and Appeal Board rightfully invalidated some claims of Koss Corp.'s wireless earphone patents, as the patents were definitively invalidated in California.

  • July 19, 2024

    Shoemaker Asks Court To Trim Birkenstock Copycat Claim

    A judge said Friday that she couldn't tell the difference between several popular styles of Birkenstock sandals and alleged "knockoff" versions made by a New Hampshire company based on photos, signaling potential trouble for the defendant in a trademark infringement lawsuit by the German footwear-maker.

  • July 19, 2024

    A Guide To The USPTO's Long List Of Requests For Comment

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has kept attorneys busy this year by seeking input on numerous patent issues and proposed rules. Here's a cheat sheet to the topics where feedback has been collected, from fee hikes to director reviews, and those with upcoming comment deadlines, including artificial intelligence.

  • July 19, 2024

    McCarter & English Pushes To End Biotech Malpractice Row

    McCarter & English LLP faced accusations Friday in New Jersey state court that it was making "fictitious" defenses in a malpractice suit by a biotechnology company, saying in response that it was being treated as a "scapegoat."

  • July 19, 2024

    Off The Bench: Trial Time For Jerry Jones, Sunday Ticket Row

    In this week's Off The Bench, Jerry Jones' legal battle with the woman claiming to be his daughter reaches a courtroom, Sunday Ticket subscribers clap back at the NFL, and soccer fans go after the stadium they could not enter for the Copa America final.

  • July 19, 2024

    Judge Recuses As Tech Firm Slams Dow Chemical's Request

    An Ohio federal judge has recused himself from a trade secrets case brought against Dow Chemical Co. after the technology firm that sued it showed the court a settlement offer without approval that would grant Dow Chemical's recusal motion, which the tech firm said was a "cavalier approach to a drastic remedy."

  • July 19, 2024

    Calif. Firm Beats Rival's Claims In 'Sweet Justice' TM Fight

    A California federal court on Thursday nixed a personal injury firm's countersuit against its rival in a battle over the trademark use of the term "Sweet Justice," ruling that the firm's counterclaims are a "mirror-image" of the underlying suit.

  • July 19, 2024

    Apple Wants Litigation Funder To Explain Role In Patent Row

    Apple Inc. wants a Delaware federal judge to order litigation funder Omni Bridgeway LLC to turn over documents explaining its relationship with Finnish company MPH Technologies Oy and its financial interest in MPH's ongoing patent litigation against Apple in California.

  • July 19, 2024

    UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

    This past week in London has seen a libel clash between comedian Paul Currie and the Soho Theatre Company over allegations of anti-semitism, technology giant Huawei face a patents claim by Mediatek, Westfield Europe pursue action against Clearpay Finance for contract breaches and tour operating company Carnival hit chartered airline Maleth Aero for significant flight delays. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

  • July 18, 2024

    Abbott Wins Trust Asset Freeze To Collect $33M In TM Fight

    A New York federal judge has agreed to freeze trusts tied to a couple who owe Abbott Laboratories $33.4 million in sprawling trademark litigation over gray-market diabetes test strips, finding an asset freeze is necessary due to the defendants' "pervasive and repeated" use of the trusts for personal expenses and gambling.

  • July 18, 2024

    CoComelon Seeks Atty Fees And Sanctions After $23M IP Win

    The company behind the popular children's YouTube channel CoComelon urged a California federal judge Thursday to follow up its $23.4 million copyright trial win by ordering a Chinese rival to pay an additional $6.5 million in attorney fees and costs, plus $1 million more for the rival's litigation misconduct.

  • July 18, 2024

    Apple Wants 2 Trials In Masimo Trade Secrets And Patent Row

    Apple has told a California federal judge that a November retrial in Masimo's suit against it should only cover claims including trade secrets that led to a mistrial last year after Masimo sought $1.85 billion, and that Masimo's patent claims should be tried later.

  • July 18, 2024

    Texas IP Firm Fights Microsoft With Dueling Sanctions Bid

    Prolific patent litigator Bill Ramey has pushed back against Microsoft's bid to sanction his law firm in Texas federal court, filing his own sanctions motion that claims the tech giant and its attorney "gleefully" filed an improper declaration in the case to defame him and his firm.

  • July 18, 2024

    Vidal Backs 'Egregious Abuse' Findings Against Vaccine Maker

    U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director Kathi Vidal has upheld a Patent Trial and Appeal Board decision to punish Longhorn Vaccines & Diagnostics for "egregious abuse of the PTAB process," a status report in a Utah federal case indicates.

  • July 18, 2024

    Fed. Circ. OKs Gilstrap's Alice Ax Of Background Check Patent

    The Federal Circuit on Thursday upheld Eastern District of Texas Judge Rodney Gilstrap's invalidation of a background check patent for claiming only an abstract idea, as well as his refusal to award attorney fees to the small Texas city that prevailed in the case.

  • July 18, 2024

    Comcast Gets PTAB To Eye Patent Despite EDTX Trial

    The Patent Trial and Appeal Board on Thursday said it will look into a petition by Comcast asking it to invalidate claims in a patent organizing "content on a display device" that is tied to a $338.7 million jury verdict and is being asserted in another case set to go to trial later this year.

  • July 18, 2024

    Google Warns Fed. Circ. Panel Backed Manipulating Damages

    The Federal Circuit's decision to make Google pay EcoFactor $20 million for infringing a smart thermostat patent clears patent owners to "manufacture a royalty rate" and ignore both market realities and apportionment, Google told the full court in a bid for rehearing.

  • July 18, 2024

    Ye Brazenly Stole DJ Khalil's Music For 'Donda,' Suit Says

    The musical artist formerly known as Kanye West has been slapped with a lawsuit in California federal court claiming that he stole music from DJ Khalil and three other artists for two leading tracks on his blockbuster album "Donda."

  • July 18, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Won't Deflate Air Mattress Patent Upheld At PTAB

    The Federal Circuit on Thursday affirmed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's conclusion that no claims of a Sun Pleasure Co. air mattress patent are invalid based on the grounds asserted by a Chinese company.

  • July 18, 2024

    Invalid Patents Sink Tech Co.'s Claims Against Lenovo

    A North Carolina federal judge has cut claims in an infringement suit over data transfer patents by wireless and video technology company InterDigital against Lenovo, finding some of the challenged patents are invalid.

  • July 18, 2024

    Del. Judge Overrules ViaTech's $34M Jury Win Against Adobe

    A Delaware federal judge has concluded that Adobe Inc. could not have infringed a ViaTech technologies licensing system patent, and threw out a jury's $33.8 million infringement verdict.

  • July 18, 2024

    Tech Giants Can't Sink Slide-To-Unlock Patent At Fed. Circ.

    Samsung, Apple and Google failed on Thursday to persuade a panel of Federal Circuit judges to kill a patent covering the idea of sliding-to-unlock a phone, purportedly developed by a small Sweden smartphone developer over a decade ago.

Expert Analysis

  • How Attorneys Can Reduce Bad Behavior At Deposition

    Author Photo

    To minimize unprofessional behavior by opposing counsel and witnesses, and take charge of the room at deposition, attorneys should lay out some key ground rules at the outset — and be sure to model good behavior themselves, says John Farrell at Fish & Richardson.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Rethinking Agency Deference In IP Cases

    Author Photo

    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent overturning of Chevron deference could make it simpler to challenge the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s proposed rule on terminal disclaimers and U.S. International Trade Commission interpretations, says William Milliken at Sterne Kessler.

  • Series

    Solving Puzzles Makes Me A Better Lawyer

    Author Photo

    Tackling daily puzzles — like Wordle, KenKen and Connections — has bolstered my intellectual property litigation practice by helping me to exercise different mental skills, acknowledge minor but important details, and build and reinforce good habits, says Roy Wepner at Kaplan Breyer.

  • Opinion

    'Trump Too Small' Ruling Overlooks TM Registration Issues

    Author Photo

    The U.S. Supreme Court's decision last month in Vidal v. Elster, which concluded that “Trump Too Small” cannot be a registered trademark as it violates a federal prohibition, fails to consider modern-day, real-world implications for trademark owners who are denied access to federal registration, say Tiffany Gehrke and Alexa Spitz at Marshall Gerstein.

  • Texas Ethics Opinion Flags Hazards Of Unauthorized Practice

    Author Photo

    The Texas Professional Ethics Committee's recently issued proposed opinion finding that in-house counsel providing legal services to the company's clients constitutes the unauthorized practice of law is a valuable clarification given that a UPL violation — a misdemeanor in most states — carries high stakes, say Hilary Gerzhoy and Julienne Pasichow at HWG.

  • In Memoriam: The Modern Administrative State

    Author Photo

    On June 28, the modern administrative state, where courts deferred to agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes, died when the U.S. Supreme Court overruled its previous decision in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council — but it is survived by many cases decided under the Chevron framework, say Joseph Schaeffer and Jessica Deyoe at Babst Calland.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Expect Limited Changes In USPTO Rulemaking

    Author Photo

    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling overturning Chevron deference will have limited consequences for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office given the USPTO's unique statutory features, but it is still an important decision for matters of statutory interpretation, especially those involving provisions of the America Invents Act, say Andrei Iancu and Cooper Godfrey at Sullivan & Cromwell.

  • Fed. Circ. Skinny Label Ruling Guides On Infringement Claims

    Author Photo

    The Federal Circuit's recent decision in Amarin v. Hikma shows generic drug manufacturers must pay close attention to the statements in their abbreviated new drug application labels to put themselves in the best position in defending against an induced infringement claim, say Luke Shannon and Roshan Shrestha at Taft Stettinius.

  • How To Clean Up Your Generative AI-Produced Legal Drafts

    Author Photo

    As law firms increasingly rely on generative artificial intelligence tools to produce legal text, attorneys should be on guard for the overuse of cohesive devices in initial drafts, and consider a few editing pointers to clean up AI’s repetitive and choppy outputs, says Ivy Grey at WordRake.

  • USPTO Disclaimer Rule Would Complicate Patent Prosecution

    Author Photo

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's proposed changes to terminal disclaimer practice could lead to a patent owner being unable to enforce a valid patent simply because it is indirectly tied to a patent in which a single claim is found anticipated or obvious in view of the prior art, say attorneys at Sterne Kessler.

  • Series

    Boxing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

    Author Photo

    Boxing has influenced my legal work by enabling me to confidently hone the skills I've learned from the sport, like the ability to remain calm under pressure, evaluate an opponent's weaknesses and recognize when to seize an important opportunity, says Kirsten Soto at Clyde & Co.

  • Opinion

    Industry Self-Regulation Will Shine Post-Chevron

    Author Photo

    The U.S. Supreme Court's Loper decision will shape the contours of industry self-regulation in the years to come, providing opportunities for this often-misunderstood practice, says Eric Reicin at BBB National Programs.

  • When Patents As Loan Collateral Can Cost You Standing

    Author Photo

    The Federal Circuit's recent decision in Intellectual Tech v. Zebra Technologies shines a light on loan default provisions' implications for patent infringement litigation, as a default may inadvertently strip a patent owner of constitutional standing to sue over a patent pledged as collateral, say Joseph Marinelli and Suet L. Lee at Irwin IP.

  • 3 Ways Agencies Will Keep Making Law After Chevron

    Author Photo

    The U.S. Supreme Court clearly thinks it has done something big in overturning the Chevron precedent that had given deference to agencies' statutory interpretations, but regulated parties have to consider how agencies retain significant power to shape the law and its meaning, say attorneys at K&L Gates.

  • How Life Science Companies Are Approaching UPC Opt-Outs

    Author Photo

    A look at recent data shows that one year after its launch, the European Union's Unified Patent Court is still seeing a high rate of opt-outs, including from large U.S.-based life science companies wary of this unpredictable court — and there are reasons this strategy should largely remain the same, say Sanjay Murthy and Christopher Tuinenga at McAndrews Held.

Want to publish in Law360?


Submit an idea

Have a news tip?


Contact us here
Can't find the article you're looking for? Click here to search the Intellectual Property archive.
Hello! I'm Law360's automated support bot.

How can I help you today?

For example, you can type:
  • I forgot my password
  • I took a free trial but didn't get a verification email
  • How do I sign up for a newsletter?
Ask a question!