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Intellectual Property
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Featured
NFT Trademark Ruling Highlights Free Speech Limits In Art
In ruling that nonfungible tokens qualify as trademarks, the Ninth Circuit last week followed guidance from the U.S. Supreme Court that the First Amendment cannot always protect expressive marks from infringement.
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August 04, 2025
'Dadbod' Apparel Brand Sues To Cancel Rival's 'GirlDad' TM
Activewear brand DadBod Apparel LLC has filed suit in Ohio federal court seeking to cancel another company's registered "GirlDad" trademark, saying the company fraudulently used the mark to thwart DadBod's sales of gear bearing the slogan, "Support Your Local Girl Dad."
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August 04, 2025
Axos Wins $40M In Trade Secrets Case Against Calif. Rival
A California federal court has ordered Nano Banc and several former employees and executives to pay $40 million to rival Axos Bank after they were found liable for trade secret misappropriation and other claims.
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August 04, 2025
Inventor Sanctioned In Water Meter Patent Case
A Delaware federal judge has sanctioned an attorney and president of a company that sued utility meter reading company Mueller Systems for patent infringement, blocking him from reading any material in the case designated for attorneys' eyes only.
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August 04, 2025
Judge Newman Contests Suspension Renewal At DC Circ.
The Federal Circuit's recent recommendation to continue U.S. Circuit Judge Pauline Newman's suspension makes clear her colleagues are looking to permanently remove her, the judge's attorney told the D.C. Circuit Monday.
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August 04, 2025
Trial Called Off After Judge Partly Clears Apple In Fintiv Row
Western District of Texas Judge Alan Albright called off a trial scheduled for Monday in Fintiv Inc.'s long-running mobile wallet patent case against Apple Inc., after he cleared Apple of infringing some claims and Fintiv opted to appeal rather than putting the remaining claims before a jury.
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August 04, 2025
'Cardiac Pack' Says Ohio NIL Ruling Doesn't Apply to NC Suit
The end of a name, image and likeness lawsuit in Ohio has little bearing on a suit filed against the National Collegiate Athletic Association in the Tar Heel State, a group of former collegiate basketball players have told the North Carolina Business Court.
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August 04, 2025
Jimmy Page, Songwriter Resolve 'Dazed And Confused' Suit
A settlement has been reached in a lawsuit brought by an American songwriter who accused Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page of infringing his copyright on "Dazed and Confused" and improperly collecting licensing fees after the song was used in the documentary "Becoming Led Zeppelin."
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August 04, 2025
Apple Wins Challenge To Denial Of AR Software Trademarks
A Virginia federal judge has granted Apple's bid to undo a Trademark Trial and Appeal Board decision denying the tech giant's attempt to register trademarks related to augmented reality software, saying the would-be marks have acquired enough secondary meaning.
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August 04, 2025
Apple Hits 'Apple Cinemas' With TM Suit Amid Expansion
Apple Inc. has sued a movie theater chain called Apple Cinemas in Massachusetts federal court over trademark infringement claims, saying the cinema brand has expanded to the tech giant's backyard by opening in a historic theater location in San Francisco.
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August 04, 2025
Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court
Last week at the Delaware Court of Chancery, insurance brokerage and risk management giant Marsh & McLennan Cos. sought injunctive relief in a new suit accusing U.S. affiliates of London-based Howden Holdings Ltd. of a poaching scheme that involved over 100 M&M employees resigning on July 21.
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August 04, 2025
Seyfarth Lands BakerHostetler IP Pro In Atlanta
Seyfarth Shaw LLP said Monday that it has added a patent attorney from BakerHostetler to bolster its capacity to handle cases involving artificial intelligence, machine learning, telecommunication technology and related matters.
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August 04, 2025
Moderna Seeks To Be Cleared In $5B COVID Vax Patent Case
Moderna has urged a Delaware federal judge to clear it in a rival mRNA developer's $5 billion patent suit over the company's COVID-19 vaccines, saying it is shielded because it made them for the federal government.
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August 04, 2025
Rising Star: Sidley's Sue Wang
Sue Wang of Sidley Austin LLP has amassed numerous wins for name brand biologics companies and drugmakers — including representing Amgen in multidistrict litigation and notching a multimillion-dollar verdict for Bayer — earning her a spot among the intellectual property practitioners under age 40 honored by Law360 as Rising Stars.
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August 04, 2025
Anthropic Asks 9th Circ. To Review Authors' Class Cert.
Anthropic PBC has asked the Ninth Circuit to review a California federal judge's class certification of a group of authors suing over use of their books to train artificial intelligence, saying the judge had rushed to approve a class of nearly seven million potential claimants.
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August 04, 2025
Utah Mammoth NHL Team Sues Bag Maker To Defend TM
The National Hockey League's newly formed Utah Mammoth team has sued a bag company bearing a similar name to end the disagreement over its trademark claims on the moniker, arguing the marks are too different to cause confusion.
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August 01, 2025
Wheeling & Appealing: Midyear Highlights For Every Circuit
In this special edition of Wheeling & Appealing, we're spotlighting key decisions and developments in every circuit court during the first half of 2025, while also previewing August's most intriguing oral arguments, including a remarkably "fierce" showdown between Edible Arrangements and 1-800-Flowers with millions of dollars in attorney fees on the line.
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August 01, 2025
IP Owners Largely Win In Stewart's Newest Discretion Orders
Acting U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director Coke Morgan Stewart dismissed most of the 50 petitions for inter partes review addressed in her latest decisions over discretionary denials at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.
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August 01, 2025
Jury Clears Media Measurement Co. In Nielsen Patent Suit
A federal jury in Delaware on Friday cleared media measurement platform HyphaMetrics of claims that it infringed a pair of patents owned by television ratings business Nielsen relating to image processing and identifying media devices.
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August 01, 2025
NFL Swipes At Attorney Seeking Unlicensed Merch Sales
The merchandising arm of the NFL told a New York federal court the request for sanctions from an attorney suing the league in hopes of dismantling its licensing system is out of line and a way to prolong his "frivolous and vexatious" case.
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August 01, 2025
Lego Wins Bid To Halt Toy Co. Sales Of Copycat Figurines
After convincing a Connecticut federal judge that it was facing irreparable harm, Danish toy giant Lego has secured a permanent injunction barring a California-based distributor from selling products that mimic its figurines and play sets.
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August 01, 2025
USPTO Tightens Rules On Patent Challengers' Arguments
Patent challengers at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board will no longer be able to skirt a requirement that they must identify where all the elements of the patent are found in prior art patents or printed publications, according to a notice from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
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August 01, 2025
Fed. Circ. Bugged By Injunction In Insecticide Patent Dispute
The Federal Circuit on Friday scrubbed a preliminary injunction blocking a company from selling an insecticide product while a competitor's patent infringement case proceeded against it, faulting a lower court's claim construction and patent validity analysis.
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August 01, 2025
Swimsuit Biz Sues Chris Brown Over 'Breezy Bowl' Tour Name
Miami swimsuit company Breezy Swimwear Inc. has sued singer Chris Brown and several companies affiliated with his "Breezy Bowl XX" tour, claiming they used "copycat branding" that created a risk of confusion among consumers.
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August 01, 2025
Full Fed. Circ. Won't Eye Effect Of PTAB Ax In Groupon Case
The full Federal Circuit on Friday rejected Groupon's request for review of a decision that allowed a patent suit against it to proceed on some claims after similar ones were invalidated in an inter partes review, although two dissenting judges said the holding undermines the America Invents Act.
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August 01, 2025
Lamborghini Says Trade Secrets Case Best Heard In Italy
Lamborghini has told a Texas federal court that a case brought by an Italian auto racing engineering firm alleging the sports carmaker stole steering wheel trade secrets is best left to Italian courts and is part of a long-running business dispute in that country.
Editor's Picks
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2024 Patent Litigation: A Year In Review
The Eastern District of Texas held onto its newly regained title as the busiest patent venue in the U.S., with nearly three times as many cases in 2024 as the once-dominant Western District of Texas. In addition, Patent Trial and Appeal Board filings bounced back after falling to a record low in 2023.
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My So-Called Retirement: Some IP Lawyers Just Can't Quit
When patent partner Terry Rea set out to retire, the onetime acting director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had her eyes on the independence that retirement promises — flexible hours, fewer deadlines and less stress over having lots of people counting on you.
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Trade Secrets Emerge As Path For Cos. To Protect AI Works
Classifying creations of artificial intelligence tools as trade secrets has become a viable alternative to copyrights and patents — a shift that is presenting businesses using AI with a range of strategies and risks they must consider to protect their innovations.
Expert Analysis
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E-Discovery Quarterly: Rulings On Relevance Redactions
In recent cases addressing redactions that parties sought to apply based on the relevance of information — as opposed to considerations of privilege — courts have generally limited a party’s ability to withhold nonresponsive or irrelevant material, providing a few lessons for discovery strategy, say attorneys at Sidley.
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Opinion
Section 1983 Has Promise After End Of Nationwide Injunctions
After the U.S. Supreme Court recently struck down the practice of nationwide injunctions in Trump v. Casa, Section 1983 civil rights suits can provide a better pathway to hold the government accountable — but this will require reforms to qualified immunity, says Marc Levin at the Council on Criminal Justice.
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Patent Ambiguity Persists After Justices Nix Eligibility Appeal
The Supreme Court recently declined to revisit the contentious framework governing patent eligibility by denying certiorari in Audio Evolution Diagnostics v. U.S., suggesting a necessary recalibration of both patent application and litigation strategies, say attorneys at Skadden.
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What To Know About NCAA Deal's Arbitration Provisions
Kathryn Hester at Jones Walker discusses the key dispute resolution provisions of the NCAA's recently approved class action settlement that allows for complex revenue sharing with college athletes, breaking down the arbitration stipulations and explaining how the Northern District of California will handle certain enforcement, administration, implementation and interpretation disputes.
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Fed. Circ. In June: Transitional Phrases In Patent Claims
The Federal Circuit's recent decision in Eye Therapies v. Slayback Pharma takes on the rarely addressed topic of transitional phrases in patent claims, providing some useful lessons regarding restating claim language and broadly distinguishing prior art, say attorneys at Knobbe Martens.
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Series
Playing Soccer Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Soccer has become a key contributor to how I approach my work, and the lessons I’ve learned on the pitch about leadership, adaptability, resilience and communication make me better at what I do every day in my legal career, says Whitney O’Byrne at MoFo.
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Expect Unprecedented Delays In USPTO Patent Examination
With data from the first half of this year indicating that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is on pace to have a record backlog of unexamined patent applications at the end of the fiscal year, applicants and patent prosecutors should consider strategies to mitigate delays, say Matt Kamps and Emily Miller at Husch Blackwell.
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And Now A Word From The Panel: Back In Action
A lack of new petitions at the May hearing session of the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation caught many observers' attention — but a rapid uptick in petitions scheduled to be heard at this week's session illustrates how panel activity always ebbs and flows, says Alan Rothman at Sidley.
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Series
Law School's Missed Lessons: Learning From Failure
While law school often focuses on the importance of precision, correctness and perfection, mistakes are inevitable in real-world practice — but failure is not the opposite of progress, and real talent comes from the ability to recover, rethink and reshape, says Brooke Pauley at Tucker Ellis.
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Eye Drop Ruling Clarifies Importance Of Patent Phrasing
The Federal Circuit's recent ruling in Eye Therapies v. Slayback, rejecting the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's interpretation of "consisting essentially of," highlights the importance of using clear and consistent terms throughout a patent's filing history to shield it against future challenges, says Liliana Di Nola-Baron at Panitch Schwarze.
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How Courts Are Addressing The Use Of AI In Discovery
In recent months, several courts have issued opinions on handling discovery issues involving artificial intelligence, which collectively offer useful insights on integrating AI into discovery and protecting work product in connection with AI prompts and outputs, says Philip Favro at Favro Law.
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AI Infrastructure Growth Brings Unique IP Considerations
The explosive rise of artificial intelligence has triggered an equally dramatic transformation in the supporting infrastructure required to meet growing AI demand, and the technology used in these data centers has its own intellectual property considerations to navigate, says Vincent Allen at Carstens Allen.
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Series
Adapting To Private Practice: From ATF Director To BigLaw
As a two-time boomerang partner, returning to BigLaw after stints as a U.S. attorney and the director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, people ask me how I know when to move on, but there’s no single answer — just clearly set your priorities, says Steven Dettelbach at BakerHostetler.
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IPR Decisions Clarify Stewart's 'Settled Expectations' Factor
Recent discretionary denial decisions from U.S. Patent and Trademark Office acting Director Coke Morgan Stewart have begun to illuminate the contours of her "settled expectations" doctrine, informing when it might be worth petitioning for inter partes review if the patent at issue has been in force for a few years, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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How To Increase 3rd-Party Preissuance Patent Submissions
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.