Intellectual Property

  • March 13, 2024

    Cherry IP Deception Claims Would Inflame Jury, Canada Says

    The Canadian government has told a Washington federal judge that jurors should not hear allegations that its IP licenser deceived the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in a trial against Washington fruit growers it claims rebranded a unique Canadian sweet cherry variety as their own, citing the "inflammatory" nature of the growers' counterclaim.

  • March 13, 2024

    Versata Wants Axed $105M Ford Verdict Revived Or Expanded

    Versata Software has urged the Federal Circuit to undo a Michigan federal judge's decision erasing a nearly $105 million trade secrets and breach of contract verdict it won against Ford, and argued that it was wrongly barred from presenting damages theories seeking up to $1.3 billion.

  • March 13, 2024

    AI Auto Damage-Assessing Giant Accused Of Monopoly

    Tractable Inc. is hitting back at CCC Intelligent Solutions with counterclaims in an ongoing trade secrets spat, alleging in a new motion CCC has leveraged its dominant share of the auto collision-assessment market to stifle consumer choice and increase prices in violation of antitrust laws.

  • March 13, 2024

    Ex-Boeing IP Manager's Counsel Secures $224K In Fees

    A Washington federal judge has awarded more than $224,000 in attorney fees to a former Boeing intellectual property manager after finding that the company retaliated against him for speaking up against the poor treatment of other workers.

  • March 13, 2024

    Judge Connolly Ends Chipmaker's Case Against IP Edge

    Delaware's top federal judge has decided to brush aside arguments from California chipmaker Power Integrations that multiple agreements "not to sue" that it had obtained from a consortium of patent litigation outfits led by IP Edge were legally "meaningless."

  • March 13, 2024

    IRobot, SharkNinja Settle Last Of Roomba Patent Fight

    IRobot and SharkNinja have reached a settlement in principle to resolve what remains of a long-standing patent dispute related to the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner.

  • March 13, 2024

    Jury Must Weigh Willfulness In Secrets Case, Calif. Court Says

    A California state appellate court has found a jury will have to decide whether a former director at Applied Medical Distribution Corp. willfully misappropriated trade secrets from his former employer.

  • March 13, 2024

    Microsoft Strikes Deal To Settle Suit Over Caltech Patents

    The California Institute of Technology and Microsoft notified a Texas court Tuesday that they have reached an agreement to end a case where the university alleged that the Xbox and other products infringed its data transmission patents, following similar settlements with other tech giants.

  • March 13, 2024

    KKR Leads $500M HarbourView Music-Backed Financing

    HarbourView Equity Partners said Wednesday it has secured about $500 million in debt financing through a music asset-backed securitization led by KKR, which will be used to further expand HarbourView's music investment capabilities. 

  • March 13, 2024

    Ex-VP's 'Dereliction' Provokes Default Judgment As Sanction

    An exasperated judge in North Carolina gave an HVAC company an early win by default against a former executive accused of stealing trade secrets, calling his failure to meet discovery demands "dereliction" and granting his former employer's request for sanctions as a result.

  • March 13, 2024

    Perkins Coie Post-Grant Leader Heads to Goodwin In DC

    Goodwin Procter LLP announced Wednesday that it hired the co-chair of Perkins Coie LLP's post-grant practice as an intellectual property litigation partner in its Washington, D.C., office.

  • March 12, 2024

    Daiichi Urges Court To OK Arbitrator's Award Against Seagan

    Japanese drugmaker Daiichi Sankyo has asked a Seattle federal judge not to toss an arbitral award refusing Seagen Inc.'s claims for billions of dollars in a dispute over cancer drug patents, saying the U.S. biotech company has incorrectly lodged a petition to vacate the award.

  • March 12, 2024

    Federal Circuit Won't Reconsider Axing Tyvaso Patent

    The full Federal Circuit on Tuesday declined to review a panel ruling from late last year that sided with a Patent Trial and Appeal Board decision that there was nothing patentable about a way of administering a blockbuster pulmonary hypertension drug.

  • March 12, 2024

    Judiciary Touts New Policy To Rein In Judge Shopping

    The Judicial Conference of the United States on Tuesday said it has updated a policy on random case assignments to ensure litigants can't shop for the judge of their choice by going to a one-judge district court.

  • March 12, 2024

    Patent Deal Brings End To Philip Morris Import Ban

    The U.S. International Trade Commission has decided to pull its import ban on a line of Philip Morris heated tobacco products following a settlement of its patent fight with British American Tobacco, over the objections of the agency's own in-house lawyers.

  • March 12, 2024

    Hytera Can't Go To Chinese Court In $540M Motorola IP Fight

    An Illinois federal judge on Tuesday granted Motorola's request for an order blocking major Chinese radio company Hytera from pursuing a bid in China to keep Motorola from shutting down a Chinese case in which Hytera claimed it doesn't use Motorola's intellectual property.

  • March 12, 2024

    IP Offices Tell Congress Legal Changes Not Needed For NFTs

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the U.S. Copyright Office told Congress in a report Tuesday about the intellectual property implications of nonfungible tokens, identifying opportunities and concerns about the technology, while advising against changing IP law or policy as a result.

  • March 12, 2024

    Patent Case Against Samsung Paused For PTAB Proceedings

    A Texas federal judge said he is staying a suit accusing Samsung's phones of infringing a technology company's patent, noting that there were challenges to the patent going forward before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

  • March 12, 2024

    Startup Founder's Attys Come 'Very Close' To More Sanctions

    A Colorado federal judge has said a geothermal startup founder's arguments for why one of his attorneys should not be sanctioned for discovery violations were "preposterous" and warned his lawyers that they came "very close" to being penalized again.

  • March 12, 2024

    USPTO Launches Public Engagement Office, Searches For Chief

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Monday announced the creation of a new Office of Public Engagement to bolster its outreach and communication efforts and also said the agency is looking for a permanent chief to run the new business unit.

  • March 12, 2024

    'Success Kid' Meme Fight Tests Limits Of Copyright Law

    An Eighth Circuit panel considered Tuesday the question of how far federal copyright law stretches to cover the use of memes while debating the effect of last year's landmark Warhol ruling on a suit against a former U.S. representative's use of the "Success Kid" meme in a fundraising post.

  • March 12, 2024

    InBev's Modelo Tells 2nd Circ. Hard Seltzer Isn't Beer

    Anheuser-Busch InBev SA's Grupo Modelo on Tuesday asked the Second Circuit to set aside a jury's finding that its trademarks weren't infringed by rival Constellation Brands when it sold hard seltzer under the Corona brand, saying badly instructed jurors were wrong in finding that it's beer, pursuant to a contract between the two companies.

  • March 12, 2024

    Wash. Judge Skeptical Of Models' Strip Club Ad Claims

    A Washington federal judge seemed doubtful Tuesday of models' damages bid against a Seattle cabaret that allegedly used their images without permission, unconvinced that those who spotted the ads would truly believe such elite models worked at the "mediocre" strip club with bad Yelp ratings.

  • March 12, 2024

    Roberto Clemente's Family Appeals Puerto Rico TM Loss

    The family of the late MLB Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente is asking the First Circuit to revive trademark claims against Puerto Rico for the unauthorized use of the former Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder's image on license plates and vehicle registrations.

  • March 12, 2024

    Meta Alleges 'Brazenly Disloyal' Ex-Exec Stole AI Secrets

    Meta Platforms Inc. has sued a former Meta vice president in California state court, accusing the executive of "brazenly disloyal and dishonest conduct" for allegedly defecting to an artificial intelligence startup with the social media company's proprietary vendor contracts, AI "roadmaps" and employment data to recruit Meta's top talent.

Expert Analysis

  • AI Inventorship Patent Options After UK Supreme Court Ruling

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    The U.K. Supreme Court's recent ruling in Thaler v. Comptroller-General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks that an AI system cannot be an inventor raises questions about alternative approaches to patent protection for AI-generated inventions and how the decision might affect infringement and validity disputes around such patents, says David Knight at Brown Rudnick.

  • Considerations For Lawyer Witnesses After FTX Trial

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    Sam Bankman-Fried's recent trial testimony about his lawyers' involvement in FTX's business highlights the need for attorney-witnesses to understand privilege issues in order to avoid costly discovery disputes and, potentially, uncover critical evidence an adversary might seek to conceal, says Lawrence Bluestone at Genova Burns.

  • Del. Ruling Features Valuable Analysis For IPR Estoppel Args

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    Last month, the District Court of Delaware held in Prolitec v. ScentAir Technologies that IPR estoppel does not apply to device art, and the analysis in the case provides welcome illumination for how IPR estoppel arguments should be decided, says Chris Ponder at Sheppard Mullin.

  • Taking A Closer Look At Fed. Circ. Claim Construction Split

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    An empirical analysis of a year's worth of claim construction decisions from the Federal Circuit and four key district court jurisdictions shows that these constructions vary in material ways depending on the analysis' source, and this body of case law would benefit from clarification by the Federal Circuit itself, say attorneys at WilmerHale.

  • Staying Ahead Of The AI Policymaking Curve

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    With artificial intelligence poised to be the hottest legislative and regulatory topic in 2024, expect the AI policymaking toolbox to continue to expand and evolve as stakeholders in the U.S. and abroad develop, deploy, use and learn more about these technologies, say attorneys at Hogan Lovells.

  • Employee Experience Strategy Can Boost Law Firm Success

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    Amid continuing business uncertainty, law firms should consider adopting a holistic employee experience strategy — prioritizing consistency, targeting signature moments and leveraging measurement tools — to maximize productivity and profitability, says Haley Revel at Calibrate Consulting.

  • And Now A Word From The Panel: A Strong Year For MDLs

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    While the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation granted even fewer MDL petitions last year than in 2022, hitting a 21st-century low, a closer look at the record-setting number of total actions encompassed within current proceedings reveals that MDL practice is still quite robust, says Alan Rothman at Sidley.

  • What Cos. Can Learn From 2023 Export Enforcement Report

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    A January report summarizing key actions and policy changes undertaken at the Office of Export Enforcement in 2023 is a valuable indicator of future government priorities and the factors companies should consider as they conduct export operations amid what may be a turbulent international trading environment in 2024, says Thaddeus McBride at Bass Berry.

  • Series

    Competing In Triathlons Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    While practicing law and competing in long-distance triathlons can make work and life feel unbalanced at times, participating in the sport has revealed important lessons about versatility, self-care and perseverance that apply to the office as much as they do the racecourse, says Laura Heusel at Butler Snow.

  • Parsing The USPTO's Guidelines For Assessing Enablement

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    Ryan Hagglund at Loeb & Loeb details the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's recent guidelines for assessing enablement principles set forth in the U.S. Supreme Court's 2023 Amgen v. Sanofi decision, including how the guidelines can apply to all fields of technology.

  • Where Justices Stand On Chevron Doctrine Post-Argument

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    Following recent oral argument at the U.S. Supreme Court, at least four justices appear to be in favor of overturning the long-standing Chevron deference, and three justices seem ready to uphold it, which means the ultimate decision may rest on Chief Justice John Roberts' vote, say Wayne D'Angelo and Zachary Lee at Kelley Drye.

  • Perspectives

    6 Practice Pointers For Pro Bono Immigration Practice

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    An attorney taking on their first pro bono immigration matter may find the law and procedures beguiling, but understanding key deadlines, the significance of individual immigration judges' rules and specialized aspects of the practice can help avoid common missteps, says Steven Malm at Haynes Boone.

  • Lessons From Country Singer's Personal Service Saga

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    Recent reports that country singer Luke Combs won a judgment against a Florida woman who didn’t receive notice of the counterfeit suit against her should serve as a reminder for attorneys on best practices for effectuating service by electronic means, say attorneys at Jenner & Block.

  • 9 Contractual Issues Tech Startups Should Be Wary Of

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    Technology startups often overlook relatively simple but crucial contracting steps that are essential to owning and protecting their intellectual property, and the consequences of this will almost always surface at some point, typically in connection with a key investment or other significant transaction involving the business, say attorneys at Mayer Brown.

  • 5 AI Risks For Corporate Boards To Examine

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    Whether companies are building their own artificial intelligence technology or leveraging third-party tools, their directors should get educated on certain legal issues and business risks to ensure the adoption of policies that foster responsible use of generative AI, say James Gatto and Tiana Garbett at Sheppard Mullin.

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