Intellectual Property

  • September 09, 2025

    ITC Judge Clears Motive In Trucking Tech Patent Fight

    A U.S. International Trade Commission judge has cleared fleet management startup Motive Technologies Inc. from an infringement case over patents owned by a rival that sells trackers to trucking companies.

  • September 09, 2025

    Lutnick Picks Ex-DOJ, TM Leaders To Advise USPTO

    U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard W. Lutnick has appointed high-profile members to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's public advisory committees, nearly six months after clearing them out.

  • September 09, 2025

    Quinn Emanuel Fights DQ Bid In Trade Secrets Fight

    Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP-represented Rippling is urging a Delaware state court to reject a bid to disqualify the firm from representing the human resources and payroll company in an ongoing trade secrets fight with competitor Deel Inc., saying the request is a misguided tactical move.

  • September 09, 2025

    Ex-Copyright Chief Wants Firing Declared Invalid

    The former head of the U.S. Copyright Office who was fired by President Donald Trump has asked a D.C. federal court to declare that firing invalid, saying it was an attempt by the administration to "seize control of the Library of Congress and the U.S. Copyright Office."

  • September 09, 2025

    Meta Wins At PTAB Amid IP Suit Over Facebook Safety Check

    The Patent Trial and Appeal Board has invalidated claims across four patents covering the technology behind features allowing people to check off that they're safe in a crisis, handing a win to challenger Meta as it faces a lawsuit accusing it of infringing those patents.

  • September 09, 2025

    3rd Circ. Told Cigna's 'Private Label' Stelara May Alter Market

    A Johnson & Johnson subsidiary told a Third Circuit panel it would be "difficult" to calculate its potential monetary losses if a Cigna subsidiary were to launch its own version of an anti-inflammatory treatment, particularly if it permanently changed the market by giving the insurance giant a "private label" version that pharmacies would give preference over the original.

  • September 08, 2025

    Ex-USPTO Leaders Bullish On AI's Potential For Office, Attys

    Two former directors of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office said at a conference Monday that they foresee artificial intelligence being able to dramatically increase efficiency in the future, in ways that could transform the operation of the patent office and the work of attorneys.

  • September 08, 2025

    9th Circ. Axes Ruling Trader Joe's 'Weaponized Legal System'

    A California federal judge hastily found that Trader Joe's cooked up borderline-frivolous theories of trademark infringement to punish union organizers, the Ninth Circuit held Monday, finding that union merchandise looks "strikingly similar" to the grocer's well-known logo.

  • September 08, 2025

    'Disappointed' Alsup Wants More Info On $1.5B Anthropic Deal

    U.S. District Judge William Alsup has declined to sign off on Anthropic's proposed $1.5 billion settlement with authors accusing the artificial intelligence developer of copyright infringement, saying he's "disappointed that counsel have left important questions" unanswered and instructing the parties to provide more information by the end of the month.

  • September 08, 2025

    Split 4th Circ. Axes States' Challenge To Trump Admin Layoffs

    A split Fourth Circuit panel held Monday that a coalition of states doesn't have standing to sue the Trump administration over the mass firing of thousands of probationary government employees, finding that it was the employees — not the states — who "suffered the brunt of the harm" underlying the case.

  • September 08, 2025

    Judge Axes Machine Learning Railyard Patents Under Alice

    A Delaware federal court has found that three patents owned by ConGlobal Technologies and asserted against Roboflow Inc. are invalid, with a visiting Federal Circuit judge concluding that the use of machine learning in the claimed railway positioning system doesn't render the claims patent eligible.

  • September 08, 2025

    VLSI Argues PQA Was Formed Illegally In Renewed Fraud Suit

    VLSI Technology LLC is once again trying to persuade a Virginia state judge that Patent Quality Assurance LLC owes it more than $3 million for misconduct at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, raising a new argument Monday that PQA's existence as a limited liability company was never legal.

  • September 08, 2025

    Pokémon Go Maker Gets Judge To 'Avada Kedavra' Patents

    A federal judge on Monday said he cast the so-called unforgivable avada kedavra curse from Harry Potter to kill three ImagineAR Inc. video game patents in its lawsuit against Pokémon Go maker Niantic Inc., saying the patents were all abstract and lacked any inventive concept.

  • September 08, 2025

    Ex-Franchisee: College Biz Suit A 'Play For Leverage'

    A lawsuit accusing a college consultant of breaching a contract with a former franchising company is nothing more than a "play for leverage" in an ongoing legal battle crossing state lines, consultant Gurpartap "Sunny" Grewal told a North Carolina federal court Friday.

  • September 08, 2025

    Atty In Judge Newman Suspension Feud Moves To DOJ

    An attorney who has been representing Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman in the legal battle over her suspension has jumped from the New Civil Liberties Alliance to work at the U.S. Department of Justice.

  • September 08, 2025

    WIPO Leader Sees 'Clouds On The Horizon' For IP In US

    World Intellectual Property Organization Director General Daren Tang said Monday that more governments around the world are recognizing the importance of IP, but "there are some clouds on the horizon" for the space in the U.S., traditionally an innovation leader.

  • September 08, 2025

    Oura Domestic Labor Investment Won Import Ban, ITC Says

    The U.S. International Trade Commission has found that Ouraring Inc.'s commitments in the U.S. to producing its smart ring warranted the agency's decision to block Ultrahuman and RingConn from importing products it held infringed a wearable computing device patent.

  • September 08, 2025

    Playboy Secures $81M Arbitration Win Over Ex-Licensee

    Playboy Inc. said Monday it has been awarded damages of approximately $81 million by an international arbitration tribunal against a former Chinese licensee.

  • September 08, 2025

    Pac-12 Schools Reach Deal With Apparel Cos. In TM Suit

    Schools in the NCAA's Pac-12 Conference have reached a tentative deal with two apparel companies that allegedly used university logos and other trademarks without authorization, telling a Washington state federal judge to expect details of the agreement in coming weeks.

  • September 08, 2025

    FisherBroyles Can't Nix Stem Cell Patent Malpractice Claim

    A California judge on Monday denied FisherBroyles LLP's motion to toss a claim in a $10 million malpractice suit brought against it by a stem cell treatment center, ruling the firm missed a deadline to file the motion. 

  • September 08, 2025

    9th Circ. Upholds Dismissal Of 'Penny Dreadful' IP Suit

    The Ninth Circuit on Monday affirmed a lower court's decision to dismiss a suit brought by a woman who claimed her writings on an online role-playing forum were used to create a character in the Showtime series "Penny Dreadful," saying the resemblance between her characters and Showtime's wasn't obvious enough to preclude coincidence.

  • September 08, 2025

    Phillips 66 Faces Retrial After 'Improper' Infringement Theory

    The Federal Circuit on Monday ordered a new trial over allegations that Phillips 66 infringed Magēmā Technology's oil refinery patents, saying in a precedential opinion that a Texas federal court wrongfully concluded that Phillips' noninfringement theory was harmless, as it had also found the theory "improper and prejudicial."

  • September 08, 2025

    Longtime USPTO Rocky Mountain Director Leaves Agency

    The leader of the regional U.S. Patent and Trademark Office covering Colorado, Nebraska and several other states has announced that she is no longer working at the agency.

  • September 08, 2025

    Nintendo Inks $2M Deal In Switch Piracy Suit

    Nintendo has reached a settlement with a man it accused of selling modified Nintendo Switch consoles and methods of playing pirated games, with the defendant agreeing to pay $2 million and be permanently enjoined from further distributing unauthorized materials or devices used for digital piracy.

  • September 08, 2025

    Fla. Judge May Sever Claims In Ex-NRA Lobbyist's Suit

    A Florida federal judge said he may proceed with severing a contract breach claim in a former lobbyist's lawsuit against the National Rifle Association and order it refiled in Virginia after ruling that the nonprofit could enforce a valid forum selection clause.

Expert Analysis

  • What Patent Claim 'Invalidity' Means In Different Forums

    Author Photo

    A recent Federal Circuit order allowing a patent suit to proceed despite similar claims being invalidated in an inter partes review underscores how fractured the patent litigation landscape has become, leading to critical nuances in how district courts, the U.S. International Trade Commission and Patent Trial and Appeal Board treat invalidity, says Jason Hoffman at BakerHostetler.

  • Top Takeaways From Trump's AI Action Plan

    Author Photo

    President Donald Trump's AI Action Plan represents some notable evolution in U.S. policy, including affirmation of the administration's trend toward prioritizing artificial intelligence innovation over guardrails and toward supporting greater U.S. private sector reach overseas, say attorneys at WilmerHale.

  • Rebuttal

    BigLaw Settlements Should Not Spur Ethics Deregulation

    Author Photo

    A recent Law360 op-ed argued that loosening law firm funding restrictions would make BigLaw firms less inclined to settle with the Trump administration, but deregulating legal financing ethics may well prove to be not merely ineffective, but counterproductive, says Laurel Kilgour at the American Economic Liberties Project.

  • How Big Pharma Has Responded To FTC Delisting Demands

    Author Photo

    Looking at some statistics concerning how pharmaceutical companies have responded to the Federal Trade Commission's recent challenges to Orange Book listings raises several possible hypotheses about the FTC's strategy and effectiveness, say Ratib Ali and Celia Lu at Competition Dynamics.

  • 5 Ways Lawyers Can Earn Back The Public's Trust

    Author Photo

    Amid salacious headlines about lawyers behaving badly and recent polls showing the public’s increasingly unfavorable view of attorneys, we must make meaningful changes to our culture to rebuild trust in the legal system, says Carl Taylor at Carl Taylor Law.

  • How To Successfully Challenge Jurors For Cause In 5 Steps

    Author Photo

    To effectively challenge a potential juror for cause, attorneys should follow a multistep framework rather than skipping straight to the final qualification question, says Ken Broda-Bahm at Persuasion Strategies.

  • USPTO's AI Tool Redefines Design Patent Landscape

    Author Photo

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's newly introduced DesignVision tool for artificial intelligence-powered image searching represents a dramatic shift in how design patent applications are examined, necessitating new strategies for patent practitioners, says Matthew Epstein at Dinsmore.

  • Series

    Hiking Makes Me A Better Lawyer

    Author Photo

    On the trail, I have thought often about the parallels between hiking and high-stakes patent litigation, and why strategizing, preparation, perseverance and joy are important skills for success in both endeavors, says Barbara Fiacco at Foley Hoag.

  • 6 Tips On Drafting Machine Learning Patents Post-Recentive

    Author Photo

    While the Federal Circuit's decision in Recentive v. Fox narrows the scope of patent-eligible machine learning applications, there are several drafting and prosecution strategies that may help practitioners navigate Section 101 challenges, say attorneys at BCLP.

  • What US-India Trade Deal Will Mean For Indian Pharma

    Author Photo

    Complicated by newly imposed tariffs from the U.S., the outcome of the U.S.-India trade talks is poised to reshape not just trade policy, but also the strategic alignment of the two countries' pharmaceutical ecosystems, says Jashaswi Ghosh at Holon Law Partners.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Negotiation Skills

    Author Photo

    I took one negotiation course in law school, but most of the techniques I rely on today I learned in practice, where I've discovered that the process is less about tricks or tactics, and more about clarity, preparation and communication, says Grant Schrantz at Haug Barron.

  • Opinion

    Bar Exam Reform Must Expand Beyond A Single Updated Test

    Author Photo

    Recently released information about the National Conference of Bar Examiners’ new NextGen Uniform Bar Exam highlights why a single test is not ideal for measuring newly licensed lawyers’ competency, demonstrating the need for collaborative development, implementation and reform processes, says Gregory Bordelon at Suffolk University.

  • The Patent Eligibility Eras Tour: 11 Years Of Post-Alice Tumult

    Author Photo

    A survey of recent twists and turns in patent eligibility law highlights the confusion created by the U.S. Supreme Court's 2014 Alice decision and reveals that the continually shifting standards have begun to diverge in fundamental ways between the Federal Circuit and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, says Michael Shepherd at Fish & Richardson.

  • Export Misconduct Resolutions Emphasize BIS, DOJ Priorities

    Author Photo

    The U.S. Department of Justice's and Bureau of Industry and Security's recently resolved parallel enforcement actions against semiconductor technology company Cadence Design demonstrate the agencies' prioritization of penalties for export control violations involving China, as well as the importance of voluntary self-disclosure, say attorneys at Fenwick.

  • Disney Art Suit Will Test Recent AI Fair Use Boundaries

    Author Photo

    While the first U.S. rulings to address the issue recently held that it's fair use for generative artificial intelligence models to train on certain copyrighted books without permission, Disney v. Midjourney, filed in June, will test the limits of the fair use framework in a visual art context, says Rob Rosenberg at Moses & Singer.

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.