Intellectual Property

  • September 18, 2025

    Dorsey & Whitney IP Atty Joins Foley Hoag In Denver

    Foley Hoag LLP announced the addition of its first intellectual property partner in the West with the hire of a longtime Dorsey & Whitney LLP attorney in its fast-growing Denver office.

  • September 18, 2025

    DOJ Seeks Rehearing On Copyright Chief's Reinstatement

    The federal government has asked the D.C. Circuit to rethink its decision to temporarily reinstate the head of the U.S. Copyright Office who was fired by President Donald Trump, saying the president has the authority to remove the copyright chief because the position is part of the executive branch.

  • September 18, 2025

    Alston & Bird Adds Ex-K&L Gates IP Litigator In Chicago

    Alston & Bird LLP has hired an intellectual property litigator previously with K&L Gates LLP as a partner in its Chicago office, the firm announced Thursday.

  • September 18, 2025

    Sheppard Mullin Lands 21-Atty IP Team From Ropes & Gray

    Continuing on efforts to grow its intellectual property group and build a nationally acclaimed patent litigation practice, Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP announced Thursday that it is bringing in a 21-attorney IP team from Ropes & Gray LLP.

  • September 17, 2025

    Litigation Spending To Keep Growing As Biz Risks Run High

    Companies are likely to increase their spending on litigation next year, some by over 10%, as legal disputes become more complex, more contentious and more high-stakes, according to a new report out Thursday.

  • September 17, 2025

    'It Doesn't Look Good': CoComelon Foe Faces Uphill IP Fight

    Ninth Circuit panel judges doubted Wednesday a Chinese company's appeal of its $23.4 million copyright-trial loss to the maker of the children's YouTube channel CoComelon, with one judge telling counsel "it doesn't look good for you," and another observing he's "never seen copying evidence quite as compelling as this record."

  • September 17, 2025

    PTAB Told Variations From Prior Rulings Require Explanation

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has told Patent Trial and Appeal Board judges that they must now explain any decisions that have a different outcome from an earlier ruling on the same patent or similar patent claims, either by the patent office or in litigation.

  • September 17, 2025

    AM Radio Bill Makes It Through House Committee, Again

    More than two-thirds of the House of Representatives have signed on to co-sponsor a bill that would prevent automakers from removing AM radios from their vehicles, so it came as no surprise when the bill sailed through markup Wednesday afternoon.

  • September 17, 2025

    Frontier Copyright Row Triggered Duty To Defend, Court Says

    Insurers for Frontier Communications had a duty to defend the telecommunications company against copyright infringement claims that were ultimately settled, a Delaware state court ruled in a recently unsealed opinion, analyzing a deliberate acts exclusion and the timeliness of Frontier's claim notice.

  • September 17, 2025

    Don Jr.-Backed Patent Co. Hires Nokia Licensing Exec

    SIM IP, the newest venture by high-profile patent monetizer Erich Spangenberg, has brought on Nokia's chief licensing officer to serve as managing director.

  • September 17, 2025

    Morgan & Morgan Hauls Disney Into Court Over TM Concern

    Law firm Morgan & Morgan sued Disney on Wednesday, asking a Florida federal court to declare that an advertisement it plans to run featuring elements from the animated short film "Steamboat Willie" does not infringe on Disney's intellectual property because the work entered the public domain last year.

  • September 17, 2025

    Posting Standards Violates Copyright, ASTM Tells 3rd Circ.

    The American Society for Testing and Materials told a Third Circuit panel in Philadelphia on Wednesday that a Pennsylvania federal judge was wrong to find that another company's posting of its copyrighted technical standards online was a noninfringing fair use of the material.

  • September 17, 2025

    Magistrate Says Cloud IP Suit Dismissal Should Be Permanent

    A federal magistrate judge in Texas has recommended that the voluntary dismissal of a patent infringement suit between two cloud computing companies be made permanent after one side complained a doctored screenshot was used as evidence.

  • September 17, 2025

    Anthropic, Reddit Spar Over Keeping AI Case In Federal Court

    Artificial intelligence startup Anthropic has asked a California federal judge to keep Reddit's claims that user content is used to train large language models in federal court, saying that at least one of Reddit's claims are preempted by the Copyright Act and effectively arise from federal law.

  • September 17, 2025

    Del. Judge Boosts American Axle's $4M IP Win By $1.2M

    A Delaware federal judge ordered Neapco Holdings LLC to pay American Axle & Manufacturing Inc. nearly $1.2 million in prejudgment interest on top of a $4 million jury verdict handed down in January 2024 in a long-running patent fight, according to court papers filed Wednesday.

  • September 17, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Backs Rejection Of Sterling Silver Patent App

    The Federal Circuit on Wednesday upheld the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's rejection of a bid for a patent on a silver alloy resistant to corrosion, backing the agency's finding that the application lacked enough written description.

  • September 17, 2025

    Nonprofit Loses TM Injunction Bid Against 'Making PA Better'

    A Pennsylvania federal judge has declined to bar the Pennsylvania Manufacturers' Association from using the phrase "Making PA Better" on its website in a trademark infringement case brought by a nonprofit, saying neither of the parties are engaged in commercial activity.

  • September 17, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Revives Hard Disk Patent Suit Against Seagate

    The Federal Circuit on Wednesday threw out a Pennsylvania federal jury's finding that computer hard drive manufacturer Seagate Technology did not infringe a patent on magnetic material used in computer hard disk drives, finding the lower court gave jurors an incorrect claim construction.

  • September 17, 2025

    Celeb Photo Agency Sues Over Decade-Old Farley Picture Use

    Hyperlocal news organization Block Club Chicago has been hit with copyright infringement claims by a celebrity photo agency alleging predecessor site DNAInfo Chicago used a photo of late actor Chris Farley without licensing it on an article published more than a decade ago.

  • September 17, 2025

    Sky-High AI Valuations Are Reshaping Dealmaking Playbook

    The latest financing for Anthropic underscores how difficult it has become to dismiss sky-high valuations backing AI as froth, and shows how such numbers could reshape acquisition and exit strategies while exposing investors to heightened legal and financial risks.

  • September 17, 2025

    Pinsent Masons-Led Rouse Acquires Rival European IP Firm

    London-based international intellectual property services company The Rouse Group has merged with rival European IP firm Arnold & Siedsma to increase coverage for its existing clients and expand its geographic footprint in a deal guided by Pinsent Masons LLP.

  • September 16, 2025

    IP Attorneys Aren't Playing Into Pokémon Patent Panic

    A patent granted to Nintendo and Pokémon earlier this month has video game players concerned that an entire genre of games could be undermined, yet patent attorneys say it's unlikely the companies would have any success if they chose to assert it.

  • September 16, 2025

    Patent Owner Wants Fed. Circ. Revival Of Salesforce Suit

    A consulting company is asking the Federal Circuit to undo a Nevada federal judge's dismissal of its suit accusing Salesforce of infringing patents for database software reprogramming, calling the decision "improper and unjustified."

  • September 16, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Won't Look At USAA's Nixed $223M Patent Verdicts

    The full Federal Circuit declined Tuesday to scrutinize panel decisions that wiped out a pair of patent infringement verdicts against PNC Bank that totaled nearly $223 million, rejecting United Services Automobile Association's arguments that the appeals court wrongly invalidated its mobile check deposit patents.

  • September 16, 2025

    4th Circ. Asked To Rehear 'Inspire' Dance Team Case

    A North Carolina charter school on Tuesday asked for the full Fourth Circuit to hear its claims that two former teachers should be barred from using the name "Inspire" for their dance company, arguing that declining to block the teachers is at odds with decades of circuit precedent.

Expert Analysis

  • How To Increase 3rd-Party Preissuance Patent Submissions

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    Attorneys Marian Underweiser and Marc Ehrlich, who helped draft the America Invents Act, discuss changes that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office could potentially implement to facilitate its hopes for increased participation in front-end patent challenges.

  • Anthropic Ruling Creates Fair Use Framework For AI Training

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    A California federal court’s recent ruling that Anthropic’s use of copyrighted books to train its large language model qualified as fair use provides important guidance for both artificial intelligence developers and copyright holders because it distinguishes between transformative uses and unauthorized uses involving pirated or format-shifted works, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • Series

    Playing Baseball Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Playing baseball in college, and now Wiffle ball in a local league, has taught me that teamwork, mental endurance and emotional intelligence are not only important to success in the sport, but also to success as a trial attorney, says Kevan Dorsey at Swift Currie.

  • Assessing Impact Of USPTO's New Patent Policies

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    Recent data shows how the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's new patent policies are affecting America Invents Act trial institution rates, including spurring an uptick in discretionary denials, say attorneys at Armond Wilson.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Skillful Persuasion

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    In many ways, law school teaches us how to argue, but when the ultimate goal is to get your client what they want, being persuasive through preparation and humility is the more likely key to success, says Michael Friedland at Friedland Cianfrani.

  • Fed. Circ. Ingenico Ruling Pivotal For IPR Estoppel Landscape

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    The Federal Circuit's recent decision in Ingenico v. Ioengine brings long-awaited clarity to the scope of inter partes review estoppel, confirming that a patent challenger is not precluded from relying on the same or substantially similar prior art in both IPR and district court proceedings, so long as it is used to support a different invalidity theory, say attorneys at Irwin IP.

  • Litigation Inspiration: How To Respond After A Loss

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    Every litigator loses a case now and then, and the sting of that loss can become a medicine that strengthens or a poison that corrodes, depending on how the attorney responds, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.

  • How Patent Attys Can Carefully Integrate LLMs Into Workflows

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    With artificial intelligence-powered tools now being developed specifically for the intellectual property domain, patent practitioners should monitor evolving considerations to ensure that their capabilities are enhanced — rather than diminished — by these resources, say attorneys at McDonnell Boehnen.

  • The Metamorphosis Of The Major Questions Doctrine

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    The so-called major questions doctrine arose as a counterweight to Chevron deference over the past few decades, but invocations of the doctrine have persisted in the year since Chevron was overturned, suggesting it still has a role to play in reining in agency overreach, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

  • New PTAB Denial Processes Grow More And More Confusing

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    Guidance from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office about the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's new workload management and discretionary denial processes has been murky and inconsistent, and has been further muddled by the acting director's seemingly contradictory decisions, say attorneys at Finnegan.

  • EU Space Act Could Stifle US Commercial Operators

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    The EU Space Act, proposed last month, has the potential to raise global standards for safety and sustainability in space, but the U.S. and EU need to harmonize their regulatory approaches to avoid imposing regulatory burdens that undermine commercial innovation and agility, say Jessica Noble and Adriane Mandakunis at Aegis Space Law.

  • A Word On Ensuring Precision In Patent Claim Construction

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    The Federal Circuit's recent decision in Express Mobile v. Meta Platforms, overruling the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's interpretation of the term "style," highlights the importance of articulating claim constructions that are as clear as possible, says Derrick Carman at Robins Kaplan.

  • Series

    Playing Mah-Jongg Makes Me A Better Mediator

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    Mah-jongg rewards patience, pattern recognition, adaptability and keen observation, all skills that are invaluable to my role as a mediator, and to all mediating parties, says Marina Corodemus.

  • Does Research Tool Safe Harbor Cover AI Drug Development?

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    As artificial intelligence increasingly takes root in drug development, many questions may emerge regarding current gaps in courts' application of the research tool exception to the safe harbor defense against patent infringement, and whether that defense applies to AI-based tools, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

  • Tips For Business Users After 2 Key AI Copyright Decisions

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    Because two recent artificial intelligence copyright decisions from the Northern District of California — Bartz v. Anthropic and Kadrey v. Meta — came out mostly in favor of the developers using the plaintiffs' works to train large language models, business users should proceed with care, says Chris Wlach at Acxiom.

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