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Intellectual Property
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July 08, 2024
5th Circ. Unstrings Gibson's Win In Guitar Design TM Fight
Gibson must retry its case alleging a rival guitar maker sold counterfeit instruments that infringed its trademark on the Flying V guitar and other iconic models, the Fifth Circuit ruled Monday, saying the district court improperly excluded evidence.
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July 08, 2024
NBC Settles IP Suit Over Documentary Of Landscaping Co.
NBC has reached a deal in a copyright infringement suit in New York federal court brought by the owners of a video showing Rudy Giuliani claiming voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, which was originally posted on YouTube before some of it appeared in a half-hour NBC documentary about how the press conference affected Four Seasons Total Landscaping.
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July 08, 2024
Biotech Slaps Intellia With IP Suit Over $100M Regeneron Deal
Biotechnology company BlueAllele Corp. sued Intellia Therapeutics Inc. in Delaware federal court Monday, claiming the rival has infringed on three of its patents related to gene editing and using its invented technology to reap over $100 million under a deal with another biotech, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc.
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July 08, 2024
Smoke Shops Say Rivals Are Copying Name, Filching Goodwill
A Washington smoke chain has hit several rivals with trademark infringement lawsuits, accusing them of unauthorized use of its name, Smoke City, so they can lean on the goodwill it has developed with customers.
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July 08, 2024
Fed. Circ. Won't Let Charter Shake Off Texas Patent Suit
The Federal Circuit on Monday turned down an argument from Charter Communications to direct a lower court in Marshall, Texas, to toss a patent infringement suit it's facing — less than a year after the cable company lost a nearly identical argument in a different patent case before the appeals court.
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July 08, 2024
Ex-Worker Under Protective Order Stole Gym's Name, Suit Says
A former mixed martial arts gym employee with a protective order against him for threatening his boss and several other workplace misconduct violations stole the company's name to use in opening a competing gym and luring co-workers and clients away, according to a suit filed Friday in Colorado state court.
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July 08, 2024
Biotech Co. Alleges Arbitrator Conflict In Patent Award Fight
Pennsylvania-based biotechnology company Renmatix Inc. is urging the Delaware Court of Chancery to nix an arbitral award favoring Finnish company UPM-Kymmene Corp. in a long-running patent dispute, pointing to an allegedly undisclosed conflict of interest involving the Finnish company's counsel at DLA Piper.
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July 08, 2024
Patent Office Continues To Fight Smartflash's FOIA Suit
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has again said it shouldn't have to turn over documents an inventor is seeking about Patent Trial and Appeal Board reviews of his patents, saying that doing so would harm its ability to respond to public information requests.
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July 08, 2024
Netherlands-Based NXP Cos. Want Out Of Texas IP Suit
Semiconductor company NXP Semiconductors NV and NXP BV, which are both based in the Netherlands, have said a Texas federal judge should throw out a lawsuit claiming they infringed more than half a dozen patents owned by Redwood Technologies LLC, saying the court doesn't have authority over the foreign companies.
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July 08, 2024
'Amazon Of Hemp' Wants Early Exit From NC Pot Farm Fight
An online hemp retailer is looking to ditch claims that it's passing off a North Carolina farm's hemp products as its own and has otherwise doctored THC test reports, calling the suit "fatally defective" and saying that other parts of the complaint contradict those claims.
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July 08, 2024
ITC Hands Innoscience Partial Loss In Semiconductor IP Row
A judge at the U.S. International Trade Commission has found that Innoscience flouted federal law by importing semiconductor technology that infringes an Efficient Power Conversion patent.
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July 08, 2024
DraftKings Hiding Ball On Noncompete Law, 1st Circ. Told
A former DraftKings executive fighting a noncompete so he can work for rival sports-betting upstart Fanatics has told the First Circuit his ex-employer is overlooking the importance of a California law that could unwind the restrictive covenant.
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July 08, 2024
Patent Holder Drops VoIP Suits Against Capital One, Fidelity
A small company that owns a voice recognition technology patent has agreed to drop its lawsuits in Texas federal court against Capital One and Fidelity.
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July 08, 2024
Puma Aims To Unveil Redacted Docs In Shoe IP Battle
Puma has pushed a rival sports gear company to turn over previously withheld and unredacted versions of documents in a trademark fight over shoes, telling a Washington federal judge that Brooks Sports Inc. already sent the materials to a third party.
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July 08, 2024
Calif. Realtor Sued Over Use Of Kanye West's Ranch Photos
A real estate photographer has accused a property listings site in California federal court of stealing his photos of a Hidden Hills, California, ranch home that used to be owned by controversial rap artist Kanye West.
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July 08, 2024
Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court
Prince's heirs were left standing alone in a cold world last week after Delaware's Court of Chancery found their attempts to gain control of the late musician's estate too demanding. Delaware's court of equity also waved a wand for Walt Disney and slashed nearly $10 million from a damages award for Sears stockholders. In case you missed anything, here's a recap of all the latest news from Delaware's Chancery Court.
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July 08, 2024
The Biggest Patent Rulings Of 2024: A Midyear Report
The Federal Circuit issued its first en banc patent decision since 2018, a circuit judge's suspension was solidified and courts shed further light on foreign damages and skinny labels. Here's a look back at these rulings and other top patent decisions from the first half of 2024.
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July 05, 2024
GitHub, OpenAI Get Developers' Copyright Claim Tossed
A California federal judge has trimmed software developers' suit claiming OpenAI and Microsoft's GitHub ripped off their source code to build artificial intelligence tools, axing their claim under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, according to an order unsealed Friday.
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July 05, 2024
Prince Estate's Managing Members Prevail In Spat With Family
Delaware's Court of the Chancery on Friday held that some of Prince's family members ran afoul of an LLC agreement when they tried to oust two managing members of the late musician's estate and give themselves more control.
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July 05, 2024
HBO Dodges Copyright Suit Over 'FBoy Island,' For Now
A New York federal judge ruled that a young producer failed to sufficiently allege HBO's "Fake Famous" and "FBoy Island" shows ripped off his "Instafamous" reality show concept, but the flaws in the producer's copyright infringement allegations weren't so bad they couldn't be fixed.
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July 05, 2024
Apple Says Masimo Can't Rely On LKQ In Design Patent Fight
Apple Inc. has told a Delaware federal court that medical tech company Masimo Corp.'s attempt to use the Federal Circuit's latest holding on design patent jurisprudence in one of their multiple ongoing legal fights surrounding the Apple Watch "fails to address any … authority concerning any pending motion."
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July 05, 2024
Don't Defer To ITC On Domestic Industry, Fed. Circ. Told
The U.S. Supreme Court's elimination of Chevron deference confirms that courts need not defer to the U.S. International Trade Commission's interpretation of the domestic industry requirement for patent cases, eyelash extension company Lashify has told the Federal Circuit.
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July 05, 2024
How Reshaped Circuit Courts Are Faring At The High Court
Seminal rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court's latest term will reshape many facets of American society in the coming years. Already, however, the rulings offer glimpses of how the justices view specific circuit courts, which have themselves been reshaped by an abundance of new judges.
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July 05, 2024
Breaking Down The Vote: The High Court Term In Review
The U.S. Supreme Court's lethargic pace of decision-making this term left the justices to issue a slew of highly anticipated and controversial rulings during the term's final week — rulings that put the court's ideological divisions on vivid display. Here, Law360 takes a data dive into the numbers behind this court term.
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July 05, 2024
High Court Flexes Muscle To Limit Administrative State
The U.S. Supreme Court's dismantling of a 40-year-old judicial deference doctrine, coupled with rulings stripping federal agencies of certain enforcement powers and exposing them to additional litigation, has established the October 2023 term as likely the most consequential in administrative law history.
Expert Analysis
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A Look At Ex Parte Seizures 8 Years Post-DTSA
In the eight years since the Defend Trade Secrets Act was enacted, not much has changed for jurisprudence on ex parte seizures, but a few seminal rulings show that there still isn’t a bright line on what qualifies as extraordinary circumstances warranting a seizure, say attorneys at Finnegan.
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Series
Whitewater Kayaking Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Whether it's seeing clients and their issues from a new perspective, or staying nimble in a moment of intense challenge, the lessons learned from whitewater kayaking transcend the rapids of a river and prepare attorneys for the courtroom and beyond, says Matthew Kent at Alston & Bird.
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10 Years After Alice, Predictability Debate Lingers
A decade after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Alice ruling, critics continue to argue that the subject matter eligibility framework it established yields inconsistent results, but that contention is disproved by affirmance data from the Federal Circuit, district courts and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, say Dennis Abdelnour and David Thomas at Honigman.
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This Earth Day, Consider How Your Firm Can Go Greener
As Earth Day approaches, law firms and attorneys should consider adopting more sustainable practices to reduce their carbon footprint — from minimizing single-use plastics to purchasing carbon offsets for air travel — which ultimately can also reduce costs for clients, say M’Lynn Phillips and Lisa Walters at IMS Legal Strategies.
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Circumstantial Evidence Requires A Pointillist Approach
Because complex cases with sophisticated defendants are unlikely to reveal much, if any, direct evidence, attorneys must aggregate many pieces of circumstantial evidence into a cohesive narrative — much like the painting technique of pointillism, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.
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How China's IP Proposal Could Affect US Brands' TM Strategy
Proposed amendments to China's Trademark Law aimed at improving the application and enforcement processes could make some common U.S. brand protection strategies moot, and may require brand owners to more carefully explain marks' use or nonuse, say attorneys at Neal Gerber.
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Exploring Patent Trends In Aerospace Electrification
As blue-chip companies lead the charge to power large-scale commercial airplanes with electricity, and startups advance the trend on a regional scale, patent applications directed at improving energy storage and electric motor efficiency are on the rise, say attorneys at Finnegan.
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3 Tech Sourcing Best Practices That Are Relevant For AI
It might be tempting to think that sourcing artificial intelligence tools requires a completely new set of skills, but the best practices that lead to a good deal are much the same as traditional technology procurement, says Mia Rendar at Pillsbury.
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The Pros And Cons Of NIST's Proposed March-In Framework
Recent comments for and against the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s proposed guidance on march-in rights — which permit the government to seize federally funded patents — highlight how the framework may promote competition, but could also pose a risk to contractors and universities, say Nick Lee and Paul Ragusa at Baker Botts.
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Why Fed. Circ. Should Resolve District Split On Patent Statute
A split exists among district courts in their analysis of when marking cannot be done on a patented article due to its character, and the Federal Circuit should consider clarifying the analysis of Section 287(a), a consequential statute with important implications for patent damages, say Nicholas Nowak and Jamie Dohopolski at Sterne Kessler.
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Practicing Law With Parkinson's Disease
This Parkinson’s Awareness Month, Adam Siegler at Greenberg Traurig discusses his experience working as a lawyer with Parkinson’s disease, sharing both lessons on how to cope with a diagnosis and advice for supporting colleagues who live with the disease.
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When Trade Secret Protection And Nat'l Security Converge
The Trump administration's anti-espionage program focused on China is over, but federal enforcement efforts to protect trade secrets and U.S. national security continue, and companies doing business in high-risk jurisdictions need to maintain their compliance programs to avoid the risk of being caught in the crosshairs of an investigation, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.
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Why Incorporating By Reference Is Rarely Good Practice
The Federal Circuit’s recent ruling in Promptu Systems v. Comcast serves as a reminder that while incorporating by reference may seem efficient, it is generally prohibited by courts and can lead to sanctions when used to bypass a word count limit, says Cullen Seltzer at Sands Anderson.
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Series
Playing Hockey Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Nearly a lifetime of playing hockey taught me the importance of avoiding burnout in all aspects of life, and the game ultimately ended up providing me with the balance I needed to maintain success in my legal career, says John Riccione at Taft.
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Considerations For Evaluating IP Risks In Cannabis M&A
Due to the patchwork of state cannabis laws in the U.S., investors and businesses acquiring intellectual property must assess whether a trademark portfolio possesses any vulnerabilities, such as marks that are considered attractive to children or third-party claims of trademark infringement, say Mary Shapiro and Nicole Katsin at Evoke Law.