Expert Analysis

• Drawing A Line Between Settlement Pressure And Extortion

  

  U.S. v. Luo, pending in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, may force courts to address anew when settlement negotiations become criminal extortion, particularly in the age of easily fabricated digital evidence, says attorney Denis Kiely.

• 'Honeypot' Suit Spotlights Nuances Of Trade Secret Law

  

  Fintech company MyCard's recent complaint filed in Delaware federal court, alleging that competitor Atomic FI copied its proprietary software, including a "honeypot" in the form of a specific 37-character string, highlights fact-intensive questions of when alleged trade secrets are actually secret, says Eugene Mar at Farella Braun.

• Series

  Founding An Autism Academy Made Me A Better Lawyer

  

  Starting a nonprofit autism school with no building, no funding model and no guarantee that families would trust us taught me the importance of mission, patience and purpose — lessons that sharpened my practice and showed how meaningful work outside the office can make lawyers better, says Phillip Russell at Ogletree Deakins.

• When Do Murals Qualify For IP Protection?

  

  Artist Robert Wyland recently sued FIFA for painting over his 1999 "Ocean Life" mural to make room for a World Cup promotion in Dallas, spotlighting questions over the extent to which copyright law and the Visual Artists Rights Act protect different types of art, say attorneys at Armstrong Teasdale.

• Trump's AI Order Is Strategic, Not Merely Deregulatory

  

  Although the framework presented in President Donald Trump’s recent executive order on artificial intelligence is styled as voluntary and innovation-friendly, it creates a new soft-power mechanism for bringing the most capable AI systems into closer alignment with federal security priorities, says Jesse Lemon at The Beckage Firm.

• Opinion

  Rule Of Law Requires Gov't Engagement With Bar, Not Retreat

  

  A federal agency's absence from national and local bar conferences, most recently illustrated by the U.S. Department of Justice's withdrawal from a New York City Bar Association white collar conference, disserves the bar, the government lawyers themselves and, ultimately, the administration of justice, says Muhammad Faridi at Linklaters.

• Guitar Shape Controversy Highlights Nuances Of IP Protection

  

  A recent German case related to Fender's efforts to secure intellectual property protection for its Stratocaster guitar design highlights a structural tension inherent in IP law — the designs that most successfully become embedded in the cultural landscape are the hardest to justify exclusive ownership of, say attorneys at Spencer West.

• The Paradoxical Duty To Adopt AI When You Can't Bill For It

  

  Both billing for hours saved using artificial intelligence and preserving billable time by not adopting AI may violate rules of professional conduct, but until bar associations' ethics rules catch up to this emerging economic dilemma, firms must decide how to adjust fee structures themselves, says Ines Lassalle at Peyrot & Associates.

• 9th Circ. Cooler Ruling Chills 1st Mover Lanham Act Claims

  

  The Ninth Circuit's recent decision in Vericool World v. Igloo Products that Vericool's claim of being first-to-market with an ecocooler was not actionable under the Lanham Act largely foreclosed false advertising litigation over first mover status, so potential plaintiffs should instead look to patent counseling or intellectual property strategy for these claims, say attorneys at Manatt.

• TTAB's Everwise Decision Highlights Token-Use Pitfalls

  

  The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board's recent cancellation of Everwise Credit Union's registration for the standard character mark "Everwise Credit Union" offers a detailed road map for practitioners on both sides of reexamination proceedings, and a blunt warning on specimen strategy, say attorneys at Akerman.

• Reel Justice: 'Tuner' And Modern Juror Sympathy

  

  In “Tuner,” the main character’s criminal behavior is framed as an extension of his vulnerability, talent and loyalty, demonstrating how narratives of sympathy shape perceptions of culpability, and why jurors may reinterpret wrongdoing through story and emotion rather than evidence and doctrine, says Veronica Finkelstein at WilmU Law.

• Patent Ruling Highlights Risks Of Late Inventorship Fixes

  

  The Federal Circuit's recent decision in Implicit v. Sonos demonstrates the risk of forfeiture with retroactive correction of inventorship in inter partes review proceedings, with a clear message to the patent community that potential inventorship issues should be considered at every stage of a patent's life cycle, say attorneys at BCLP.

• Adjusting IPR Tactics As Google Fights 'Settled Expectations'

  

  Google’s petition for the U.S. Supreme Court to scrutinize the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's so-called settled expectations practice underscores why accused infringers facing older asserted patents should treat discretionary denial as a case-dispositive risk from day one, says attorney Abdul Abdullahi.

• Tips For Litigating Life Sciences Investigations At The ITC

  

  The International Trade Commission may soon become a significant battleground for life sciences companies as global intellectual property and trade disputes continue, increasing the importance of learning the ITC's unique considerations and litigation strategies, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

• Unsecured Synthetic Royalties May Be Returning

  

  Recent royalty monetization deals mark a notable shift in a market that had largely moved away from unsecured synthetic royalty structures after a multiyear freeze triggered by the Mallinckrodt bankruptcy decision in 2022, which exposed a legal risk inherent to the structure, says Peter Schwartz at Covington.