Intellectual Property

  • February 26, 2026

    Ex-Joe Gibbs Racing Director Denies Trade Secret Theft

    Joe Gibbs Racing's former competition director on Wednesday denied absconding with trade secrets on his way out the door and urged a North Carolina federal judge to reject the NASCAR giant's request to stop him from working for a rival, arguing this would "effectively exile me from this profession."

  • February 26, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Affirms Chip Patent Claims Are Invalid

    The Federal Circuit on Thursday affirmed a Delaware federal judge's decision that a set of patents covering computer chip design were invalid under the so-called Alice test, clearing semiconductor makers Siemens and GlobalFoundries of infringement allegations.

  • February 26, 2026

    4th Circ. Revives Secrets Charges Against Ex-Deloitte Workers

    The Fourth Circuit on Thursday revived the bulk of the charges against two former Deloitte workers accused of stealing the company's trade secrets, disagreeing with a lower court that dismissed the case because of the government's delay in bringing it.

  • February 26, 2026

    College Says Ex-QB Owes $1M From NIL Deal After Transfer

    Football star Brendan Sorsby violated his name, image and likeness agreement with the University of Cincinnati when he transferred to another program and owes the school at least $1 million, the university claims in a lawsuit in Ohio federal court.

  • February 26, 2026

    11th Circ. Axes ATM Co.'s Latest Bid To Revive Patent Dispute

    The Eleventh Circuit ended an ATM technology company's attempt to relitigate a patent infringement suit against a competitor, ruling Thursday that the claims are barred because they could have been brought up in a previous suit.

  • February 26, 2026

    'Almost At A Loss For Words': Judge Fines Attys For AI Errors

    An Ohio federal judge sanctioned two attorneys Monday for repeatedly submitting false and inaccurate citations generated using artificial intelligence, calling the conduct the most egregious violation of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11 he'd seen in his 46 years on the federal bench.

  • February 26, 2026

    ITC To Probe China's Trade Status, Biotech Practices

    The U.S. International Trade Commission announced the start of two investigations Thursday related to China that were ordered by Congress, including examining state support and pricing practices for Chinese biotechnology firms and exploring the idea of ending normal trade relations with the country.

  • February 26, 2026

    Hecht Partners Absorbs 11-Atty Florida Class Action Firm

    New York-headquartered litigation boutique Hecht Partners LLP announced Thursday that it is expanding into Florida and Minnesota after adding 11 attorneys and seven staff members by absorbing class action firm George Feldman McDonald PLLC.

  • February 26, 2026

    Barnes & Thornburg Lands Katten M&A Partner In NY

    Barnes & Thornburg LLP has expanded its mergers and acquisitions and private equity teams by hiring a former Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP partner.

  • February 25, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Gene Therapy Ruling Gives Rare Eligibility Clarity

    When the Federal Circuit revived the University of Pennsylvania's gene therapy patent last week, it provided a bright-line rule that's often missing in the debate over patent eligibility, attorneys say.

  • February 25, 2026

    Nvidia Says YouTubers' AI Scraping Suit Undermines Fair Use

    Nvidia urged a California federal judge to nix a lawsuit alleging it circumvented measures to scrape data from YouTube videos to train its AI model, arguing Monday the Digital Millennium Copyright Act doesn't prohibit circumvention of measures that prevent copying — which allows the public to make fair use of copyrighted works. 

  • February 25, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Told New Ruling Backs Patent Win Against Amazon

    Software company Kove IO Inc. told the Federal Circuit that the court's ruling in a recent case undermines Amazon's argument that a $673 million judgment against it for infringing cloud data storage patents should be thrown out.

  • February 25, 2026

    Hasbro Settles Copyright Suit Over Star Wars Helmets

    A hobbyist who sued Hasbro Inc. alleging the company ripped off his design for liners in the company's Star Wars-themed helmets has reached a deal to end his claims, according to a court filing this week.

  • February 25, 2026

    IP Co. Investors Sue Over AI-Focused Acquisition Losses

    Executives and directors of semiconductor technology company Synopsys Inc. were hit with a shareholder's derivative suit accusing them of misleading investors about the operational challenges faced by one of its segments following a $35 billion acquisition of an artificial intelligence company made in 2024.

  • February 25, 2026

    Joe Gibbs Racing Seeks Injunction Against Ex-Director, Rival

    NASCAR giant Joe Gibbs Racing LLC is urging a North Carolina federal court to hand it a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction that will prevent its ex-competition director from using its trade secrets to benefit a direct competitor.

  • February 25, 2026

    9th Circ. Undoes $278M Eli Lilly Payment In Insulin Case

    The Ninth Circuit ruled against a lower court Wednesday in saying pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly does not owe $278 million in royalties to an Arizona company for insulin-brands sales, saying an agreement between the companies did not cover insulin products Eli Lilly made using a certain yeast expression technology.

  • February 25, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Denies Yet Another Petition Over PTAB Changes

    The Federal Circuit on Wednesday rejected another company's challenge to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's practice of using settled expectations as a reason to deny patent reviews, leaving two petitions over the agency's new institution policies still pending.

  • February 25, 2026

    Split Fed. Circ. Affirms Tesla's Loss In Charger Patent Fight

    A split Federal Circuit panel on Wednesday refused to revive Tesla's challenge to a Charge Fusion Technologies patent on electric vehicle charging, backing the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's finding that the automobile company failed to show it was invalid.

  • February 25, 2026

    Full Fed. Circ. Won't Hear Comcast Venue Change Bid

    The Federal Circuit on Wednesday denied a request from Comcast for the full court to review its arguments that a patent infringement case it's facing should be transferred to the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

  • February 25, 2026

    Estate Documents Firm Accuses Rivals Of Trade Secrets Theft

    Probate technology company Estate Documents Pro LLC filed a complaint in Arizona federal court alleging that former customers out of Texas misappropriated its software to launch a rival estate planning business.

  • February 25, 2026

    Taft Adds 5-Person IP Team From McAndrews Held

    Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP announced on Wednesday that it has hired a group of four attorneys and one patent agent from McAndrews Held & Malloy Ltd. in the Chicago, Minneapolis and West Palm Beach, Florida, offices.

  • February 25, 2026

    Judge Won't Toss Copyright Suit Against Proud Boys Attorney

    A Florida federal judge refused Wednesday to dismiss a copyright infringement suit that alleges a criminal defense attorney used an expert witness report without authorization while representing a member of the far-right Proud Boys group fighting charges related to the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol attack.

  • February 25, 2026

    Miley Cyrus Argues 'Flowers' Didn't Rip Off Bruno Mars Song

    Miley Cyrus has asked a California federal judge to grant her a win in a case accusing her 2023 song "Flowers" of copying the Bruno Mars song "When I Was Your Man," saying there's no chance for the plaintiffs to prove that the songs are substantially similar through expert testimony.

  • February 25, 2026

    Moderna's Damages Expert Limited In March Patent Trial

    Moderna's damages expert was blocked from offering testimony about what a reasonable royalty would be in a suit alleging its COVID-19 vaccine infringed a rival's patents, after a federal judge found that part of the testimony wasn't reliable.

  • February 24, 2026

    OpenAI Beats XAI's 'Conclusory' Trade Secrets Suit, For Now

    A California federal judge dismissed a suit Tuesday from Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI Corp. that accuses OpenAI Inc. of poaching its workers to steal trade secrets, saying "notably absent" from the current suit's "conclusory" claims are allegations showing misconduct by OpenAI and that she would allow xAI to submit a bolstered complaint.

Expert Analysis

  • What Recent Dataset Suits Signal For AI Training Litigation

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    Plaintiffs are moving away from abstract debates about artificial intelligence at large and toward dataset provenance, and three filings illustrate how provenance is pled using public dataset documentation, archives and discovery‑ready allegations about copying, retention and downstream handling, says Yulia Leshchenko at Name & Fame.

  • Series

    Playing Piano Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Playing piano and practicing law share many parallels relating to managing complexity: Just as hearing an entire musical passage in my head allows me to reliably deliver the message, thinking about the audience's impression helps me create a legal narrative that keeps the reader engaged, says Michael Shepherd at Fish & Richardson.

  • AI Trade Secret Conviction Highlights Espionage Risks

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    A California federal court's conviction last month of an ex-Google engineer who stole artificial intelligence trade secrets for the benefit of China is the latest in a series of foreign economic espionage cases and illustrates the urgent need for U.S. companies to implement robust security measures, says attorney Peter Toren.

  • How To Counter 7 Logical Fallacies In Legal Arguments

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    Many legal arguments are riddled with reasoning flaws that can effectively distract or persuade the fact-finder, but these tactics lose much of their power when attorneys recognize and strategically shine a light on them, says Allison Rocker at BakerMcKenzie.

  • AI-Generated Doc Ruling Guides Attys On Privilege Risks

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    A New York federal court's ruling, in U.S. v. Heppner, that documents created by a defendant using an artificial intelligence tool were not privileged, can serve as a guide to attorneys for retaining attorney-client or work-product privilege over client documents created with AI, say attorneys at Sher Tremonte.

  • How To Turn EU AI Act Disclosures Into Patent Assets

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    As the Aug. 2 deadline approaches to comply with provisions of the EU Artificial Intelligence Act governing high-risk AI systems, intellectual property and AI leaders should consider steps to leverage documentation requirements to surface patentable subject matter, reinforce inventive-step narratives and align regulatory timelines with patent filing strategy, say Lestin Kenton, Roozbeh Gorgin and Ananth Josyula at Sterne Kessler.

  • The Law Firm Merger Diaries: Leadership Strategy After Day 1

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    For law firm leaders, ensuring a newly combined law firm lives up to its promise, both in its first days of operation and well after, includes tough decisions, clear and specific communication, and cheerleading, says Peter Michaud at Ballard Spahr.

  • Fed. Circ. In Jan.: On The Validity Of Expert Testimony

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    The Federal Circuit's recent decision in Barry v. DePuy, addressing whether expert testimony is admissible even if it does not strictly adhere to the court's claim construction, suggests that exclusion via a Daubert motion is appropriate only when the line to improper testimony is clearly crossed, say attorneys at Knobbe Martens.

  • Reel Justice: 'Sentimental Value' And Witness Anxiety

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    "Sentimental Value" reminds us that anxiety can interfere with performance, but unlike actors, witnesses cannot rehearse their lines or control the script, so a lawyer's role is not to eliminate stress, but to create conditions where the accuracy of a witness's testimony survives under pressure, says Veronica Finkelstein at Wilmington University.

  • Calif.'s Civility Push Shows Why Professionalism Is Vital

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    The California Bar’s campaign against discourteous behavior by attorneys, including a newly required annual civility oath, reflects a growing concern among states that professionalism in law needs shoring up — and recognizes that maintaining composure even when stressed is key to both succeeding professionally and maintaining faith in the legal system, says Lucy Wang at Hinshaw.

  • How The Fashion 'Dupe' Economy Is Redefining IP Strategies

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    Fashion brands' recent experiments with unconventional trademark strategies highlight the growing impact that "dupe" versions of luxury items are having on the fashion market, as well as growing pressure points in trademark and trade dress law, say attorneys at Marshall Gerstein.

  • Series

    Trivia Competition Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Playing trivia taught me to quickly absorb information and recognize when I've learned what I'm expected to know, training me in the crucial skills needed to be a good attorney, and reminding me to be gracious in defeat, says Jonah Knobler at Patterson Belknap.

  • An Instructive Reminder On Appealing ITC Determinations

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    A recent Federal Circuit decision, partially dismissing Crocs' appeal of a U.S. International Trade Commission verdict as untimely, offers a powerful reminder that the ITC is a creature of statute and that practitioners would do well to interpret those statutes conservatively, says Derrick Carman at Robins Kaplan.

  • Clarifying A Persistent Misconception About Settlement Talks

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    An Indiana federal court’s recent Cloudbusters v. Tinsley ruling underscores the often-misunderstood principle that Rule 408 of the Federal Rules of Evidence does not bar parties from referencing prior settlement communications in their pleadings — a critical distinction when such demands further a fraudulent or bad faith scheme, say attorneys at Hanson Bridgett.

  • Opinion

    Federal Preemption In AI And Robotics Is Essential

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    Federal preemption offers a unified front at a decisive moment that is essential for safeguarding America's economic edge in artificial intelligence and robotics against global rivals, harnessing trillions of dollars in potential, securing high-skilled jobs through human augmentation, and defending technological sovereignty, says Steven Weisburd at Shook Hardy.

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