Intellectual Property

  • March 27, 2025

    WordPerfect Software Co. Settles 'Alludo' TM Suit In Wash.

    The company behind the 1990s word-processing application WordPerfect has settled a Washington-based education technology firm's lawsuit accusing it of stealing a trademarked name for a 2022 revamp, ending the case ahead of an early April trial date in Seattle federal court.

  • March 27, 2025

    Pfizer Tops Pharma Tax Avoidance, Senate Dems Say

    Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer had no taxable profits in its largest market, the U.S., after booking all its income in jurisdictions including Puerto Rico, Singapore and Ireland, according to a Senate Finance Committee report prepared by panel Democrats that was released Thursday.

  • March 27, 2025

    Palo Alto Networks Dodges $100M Cybersecurity Patent Case

    A California federal judge has found that Silicon Valley-based Palo Alto Networks Inc. didn't infringe a trio of cybersecurity patents, freeing the company from a lawsuit that had asked for at least $100 million.

  • March 27, 2025

    Disney Seeks $5.7M Atty Fee Award After 'Moana' IP Trial Win

    The Walt Disney Co. sought $5.7 million in attorney fees Tuesday after beating an animator's trade secret and copyright suit claiming it ripped off his Polynesian adventure story to create "Moana," arguing he engaged in bad-faith tactics like forging evidence, perjuring himself and improperly inflating purported damages.

  • March 27, 2025

    Texas IP Attys Get $60K Sanction For Unauthorized Practice

    A San Francisco federal magistrate judge has leveled more than $60,000 in personal sanctions against Texas intellectual property lawyer William Ramey III and two other attorneys from his high-volume patent firm, saying two of them practiced law without a California license in numerous cases to escape paying out-of-state admission fees of $328 per lawyer.

  • March 27, 2025

    Fox Rothschild Brings On McCarter & English IP Ace In NJ

    Fox Rothschild LLP grew its Princeton, New Jersey, office this week with the addition of an intellectual property partner from McCarter & English LLP specializing in patent prosecution for medical devices, technology-enabled hardware and more.

  • March 27, 2025

    Life Sciences REIT Says Ex-Employee Stole Trade Secrets

    Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc. filed suit against a former employee in Massachusetts federal court, alleging that he stole a trove of proprietary information as he was planning to leave the company.

  • March 27, 2025

    Dutch Software Co. Tells 4th Circ. To Pause Trial After Atty DQ

    A Dutch software company is taking another stab at delaying its impending trademark trial with an American rival, telling the Fourth Circuit that it should not be forced to proceed after the district court held one of its attorneys in contempt and essentially disqualified him.

  • March 27, 2025

    9th Circ. Won't Stay Injunction Compelling Fed. Worker Rehire

    A split Ninth Circuit panel has refused to block an injunction compelling the Trump administration to reinstate about 16,000 probationary employees to six federal agencies, saying the administration will likely lose its argument that the agencies weren't acting on an order from above when they fired the workers.

  • March 26, 2025

    Judge Faults USPTO's 'Arbitrary' Ruling In BMW Patent Suit

    A Virginia federal judge agreed with BMW that former U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director Kathi Vidal erred when she vacated a reexamination of a cruise control patent being challenged by BMW, finding that the former director didn't adequately explain her analysis.

  • March 26, 2025

    Sotomayor Urges Caution On Nondelegation Doctrine Revamp

    U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor cautioned her colleagues during oral arguments Wednesday against using a challenge to the Federal Communications Commission's administration of a broadband subsidy program as a way to resurrect the long-dormant nondelegation doctrine. Several conservative justices, however, seemed willing to disregard that admonition.

  • March 26, 2025

    Judge Trims Copyright Case Against Microsoft, OpenAI

    A New York federal judge Wednesday kept alive news organizations' direct and contributory copyright infringement claims accusing Microsoft and OpenAI of ripping off their content to train generative artificial intelligence while trimming claims under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, but giving the plaintiffs a chance to rework their allegations.

  • March 26, 2025

    Judge Newman Maintains Fitness Probe Must Be Transferred

    Counsel for suspended 97-year-old Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman on Wednesday told the D.C. Circuit that its decision to transfer ethics complaints against a senior district court judge, lodged by his own colleagues, supported her contention that her fellow circuit judges shouldn't investigate her fitness to remain on the bench.

  • March 26, 2025

    Ye Stole IP From Artist Who Opposes Antisemitism, Suit Says

    Ye has been sued for copyright infringement in California federal court over his song "Gun To My Head," which allegedly sampled a track by a German artist who is descended from Holocaust survivors and opposed to the rapper's public antisemitism.

  • March 26, 2025

    USPTO Director To Take Lead In Considering PTAB Denials

    Citing the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's "workload needs," the acting director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced Wednesday that she will make decisions on whether every petition challenging a patent should be denied for discretionary reasons before the board considers the merits.

  • March 26, 2025

    Ramey Slams BlackBerry's IP Fee Win As 'Manifest Injustice'

    Ramey LLP and its client Silent Communications LLC urged U.S. District Judge Alan Albright Thursday to amend his finding that Ramey is liable for covering BlackBerry's attorney fees, estimated to be nearly $900,000, after filing a patent lawsuit in bad faith, arguing that the judgment is a "manifest injustice."

  • March 26, 2025

    Coalition Says Trump Admin Flouted Federal Rehiring Order

    The Trump administration responded to an injunction compelling it to rehire over 15,000 fired probationary employees by placing them on leave, not bringing them back to work, a coalition of advocates for the workers told a California federal judge Wednesday, saying the administration hasn't complied with the injunction.

  • March 26, 2025

    Full Fed. Circ. Won't Look At Injunction On MSN's Generic Drug

    The full Federal Circuit won't revisit a panel's January order barring MSN Laboratories Pvt. Ltd. from launching a generic version of Novartis' bestseller, the cardiovascular drug Entresto, as part of a flurry of moves in litigation related to the treatment.

  • March 26, 2025

    Trump Asks Again For End To 'Dubious' Isaac Hayes Suit

    President Donald Trump doubled down on his claims that Isaac Hayes' estate can't show it owns the rights to the 1966 song "Hold On, I'm Coming," arguing its "dubious chain of copyright ownership" can't overcome his bid to dismiss the legendary musician's estate's suit over his playing the song at campaign events.

  • March 26, 2025

    Court Holds On Tight To 'What I Like About You' Band's Row

    A Michigan federal judge said Wednesday the lead singer of The Romantics must face a bandmate's demands for a detailed accounting of the band's finances and allegations the singer has been withholding royalties and revenue from performances from a shared company.

  • March 26, 2025

    Women Make Up 13% Of Attys In Front Of The PTAB

    Women account for 13% of attorneys appearing in front of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board in post-grant proceedings going back to the board's founding in 2012 despite comprising up to 30% of all patent attorneys, according to a report from the PTAB Bar Association.

  • March 26, 2025

    Walgreens, Kroger Claim Takeda Cut Illegal TWi Generics Deal

    Walgreens, Kroger, Albertsons and H-E-B hit Takeda and TWi Pharmaceuticals with an antitrust suit in California federal court Tuesday, accusing the pharmaceutical companies of conspiring to delay the release of the generic version of Takeda's heartburn medication Dexilant, causing the retailers to pay more for the brand-name drug.

  • March 26, 2025

    Judge Blocks Build-A-Bear's Bid To Inspect 3K Squishmallows

    A California federal judge has rejected an attempt from Build-A-Bear Workshop to physically inspect thousands of Squishmallows stuffed toys in order to defend itself against trade dress infringement claims by the company that makes them, saying the defendant's request is overbroad and unnecessary.

  • March 26, 2025

    Copyright Claims Against Anthropic Over Lyrics Axed For Now

    A California federal judge on Wednesday dealt a blow to several music publishers that have accused artificial intelligence company Anthropic of ripping off lyrics in developing its large language model Claude, dismissing some copyright claims less than a day after denying a request to prohibit Anthropic from using their content for training.

  • March 26, 2025

    Whirlpool's Mixer TM Award Of $27M Is Enough, Judge Says

    A Texas federal judge has permanently barred two Chinese companies from infringing the exterior design of Whirlpool's iconic KitchenAid stand mixer but denied Whirlpool's request to increase a $27 million award it recently won at trial, saying Whirlpool's award, along with the permanent injunction, was more than enough.

Expert Analysis

  • Promoting Diversity In The Selection Of ADR Neutrals

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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    Choosing neutrals from diverse backgrounds is an important step in promoting inclusion in the legal profession, and it can enhance the legitimacy and public perception of alternative dispute resolution proceedings, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • Series

    Playing Ultimate Makes Us Better Lawyers

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    In addition to being fun, ultimate Frisbee has improved our legal careers by emphasizing the importance of professionalism, teamwork, perseverance, enthusiasm and vulnerability, say Arunabha Bhoumik and Adam Bernstein at Regeneron. 

  • Tracking The Slow Movement Of AI Copyright Cases

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    The tech community may be expecting a prompt resolution on whether products generated by artificial intelligence are a fair use of copyrighted works, but legal history shows that a response to this question — at the heart of over 30 pending cases — will take years, say attorneys at White & Case.

  • The EU Design System Changes US Cos. Need To Know About

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    With a number of major reforms to the European Union's design protection system set to take effect in the first half of 2025, U.S. companies need to stay informed about specific details to maintain effective intellectual property management in the EU market, say lawyers at Finnegan.

  • Curious Case Of FTC's Amicus Brief In Teva Fed. Circ. Appeal

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    Attorneys at BCLP explore the Federal Trade Commission's backing of Amneal's Orange Book-delisting efforts on Teva ahead of a key Federal Circuit hearing in a case between the two pharmaceutical companies, and wonder if the FTC amicus brief indicates a future trend, especially in the next administration.

  • E-Discovery Quarterly: Recent Rulings On Metadata

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    Several recent rulings reflect the competing considerations that arise when parties dispute the form of production for electronically stored information, underscoring that counsel must carefully consider how to produce and request reasonably usable data, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • When 'Patented' Goes Beyond Inventorship In False Ad Cases

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    The Federal Circuit's recent false advertising holding in Crocs v. Effervescent is significant because it offers a nuanced yet realistic understanding of what false claims about a product's status as "patented" can mean, say attorneys at McDermott.

  • The Fed. Circ. In October: Aetna And License-Term Review

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    The Federal Circuit's recent decision that Aetna's credit card licensing agreement with AlexSam did not give the insurer immunity from patent infringement claims serves to warn licensees to read their contracts carefully, say attorneys at Knobbe Martens.

  • Opinion

    PREVAIL Bill Is Another Misguided Attempt To Restrict PTAB

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    The decade-long campaign against the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Patent Trial and Appeal Board — currently focused on the PREVAIL Act that's slated for markup in the Senate — is not really about procedural issues, and it is not aimed at securing more accurate patentability decisions, says Clear IP's Joseph Matal, former acting director at the USPTO.

  • Striking A Balance Between AI Use And Attorney Well-Being

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    As the legal industry increasingly adopts generative artificial intelligence tools to boost efficiency, leaders must note the hidden costs of increased productivity, and work to protect attorneys’ well-being while unlocking AI’s full potential, says Ed Sohn at Factor.

  • Fleetwood Facts: Art Imitating Life, Or Infringing Copyright?

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    A new lawsuit in New York federal court over Broadway's "Stereophonic" play tests copyright's limits, as copyright law poses significant hurdles when it comes to real-life stories, and the line between fact and fiction isn't always clear-cut, says Aaron Moss at Greenberg Glusker.

  • Empathy In Mediation Offers A Soft Landing For Disputes

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    Experiencing a crash-landing on a recent flight underscored to me how much difference empathy makes in times of crisis or stress, including during mediation, says Eydith Kaufman at Alternative Resolution Centers.

  • Series

    Being An Artist Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My work as an artist has highlighted how using creativity and precision together — qualities that are equally essential in both art and law — not only improves outcomes, but also leads to more innovative and thoughtful work, says Sarah La Pearl at Segal McCambridge.

  • Reading Tea Leaves In Fed. Circ. Deep Dive On Review Scope

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    Roy Wepner at Kaplan Breyer investigates why a recent Federal Circuit opinion spent six pages explaining its unsurprising conclusion on proper scope of review — that no deference need be afforded to the trial court in a case dismissed for failure to state a claim.

  • Consider The Impact Of Election Stress On Potential Jurors

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    For at least the next few months, potential jurors may be working through anger and distrust stemming from the presidential election, and trial attorneys will need to assess whether those jurors are able to leave their political concerns at the door, says Ken Broda-Bahm at Persuasion Strategies.

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