Intellectual Property

  • October 09, 2024

    Thomson Reuters Again Seeks Win On ROSS' Pilfering

    Thomson Reuters on Tuesday filed a pair of renewed motions for partial summary judgment seeking to block ROSS Intelligence Inc. from claiming fair use, and hold it liable for copyright infringement, in a suit alleging ROSS ripped off the Westlaw research platform for its artificial intelligence product.

  • October 09, 2024

    USPTO Won't Let Non-Patent Attys Take Lead At PTAB

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Wednesday announced it would not move forward with its proposal to allow attorneys who don't belong to the patent bar serve as lead counsel at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

  • October 09, 2024

    Frost Brown Ducks Malpractice Suit Over League Trademarks

    A Delaware Superior Court judge has tossed a malpractice suit alleging that Frost Brown Todd LLP failed to adequately investigate infringement issues with trademarks a football league sought to use in the relaunch of the United States Football League.

  • October 09, 2024

    Ousted AI Engineer Took Trade Secrets, Auto Service Co. Says

    A software engineer who was fired from auto services company Agero after just three months took hundreds of confidential files and other materials, according to a suit filed on Wednesday in Massachusetts state court.

  • October 09, 2024

    'Ghost' Florida Atty Left Long Trail Of Irked Judges, Clients

    A Florida lawyer accused in a state court suit of ignoring and defrauding dozens of clients who paid nonrefundable retainers has faced a series of similar allegations in federal court, drawing the ire of judges and opposing counsel.

  • October 09, 2024

    Final Treasury Rules Shut Off Inclusion For Repatriated IP

    The U.S. Treasury Department adopted final rules Wednesday that shut off an annual income inclusion associated with intangibles for companies in certain situations that have transferred intellectual property back to the U.S. from overseas.

  • October 08, 2024

    Western Digital Owes $334M Over Data Security IP, Jury Told

    Hard disk drive behemoth Western Digital owes up to $334 million for selling portable data security storage devices that infringe a SPEX Technologies patent, SPEX's attorney told California federal jurors during opening statements Tuesday, while defense counsel said the claimed invention has been in the public domain for years.

  • October 08, 2024

    Apple Loses Bid For Jury Trial In Masimo Trade Secrets Fight

    A California federal judge on Monday granted Masimo's request for a bench trial to address its trade secrets claims against Apple, noting that bench trials are almost always granted in situations where the plaintiff is seeking only equitable relief, and Apple hasn't convinced the court to deviate from that norm.

  • October 08, 2024

    'Alarming' AI Might Aid Research In Patent Fights, Judge Says

    A Federal Circuit judge on Tuesday told law school students at the University of California, Berkeley that while he finds artificial intelligence tools "a little alarming and frightening," he could see how they might be useful for finding prior art in patent disputes.

  • October 08, 2024

    Illumina Wants Unresponsive Plaintiff To Pay $200K, Atty Fees

    Biotechnology company Illumina Inc. asked a New Jersey federal court Tuesday to order a former graduate student to pay $200,000 in liquidated damages for allegedly failing to respond to attempts to finalize a settlement to his claims that attorneys from Latham & Watkins LLP and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP manipulated a patent case to steal his intellectual property.

  • October 08, 2024

    ITC Erred With Oil Drilling Tech IP Ruling, Fed. Circ. Told

    US Synthetic Corp. on Tuesday urged the Federal Circuit to reverse a U.S. International Trade Commission decision that allows rivals to import a diamond oil drilling tool material the Utah-based company says infringes its intellectual property, arguing the agency wrongly found its drilling technology invention is abstract and patent-ineligible.

  • October 08, 2024

    Jackson, Kagan Target Loper Bright In Ghost Gun Case

    U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was uncharacteristically quiet during initial arguments Tuesday over the federal government's authority to regulate ghost guns. While her colleagues debated whether kits of unassembled parts qualify as firearms, she waited patiently to post a different question: Can courts now toss agency interpretations they don't like?

  • October 08, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Mulls Trade Dress Fight Over Pink Hip Devices

    A Federal Circuit panel wrestled Tuesday with arguments from a German medical supplier that "late-breaking research" shows why the appearance of the color pink in a part of hip joint implants is not as functional as the company used to claim in the marketplace.

  • October 08, 2024

    2nd Circ. Won't Revive 1-800 Contacts, Warby Parker Row

    A Second Circuit panel affirmed a ruling Tuesday that found eyewear retailer Warby Parker did not infringe 1-800 Contacts Inc.'s trademarks by purchasing ads on search engines using its competitor's keywords.

  • October 08, 2024

    NY Is 'Fair Play' For Barry Sanders Statue IP Row, Judge Told

    A professional photographer suing over the alleged unauthorized use of his copyrighted photo to create a statue of legendary Detroit Lions running back Barry Sanders urged a New York federal judge Tuesday not to drop the sculpture company from his lawsuit, arguing its jurisdictional claim lacks merit.

  • 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. Restores Debit Card Patent Suit Against Aetna

    The Federal Circuit on Tuesday revived 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 Doesn'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."

Expert Analysis

  • To Make Your Legal Writing Clear, Emulate A Master Chef

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    To deliver clear and effective written advocacy, lawyers should follow the model of a fine dining chef — seasoning a foundation of pure facts with punchy descriptors, spicing it up with analogies, refining the recipe and trimming the fat — thus catering to a sophisticated audience of decision-makers, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.

  • Circuit Judge Writes An Opinion, AI Helps: What Now?

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    Last week's Eleventh Circuit opinion in Snell v. United Specialty Insurance, notable for a concurrence outlining the use of artificial intelligence to evaluate a term's common meaning, is hopefully the first step toward developing a coherent basis for the judiciary's generative AI use, says David Zaslowsky at Baker McKenzie.

  • Fed. Circ. Rulings Crystallize Polymorph Patent 'Obviousness'

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    A comparison of two recent Federal Circuit obviousness challenge decisions regarding polymorph patents provides helpful insight into the assessment of screening arguments, particularly the issue of reasonable expectation of success, say Michael Green and John Molenda at Steptoe.

  • 3 Infringement Defenses To Consider 10 Years Post-Nautilus

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    In the 10 years since the U.S. Supreme Court’s influential Nautilus ruling, the spirit of the “amenable to construction” test that the opinion rejected persists with many patent litigators and judges, so patent infringement defense counsel should always consider several key arguments, says John Vandenberg at Klarquist Sparkman.

  • Attys Beware 2 Commonly Overlooked NIL Contract Issues

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    As name, image and likeness deals dominate high school and collegiate sports, preserving a client's NCAA eligibility should be a top priority, so lawyers should understand the potentially damaging contract provisions they may encounter when reviewing an agreement, says Paula Nagarajan at Arnall Golden.

  • FTC Focus: Exploring The Meaning Of Orange Book Letters

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    The Federal Trade Commission recently announced an expansion of its campaign to promote competition by targeting pharmaceutical manufacturers' improper Orange Book patent listings, but there is a question of whether and how this helps generic entrants, say Colin Kass and David Munkittrick at Proskauer.

  • Trending At The PTAB: Real Party In Interest And IPR

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    The Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s recent Luminex v. Signify decision, finding a complaint seeking indemnification may be treated as a public demand sufficient to establish a real party-in-interest, shows that the board continues to apply a broad and expansive definition to that term, say Yicong (Eve) Du and Yieyie Yang at Finnegan.

  • Investors Can Aid In The Acceptance Of Psychedelic Medicine

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    Psychedelic medicine is ready to have its breakthrough moment, and although it still faces political, legal and communications challenges, private equity investors can play a significant role in changing the public perception on psychedelics from taboo to acceptance, say Kimberly Chew at Husch Blackwell, Charlie Panfil at the Daschle Group and Ethan Lutz at FTI Consulting.

  • 12 Keys To Successful Post-Trial Juror Interviews

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    Post-trial interviews offer attorneys an avenue to gain valuable insights into juror decision making and get feedback that can inform future litigation strategies, but certain best practices must be followed to get the most out of this research tool, say Alexa Hiley and Brianna Smith at IMS Legal.

  • Perspectives

    Trauma-Informed Legal Approaches For Pro Bono Attorneys

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    As National Trauma Awareness Month ends, pro bono attorneys should nevertheless continue to acknowledge the mental and physical effects of trauma, allowing them to better represent clients, and protect themselves from compassion fatigue and burnout, say Katherine Cronin at Stinson and Katharine Manning at Blackbird.

  • The Fed. Circ. In May: The Printed Matter Doctrine's Scope

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    The Federal Circuit’s recent ruling in Ioengine v. Ingenico, which addressed the scope of the printed matter doctrine as applied to transmitted data or program code, restores the doctrine’s status as a relatively narrow part of patent law, say Jeremiah Helm and Sean Murray at Knobbe Martens.

  • Fed. Circ. Scrapping Design Patent Tests Creates Uncertainty

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    The Federal Circuit last week discarded established tests for proving that design patents are invalid as obvious, leaving much unknown for design patent applicants, patentees and challengers, such as what constitutes analogous art and how secondary references will be considered and applied, say attorneys at Sterne Kessler.

  • Series

    Playing Music Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My deep and passionate involvement in playing, writing and producing music equipped me with skills — like creativity, improvisation and problem-solving — that contribute to the success of my legal career, says attorney Kenneth Greene.

  • Lessons In High-Profile Jury Selection Amid NY Trump Trial

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    Richard Gabriel and Michelle Rey LaRocca at Decision Analysis consider how media exposure can affect a prospective juror in a high-profile case, the misunderstood nature of bias, and recommendations for jury selection in these unique situations as the Trump hush money trial continues in New York.

  • How AI Cos. Can Cope With Shifting Copyright Landscape

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    In the evolving landscape of artificial intelligence, recent legal disputes have focused on the utilization of copyrighted material to train algorithms, meaning companies should be aware of fair use implications and possible licensing solutions for AI users, say Michael Hobbs and Justin Tilghman at Troutman Pepper.

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