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Intellectual Property
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April 18, 2024
Amazon Ignored Labor, IP Laws In AI 'Panic,' Ex-Worker Says
An artificial intelligence researcher suing Amazon for labor law violations says it disregarded numerous laws in a frantic attempt to catch up to its AI rivals, directing her to ignore copyright laws in developing its large language models and retaliating when her pregnancy leave coincided with a rival's product launch.
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April 18, 2024
USPTO Reveals Scaled-Back Plan For New Patent Board Rules
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office unveiled proposed Patent Trial and Appeal Board rules Thursday that would codify current policies on when multiple challenges to one patent are permitted and set a new briefing process about discretionary denials, which attorneys say should add clarity.
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April 18, 2024
BofA Keeps Win Against Movie Website's TM Suit At 10th Circ.
The Tenth Circuit on Thursday affirmed a lower court's ruling that Bank of America's virtual assistant "Erica" did not infringe on the trademark of an online movie database, saying the plaintiff failed to establish that the service mark "E.R.I.C.A" was directly associated with the search services offered on the website.
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April 18, 2024
You Can't Get Fees Without Asking First, Judge Tells Dell
U.S. District Judge Alan Albright on Thursday declined to order a patent litigation plaintiff to pay attorney fees after bringing a failed patent suit, finding that Dell failed to file any motion requesting fees despite claiming the case was "frivolous" and "meritless" from the start.
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April 18, 2024
Trump Wants Cut Of Fundraising That Uses His Name, Image
Former President Donald Trump is asking for help from Republicans to boost his reelection campaign coffers, with his staffers saying in a letter that GOP fundraisers should split off a portion of the money they collect when using Trump's name, image and likeness in their solicitations for cash.
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April 18, 2024
Samsung Gets PTAB To Sink Netlist Patent Claim
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board has sided with Samsung's arguments that a claim in a patent owned by chipmaker Netlist wasn't valid, after the board already found that an earlier decade-old suit against Google didn't block Samsung's petition.
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April 18, 2024
Fed. Circ. Maintains Newman Can't Invalidate Disability Law
Suspended U.S. Circuit Judge Pauline Newman has still not proven that the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act has no constitutional uses and should therefore be invalidated, the Federal Circuit's judicial council told a D.C. federal judge Thursday.
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April 18, 2024
Ga. Cargo Co. Says Marks Are Generic In $15M IP Dispute
A Georgia-based cargo company urged the Eleventh Circuit on Thursday to reverse a $15 million judgment awarded to a competitor over trademark violations, saying the intellectual property that it's accused of using is generic.
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April 18, 2024
Oakland Airport Name Change Will Create A Mess, SF Says
Oakland, California, wants to change its airport's name to San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport, but the city of San Francisco said in a California federal lawsuit Thursday that the name would not only befuddle travelers but also unlawfully incorporate San Francisco International Airport's name.
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April 18, 2024
Cybersecurity Startup Loses 2 Patents At PTAB
A small cybersecurity startup litigating in Virginia federal court against larger tech companies has failed to persuade the Patent Trial and Appeal Board not to invalidate the entirety of two patents covering ways of combating "evolving" online threats, among other things.
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April 18, 2024
Sale Offer Should Doom Jetaire IP Suit, Judge Says
A Florida federal magistrate judge has said aviation company AerSale should get a win on arguments that not only did it not infringe a trio of Jetaire patents, but also that the patents are invalid.
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April 18, 2024
Kimmel Atty Defends Airing 'Patently Ridiculous' Santos Clips
A lawyer for Jimmy Kimmel told a Manhattan federal judge Thursday that the fair use doctrine of U.S. copyright law allows the late-night host to air silly videos that he tricked indicted former congressman George Santos into making on the personalized messaging platform Cameo.
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April 18, 2024
Biotech Co. NanoString Lands $393M Bid At Ch. 11 Auction
Scientific instrument maker Bruker Corp. is set to acquire insolvent biotechnology company NanoString for roughly $393 million in cash that would be used to repay creditors under the debtor's recently proposed Chapter 11 plan, a notice filed in Delaware's bankruptcy court shows.
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April 18, 2024
Ex-BigLaw Atty Can't Get Stalking Injunction Against Influencer
A Florida state judge on Wednesday denied a former Greenberg Traurig LLP partner's request for a cyberstalking injunction against a social media influencer, saying the petitioner did not show enough evidence to justify it.
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April 18, 2024
Red Roof Franchise Co. Settles IP Fight With Motel Operator
Red Roof Inn's Ohio-based location franchising company and the Toledo motel operator it accused of still using the hospitality chain's branding almost two years after its franchise agreement was terminated have agreed to settle the intellectual property dispute between them, according to a new joint notice.
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April 18, 2024
Hipgnosis Agrees To $1.4B Takeover By US Rival Concord
Concord Chorus has agreed to buy its British music royalties rival Hipgnosis Songs Fund in an all-cash transaction worth $1.4 billion, as the U.S. company looks to add 1.2 million more songs to its portfolio, the companies said in joint statement Thursday.
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April 17, 2024
Mintz Sues Parking Meter Co. Over $4.3M IP Legal Bill
Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo PC sued parking meter provider Duncan Parking Technologies Inc. and its parent company, CivicSmart Inc., in Massachusetts federal court Tuesday, accusing its former clients of owing $4.3 million in unpaid legal fees and interest for representing CivicSmart in a since-settled patent litigation.
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April 17, 2024
United Therapeutics Can't Bar Rival Lung Disease Drug
Repeating himself for the second time in the last several weeks, a federal judge in Delaware on Wednesday said he won't stop a biochemical startup from launching a drug that would compete directly with one of United Therapeutics' biggest pharmaceutical products.
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April 17, 2024
Tesla Gets PTAB To Wipe Out Vehicle Charging Patent
Tesla has persuaded the Patent Trial and Appeal Board to invalidate all claims of a Charge Fusion Technologies electrical charging patent, the latest development in a larger legal battle between the parties.
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April 17, 2024
Clarify DMCA Carveout For AI Research, DOJ Says
The U.S. Department of Justice is showing some support for a proposal that could allow researchers looking into biases in artificial intelligence programming to bypass laws that limit access to copyright-protected AI models.
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April 17, 2024
3 Takeaways From Revived Obviousness Case On J&J Patent
A Federal Circuit ruling from earlier this month that told a judge to reconsider upholding a Johnson & Johnson schizophrenia drug patent emphasizes that analyzing whether a patent is invalid as obvious requires focusing on what it actually claims and an inventor's creativity, attorneys said.
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April 17, 2024
3rd Circ. Erases $10M Judgment In Car Charities' TM Dispute
The Third Circuit on Wednesday erased a $10 million judgment awarded to a charity that sells donated cars for children's education, saying a lower court made a series of errors in concluding that unreasonable delays did not bar claims from Texas-based America Can Cars for Kids in a trademark dispute with a similar charity.
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April 17, 2024
2nd Circ. Doubts Adidas Appeal In Thom Browne TM Case
A Second Circuit panel on Wednesday appeared skeptical of Adidas' arguments that a Manhattan district judge gave improper instructions to a jury that shot down its trademark infringement claims against fashion brand Thom Browne, suggesting the lower court had laid out the issues fairly.
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April 17, 2024
Sport Flooring Co. Says Ex-Owner Stole Info To Start Rival Biz
A former part-owner of a company that sells and installs performance flooring for college athletic facilities and health clubs has been sued by the prior company, which has claimed he stole proprietary information to jumpstart his own competing business.
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April 17, 2024
Texas Jury Hits Samsung With $142M Loss In IP Retrial
A Texas federal jury on Wednesday said Samsung owes G+ Communications LLC $142 million for infringing two 5G wireless network patents, a huge win on retrial for G+, which was originally awarded less than half of that.
Expert Analysis
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Infringement Policy Lessons From 4th Circ. Sony Music Ruling
The Fourth Circuit's recent decision in Sony Music v. Cox Communications, which in part held that the internet service provider was liable for contributing to music copyright infringement, highlights the importance of reasonable policies to terminate repeat infringers, and provides guidance for litigating claims of secondary liability, say Benjamin Marks and Alexandra Blankman at Weil.
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What Recent Study Shows About AI's Promise For Legal Tasks
Amid both skepticism and excitement about the promise of generative artificial intelligence in legal contexts, the first randomized controlled trial studying its impact on basic lawyering tasks shows mixed but promising results, and underscores the need for attorneys to proactively engage with AI, says Daniel Schwarcz at University of Minnesota Law School.
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Tips On Numerical Range From Fed. Circ. Philip Morris Ruling
The Federal Circuit's recent RAI v. Philip Morris decision that a patent provided sufficient written description to support a claimed numerical range offers several takeaways for practitioners, including the need for a cautious approach to criticism of ranges, say attorneys at BCLP.
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UMG-TikTok IP Rift Highlights Effective Rights Control Issues
Despite Universal Music Group's recent withdrawal of TikTok's licensing rights to its music catalog, the platform struggles to control uploads and reproductions of copyrighted material, highlighting the inherent tension between creative freedom and effective rights control in the age of social media, says Simon Goodbody at Bray & Krais.
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5 Things Trial Attorneys Can Learn From Good Teachers
Jennifer Cuculich at IMS Legal Strategies recounts lessons she learned during her time as a math teacher that can help trial attorneys connect with jurors, from the importance of framing core issues to the incorporation of different learning styles.
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Fed. Circ. Patent Lesson: No Contradiction, No Indefiniteness
The Federal Circuit’s recent ruling in Maxwell v. Amperex Technology highlights the complexities of construing patent claims when seemingly contradictory limitations are present, and that when a narrowing limitation overrides a broader one, they do not necessarily contradict each other, says Roy Wepner at Kaplan Breyer.
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Data-Driven Insights On Optimizing PTAB Institution Decisions
A look at Patent Trial and Appeal Board institution decisions from the last six years highlights critical information a patent owner should know regarding trends in the board’s decision making when patents come under challenge, and which arguments to raise in preliminary responses, say Jacob Golan and Benjamin Anger at Knobbe Martens.
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Golf Course Copyright Bill Implications Go Beyond The Green
A new federal bill, the BIRDIE Act, introduced in February would extend intellectual property protections to golf course designers but could undercut existing IP case law and raise broader questions about the scope of copyright protection for works that involve living elements or nonhuman authorship, say attorneys at Bradley Arant.
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What's At Play In Rising Lanham Act Cases At The ITC
Amid an uptick in Lanham Act claims involving false advertising related to medical devices at the U.S. International Trade Commission, Brian Busey and Maryrose McLaughlin at MoFo discuss recent ITC complaints from Eli Lilly and R.J. Reynolds, Lanham Act claim limits under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, and the issues practitioners face in this realm.
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Key Factors In Establishing Compelling Merits At The PTAB
A look at over 450 Patent Trial and Appeal Board decisions between June 2022 and now provides insights into strategies for petitioners and patent owners in establishing compelling merits arguments in post-grant proceedings, say David Holman and Tyler Liu at Sterne Kessler.
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Business Litigators Have A Source Of Untapped Fulfillment
As increasing numbers of attorneys struggle with stress and mental health issues, business litigators can find protection against burnout by remembering their important role in society — because fulfillment in one’s work isn’t just reserved for public interest lawyers, say Bennett Rawicki and Peter Bigelow at Hilgers Graben.
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Takeaways From USPTO's AI-Assisted Invention Guidance
Recently issued guidance from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office clarifies how patent inventorship is to be determined when AI is involved, and while the immediate risk of prosecution for failing to meet the new standards appears low, the extent of examiners’ scrutiny remains to be seen, say attorneys at Foley & Lardner.
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The Taylor Swift Effect: Leveraging IP Thresholds In Ads
The Cetaphil #GameTimeGlow commercial, which aired before the Super Bowl, has garnered attention for its indirect use of Taylor Swift-related symbols that were easily spotted by fans — sparking questions about the legality of nodding to the iconic pop star without violating intellectual property rights, say attorneys at Brooks Kushman.
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5 Ways To Hone Deposition Skills And Improve Results
Excerpt from Practical Guidance
Depositions must never be taken for granted in the preparations needed to win a dispositive motion or a trial, and five best practices, including knowing when to hire a videographer, can significantly improve outcomes, says James Argionis at Cozen O'Connor.
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Series
Skiing Makes Me A Better Lawyer
A lifetime of skiing has helped me develop important professional skills, and taught me that embracing challenges with a spirit of adventure can allow lawyers to push boundaries, expand their capabilities and ultimately excel in their careers, says Andrea Przybysz at Tucker Ellis.