Intellectual Property

  • August 25, 2025

    Empire Sues AT&T, Lenovo After $12.5M IP Win Over Samsung

    With a $12.5 million jury verdict against Samsung under its belt, Empire Technology Development has launched a pair of mobile technology patent infringement suits against AT&T and Lenovo in the same court.

  • August 25, 2025

    Kong Toy Co. Owners Clash Over Alleged Deal Violations

    Five attorneys traded accusations of secret power plays and cash grabs Monday at the start of the bench trial in Colorado state court between the co-owners of the dog toy maker Kong Co. LLC.

  • August 25, 2025

    Warner Bros. Denies 'Ugly House' Infringement At Del. Trial

    An attorney for Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. told a Delaware federal judge on Monday its popular "Ugliest House in America" show had "nothing to do" with HomeVestors of America Inc.'s "Ugly House" competition, kicking off an infringement trial where the latter company is seeking millions in disgorgement.

  • August 25, 2025

    Build-A-Bear, Kelly Toys Settle TM Suit Over Stuffed Toys

    Build-A-Bear Workshop Inc. and Kelly Toys Holdings have settled a dispute in California federal court over stuffed toys in which Kelly Toys claimed Build-A-Bear's Skoosherz toys copied its popular Squishmallow line. 

  • August 25, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Overbroad In Hip Joint Implant Suit, High Court Told

    A German medical supplier wants the U.S. Supreme Court to take up its appeal of the Federal Circuit's refusal to revive its trade dress protections for the color pink in a hip joint implant part, saying a circuit split warrants the justices' review.

  • August 25, 2025

    Stewart Overrules 3 PTAB Discretion Decisions On Dir. Review

    Acting U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director Coke Morgan Stewart freed WSOU Investments and Nutanix from challenges where the Patent Trial and Appeal Board had already instituted review, but then revived an inter partes review Nike had originally dodged.

  • August 25, 2025

    Google, Samsung Tell Fed. Circ. To Reject USPTO Extension

    Google and Samsung urged the Federal Circuit on Monday to reject the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office acting director's request for an extra month to address their challenge to her discretionary denial practices.

  • August 25, 2025

    Google Can't Pause IP Suit To Wait On Justices' Cox Decision

    Google can't halt textbook publishers' infringement suit over pirated book ads while awaiting the Supreme Court's decision in Cox Communications' appeal regarding the liability of internet service providers when their service leads to online music piracy, a New York federal judge has ruled.

  • August 25, 2025

    Gilstrap Rejects Charter Rival's Bid For New Infringement Trial

    U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap on Monday turned down Touchstream Technologies Inc.'s request for a new trial or favorable judgment on its claims of patent infringement against Charter Communications, saying Charter had not misled a jury that found infringement did not occur.

  • August 25, 2025

    UMG Fights Salt-N-Pepa's IP Suit Over Masters

    UMG Recordings Inc. urged a New York federal court Friday to toss Salt-N-Pepa's suit demanding the copyrights for several of their hip-hop hits, including "Push It" and "Let's Talk About Sex," arguing the artists can't terminate UMG's grant of rights, and even if they could, UMG can still exploit derivative remixes.

  • August 25, 2025

    Oura Gets ITC To Bar Infringing Smart Ring Imports

    The U.S. International Trade Commission has blocked smart ring makers Ultrahuman and RingConn from importing products it found infringed an Ouraring Inc. wearable computing device patent.

  • August 25, 2025

    Crypto Gaming Co. Says Musk's AI Startup Used Its Marks

    A blockchain-focused gaming firm has sued Elon Musk's xAI for infringing on its XAI trademark, accusing the artificial intelligence venture of sewing confusion among consumers and attempting to "bully" the crypto firm into signing off on the use of similar marks.

  • August 25, 2025

    Generic-Drugs Group Asks 9th Circ. To Nix Pay-For-Delay Law

    A trade group for generic drugmakers urged the Ninth Circuit to fully scrap a California law banning brand pharmaceutical companies from paying to delay generics competition, in a brief targeting both the law's in-state features upheld by a district court and the extraterritorial reach the state wants revived.

  • August 25, 2025

    Judge Refuses To Bar NC BBQ Joint From Selling Sauces

    A North Carolina federal judge has declined to block a chain of barbecue restaurants from selling its sauces and rubs through third-party retailers, saying the company that runs its sister restaurants had not shown that it will suffer irreparable harm without an injunction.

  • August 25, 2025

    3rd Circ. Again Rejects Atty's Fee Row With Pierce Bainbridge

    The Third Circuit on Monday denied Philadelphia attorney Bruce Chasan a third chance to litigate a long-running fee dispute with Pierce Bainbridge Beck Price & Hecht LLP over a client who unsuccessfully sued Microsoft over allegedly stealing his image for a video game.

  • August 25, 2025

    Delaware Jury Clears Anker In Charger Patent Trial

    A Delaware federal jury has cleared Chinese electronics manufacturer Anker of allegations that it infringed two power converter patents with its charger products, while also finding that claims in the patents were invalid.

  • August 25, 2025

    Apparel Co. Urges Justices To Review Foreign-Word TM Rule

    An apparel company has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Federal Circuit ruling that found "Vetements" cannot be a registered trademark because it's generic as the French word for clothes, telling justices that a non-English mark's protectability should be dictated by consumer perception rather than its translation.

  • August 22, 2025

    Apple Says Ex-Employee Stole Watch Secrets For Oppo

    Apple is going after a former employee on its Apple Watch team in a California federal lawsuit, claiming he stole trade secrets related to the wearable device to share with his new employer, Chinese phone maker Oppo.

  • August 22, 2025

    Newman Given Potential Lifeline In Suspension Appeal Loss

    While the D.C. Circuit on Friday declined to revive Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman's lawsuit challenging her suspension, experts said the court provided an opening for her to seek further review, by suggesting that the precedent limiting the arguments available to her may be flawed.

  • August 22, 2025

    USPTO Allows Discretionary Denials For 3-Year-Old Patents

    A top Patent Trial and Appeal Board judge Friday rejected challenges to GenghisComm Holdings LLC patents issued as recently as 2022, as part of the three discretionary review decisions issued over the last week. 

  • August 22, 2025

    Amazon Doesn't Let Viewers Keep Movies They 'Buy,' Suit Says

    Amazon has been hit with a proposed class action in Washington federal court claiming the company deceptively "sells" movies on Amazon Prime Video without disclosing to consumers that its limited digital license to any audiovisual work might be inaccessible down the line.

  • August 22, 2025

    BJ's, Five Guys Ripped Off Digital Ordering Patent, Suits Say

    Five Guys, BJ's and other chain restaurants have been sued in Texas federal court by Smart Order LLC, which alleges that the eateries are infringing its patent covering online customer purchasing systems available through mobile apps or in-store kiosks for curbside pickup or scheduled preorders that help cut down on waiting times.

  • August 22, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Keeps Verdict Intact In Pro Se IP Trial

    A truck mudflap entrepreneur who won a patent infringement trial representing himself failed to convince the Federal Circuit on Friday to rethink affirming a lower court's judgment against a rival company that he said would have been more favorable to him absent a "fraud" on the court. 

  • August 22, 2025

    Missy Elliott Settles Copyright Dispute With Producer Pretrial

    Rapper and songwriter Missy Elliott and a producer who claims to be a joint author of some of her music resolved their copyright dispute minutes before a jury was to be selected, a Pennsylvania federal judge told potential jurors Friday morning.

  • August 22, 2025

    OpenAI Wants $10M In Atty Fees After Win In Trademark Case

    After winning a trademark case last month, OpenAI has asked a California federal judge to order a company with a similar name to pay almost $10 million in attorney fees, saying the other litigant had "extraordinarily weak positions" and used unreasonable legal tactics.

Expert Analysis

  • What Patent Claim 'Invalidity' Means In Different Forums

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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.

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