Analysis

The Biggest Copyright Rulings Of 2025: A Midyear Report

By Ivan Moreno

Two California judges were the first to deliver crucial rulings about what constitutes fair use in training generative artificial intelligence models — a question expected to test the boundaries of the copyright doctrine amid the emergence of the groundbreaking technology. Here is Law360's list of the biggest copyright decisions so far this year.

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Feature

Breaking Down Stewart's Nonstop Discretionary Denial Orders

By Dani Kass

Acting U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director Coke Morgan Stewart inundated the patent community in May and June with dozens of rulings altering the landscape of discretionary denials at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. Here, Law360 goes through what you should know.

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Medical Co. Wants High Court To Review Rushed Patent Case

By Elliot Weld

A medical device maker has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear it out on claims that a North Carolina federal judge rushed the case to trial and violated the Fifth Amendment right to due process by shortening the amount of time for discovery.

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Aviation Co. Asks Justices To Clarify TM Jury Trial Rights

By Ivan Moreno

A personal airplane manufacturer involved in a trademark dispute with a luxury charter-plane company has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to determine whether parties in infringement cases forfeit their right to a jury trial when seeking an accounting of profits as the monetary remedy instead of damages.

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Teva Challenge To J&J Antipsychotic Patent Fails At Fed. Circ.

By Theresa Schliep

The Federal Circuit on Tuesday rejected Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc.'s challenge to the validity of claims in a Johnson & Johnson unit's patent covering a lucrative schizophrenia drug, disagreeing with the generic-drug maker that one of the patent's claims should be presumed obvious.

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4th Circ. Revives Medical Device Co.'s Claim In Contract Suit

By Adam Lidgett

The Fourth Circuit on Tuesday revived a medical device maker's breach of contract claim alleging a company it hired to manage its patents globally overcharged for services, sending the case back to a Virginia federal court.

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Judge Doubts OpenAI Rival Used Similar TM Commercially

By Ivan Moreno

A California federal judge appeared skeptical Tuesday that Open Artificial Intelligence Inc. began using its name commercially earlier than ChatGPT developer OpenAI Inc., pushing the lesser-known company for evidence and expressing impatience over what she viewed as a lack of any substantive backing.

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IRhythm Argues Patent Owner's Inaction Shouldn't Doom IPRs

By Dani Kass

A heart monitoring company told the acting U.S. Patent and Trademark Office director that it shouldn't be barred from challenging a patent just because the company had known about it for 12 years, especially when the owner didn't assert it during that time.

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Biosimilars Industry Group Backs Interchangeability Bill

By Adam Lidgett

The current law on how biosimilars are deemed interchangeable or not with their name-brand biologic equivalents has led to public confusion over how safe biosimilars are, a coalition of healthcare industry groups told lawmakers in a letter Monday.

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Fed. Circ. Won't Revive EcoFactor Thermostat Patent Claims

By Adam Lidgett

The Federal Circuit on Tuesday refused to revive a series of EcoFactor Inc. patents related to energy-efficient smart thermostats, backing Patent Trial and Appeal Board findings that Google showed the patents were invalid.

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Medtronic's Blood Pressure IP Claims Against Recor Get Axed

By Hailey Konnath

A California federal judge on Monday agreed to toss, for now, Medtronic Ireland's counterclaims alleging that Recor's surgical treatment for high blood pressure infringes a pair of patents, finding that Medtronic Ireland doesn't have the standing to sue because it licensed its patents to another company.

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Del. Judge Cuts Co-Plaintiff From $57M Refined Coal IP Suit

By Elliot Weld

A co-plaintiff alongside Midwest Energy Emissions Corp. cannot share in a $57 million award from a jury that found patents on technology for refining coal to reduce mercury emissions from power plants were infringed, with a Delaware federal judge ruling on Tuesday the other company lacks standing.

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Broadcom Wants Netflix's 'Retaliatory' Cloud Patent Suit Axed

By Hailey Konnath

Broadcom and cloud services provider VMware on Monday urged a California federal court to throw out Netflix's "meritless, retaliatory" patent infringement suit against them, arguing that Netflix is the one infringing Broadcom's patents and the latest suit is intended to give Netflix leverage in the ongoing dispute.

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Anoxia Says Alembic's Blood Clot Catheter Infringes Patents

By Gina Kim

Anoxia Medical Inc. commenced a patent infringement suit in California federal court Monday against its competitor Alembic LLC, accusing Alembic of ripping off Anoxia's novel technology for its endovascular "Slinky®" catheter invention that efficiently removes blood clots from the human body.

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Exclusion's Use Of 'The' Supports Alt. Reading, 5th Circ. Says

By Ganesh Setty

The Fifth Circuit said an exclusion barring coverage for intellectual property infringement claims didn't necessarily relieve an insurer from covering defense expenses an oil and gas company incurred in an IP theft lawsuit, finding the exclusion's use of "the" led to a pro-coverage, reasonable meaning.

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Clarity Sought On Tycoon's Trade Secrets In Hacking Suit

By Hayley Fowler

A federal judge has said he needs a clearer picture on whether aviation tycoon Farhad Azima owns the trade secrets he has accused a North Carolina private investigator of leaking as part of an international hacking conspiracy, ordering both sides to beef up their briefing on the issue.

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Frost LLP Adds Entertainment Vet As Partner

By Elliot Weld

Longtime entertainment attorney Gary Stiffelman has joined Frost LLP as a partner after several years at his own firm, bringing the experience of four decades representing what the firm said were numerous high-profile artists, cultural leaders and executives.

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IRhythm IPR Denial Raises Key PTAB Discretion Questions

By giving the passage of time a dispositive role in denying institution of five inter partes review petitions filed by iRhythm Technologies, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has upended the strategic considerations for filing and defending against IPRs, disclosing prior art during prosecution, and engaging in licensing negotiations, say attorneys at Dentons.

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ABA Opinion Makes It A Bit Easier To Drop A 'Hot Potato'

The American Bar Association's recent ethics opinion clarifies when attorneys may terminate clients without good cause, though courts may still disqualify a lawyer who drops a client like a hot potato, so sending a closeout letter is always a best practice, say attorneys at Thompson Hine.

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US Supreme Court Term In Review: What You Need To Know

The U.S. Supreme Court considered many significant legal issues this term, including the proper venue for challenging agency actions and the level of scrutiny courts should apply to bans on gender-affirming care for transgender minors. But the emergency docket and a decision limiting nationwide injunctions loomed large. Here, Law360 takes a look at the cases and those who litigated them, as well as the sharpest writings from the justices.

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Grieving Texas Legal Community Steps Up After Flood Losses

By Lynn LaRowe

Texas lawyers are rallying around colleagues whose children were killed in the Guadalupe River's floodwaters last weekend, as attorneys around the Lone Star State organize widespread efforts to assist victims and hard-hit communities.

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Audio

Top Supreme Court Atty Touts AI Version Of Own Argument

By Jeff Overley

You're not hallucinating — a tech-savvy U.S. Supreme Court advocate generated a near-facsimile of his voice, had an artificial intelligence chatbot use it to argue the same case he recently argued, and told Law360 on Tuesday that "many of its answers were as good or better than mine."

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Gordon Rees Taps Calif. Employment Atty As Next Firm Head

By James Mills

Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani LLP announced Tuesday that a 20-year veteran employment litigator who has long been involved with firm management has been tapped to become the firm's new managing partner effective next year.  

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Analysis

Trump Tariff Fights Put Spotlight On Major Questions Doctrine

By Natalie Olivo

Challenges to President Donald Trump's global tariffs have brought renewed attention to the U.S. Supreme Court's major questions doctrine, including observations that lower courts have so far inconsistently applied this approach when scrutinizing a range of agency actions.

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Calif. Bar Seeks 30-Day Suspension For Ex-Exec's Misconduct

By Emily Sawicki

The California State Bar Court has recommended a 30-day "actual" suspension for its onetime executive director, who last year was found culpable for a "significant ethical violation" in making misrepresentations to the State Bar Board of Trustees regarding his 2014 visit to Mongolia, which allegedly cost thousands of dollars in bar funds.

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'Practice Better Judgment,' Judge Tells Comscore Foe

By Bryan Koenig

A California federal judge "strongly" admonished a film distribution and data company for filing an amended monopolization complaint against Comscore on the Fourth of July, while also concluding that the filing mooted, for now, a bid to force the box office giant to continue sharing data.

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Ex-DC Prosecutors Rip Pick Of Emil Bove For 3rd Circ.

By Jake Maher

A group of former federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C., panned Emil Bove as a "dangerous" pick for the Third Circuit and criticized his record as a prosecutor as that of a loyal follower of President Donald Trump, in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

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Jackson Walker, US Trustee Have A Week To Finish Mediation

By Catherine Marfin

A Texas federal judge has given Jackson Walker LLP and the federal government's bankruptcy watchdog a week to finish mediation in a fee dispute stemming from a former bankruptcy judge's secret relationship with a former firm partner.

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Analysis

PE Attorneys Remain Optimistic Despite First-Half Slump

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

While many private equity attorneys predicted a booming environment heading into 2025 with President Donald Trump's incoming pro-business administration, uncertainty surrounding tariffs and antitrust regulations has been a hurdle for dealmaking and fundraising, causing an unanticipated slowdown in private equity activity.

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Trade Court Judge Sworn In As USDA Deputy Secretary

By Courtney Bublé

Judge Stephen A. Vaden of the U.S. Court of International Trade has resigned from his judgeship to join the U.S. Department of Agriculture as the second-in-command.

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Approach The Bench: Judge Biery Has Fun Writing

By Cara Bayles and Steven Trader

U.S. District Judge Fred Biery is now famous for the quirky written opinions he's produced during three decades as a trial judge for the Western District of Texas, but he was on the federal bench for a few years before he started to experiment in his opinion writing.

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