Intellectual Property

  • November 12, 2024

    Unsatisfied With $70M UTC Win, Sandoz Appeals To 3rd Circ.

    Sandoz Inc. has moved to appeal its already $70 million-plus breach of contract damages win over biopharmaceutical firm United Therapeutics Corp., teeing up a Third Circuit request to ask for more damages and to revive antitrust claims previously tossed by a New Jersey federal court.

  • November 12, 2024

    KFC Sues Chicken Rival Church's Over 'Original Recipe' TM

    KFC lodged a trademark infringement suit seeking to stop Church's Texas Chicken from using the term "original recipe" to promote its fried chicken, saying in a complaint filed Friday in Texas federal court that the term has been synonymous with KFC's chicken for more than 50 years.

  • November 12, 2024

    Designers Can Pursue RICO Claims Against Shein In IP Suit

    A California federal judge has ruled that a group of independent designers can pursue racketeering claims against Shein Distribution Corp. and other defendants in a lawsuit where the plaintiffs accuse the online retailer of copyright and trademark infringement for allegedly copying and selling the designers' works.

  • November 12, 2024

    Penn State TM Jury Asked To Ponder Sponsorship Confusion

    A central Pennsylvania federal jury will have to weigh whether consumers are likely to be confused by a Seattle-based online retailer's use of historic logos and art associated with Pennsylvania State University, with opening arguments Tuesday promising dueling experts on consumer surveys and interpretations of trademark law.

  • November 12, 2024

    White Stripes Drop Suit Over Trump's 'Seven Nation Army' Use

    Disbanded rock band The White Stripes has agreed to drop their case targeting President-elect Donald Trump over his use of the iconic introductory riff of the Grammy-winning song "Seven Nation Army" on a social media clip without permission.

  • November 12, 2024

    Navajo Co. Says Paralegal Blocking Return Of Privileged Docs

    A Navajo Nation natural resources company is suing a former paralegal in Colorado state court to enforce a settlement requiring the return of confidential documents that she allegedly emailed to herself, accusing the paralegal of "erecting unreasonable roadblocks" to their agreement.

  • November 12, 2024

    Vidal To Leave USPTO For Private Sector

    U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director Kathi Vidal is stepping down from her role at the agency and will be heading back to the private sector in mid-December, she said in a Tuesday letter.

  • November 12, 2024

    Trial Consultant Agrees To Keep Ex-Employer's Biz Info Secret

    An ex-employee for jury analysis firm Jury-X has agreed to avoid using the company's confidential information while its trade secrets lawsuit unfolds, according to a stipulation filed Tuesday in North Carolina federal court.

  • November 12, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Won't Revive Billable Hours Patent Against RELX

    The Federal Circuit won't undo a New York federal judge's finding that a Realtime Tracker Inc. patent for tracking billable hours was invalid as an abstract idea, backing a win for LexisNexis parent company RELX.

  • November 08, 2024

    Apple Didn't Hire Cercacor CTO To Steal Watch IP, Ex-VP Says

    A retired Apple executive defended the tech giant Friday in Masimo's trade secret suit over pulse oximetry technology, testifying in California federal court that Apple didn't hire a Masimo spinoff's chief technology office in order to obtain confidential information for the Apple Watch and never received any such information.

  • November 08, 2024

    Justices Urged To Review Fed. Circ.'s 1-Word PTAB Decisions

    The U.S. Supreme Court must reckon with the Federal Circuit's "disconcerting pattern" of affirming decisions from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board with one-word orders, patent holder ParkerVision Inc. has told the justices, saying that by failing to explain its reasoning, the court is creating uncertainty that is stifling innovation.

  • November 08, 2024

    PPG Seeks $23M Fees In Sherwin-Williams Coating IP Suit

    PPG Industries told a Pennsylvania federal judge Friday that Sherwin-Williams should pay it $23 million in attorney fees after the Federal Circuit backed a jury's verdict invalidating five paint coating patents, saying the litigation was "premised on directly contradicting" admissions Sherwin made to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

  • November 08, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Backs Invalidation Of Geolocation IP Under Alice

    The Federal Circuit won't breathe new life into GeoComply's infringement suit against its geolocation competitor XPoint over an anti-location-spoofing patent, affirming a lower court's dismissal.

  • November 08, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Unclear If Teva Inhaler IP Belongs In Orange Book

    A trio of Federal Circuit judges took a complex question tied to whether Teva should be able to include inhaler patents in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Orange Book and tried to make it simple: Does owning a patent for a steering wheel mean you claim the whole car?

  • November 08, 2024

    Facts In Emails Aren't Confidential For Deposition, Judge Says

    A government contractor implicated in allegations that the U.S. infringed patents for contactless data carriers must turn over portions of a former employee's emails because the correspondence contains facts not protected by attorney-client privilege, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims has ruled.

  • November 08, 2024

    Ex-Elanco IP Lawyer Lodges Gender Discrimination Suit

    A female former in-house intellectual property lawyer at Elanco Animal Health Inc. sued the pharmaceutical company for gender discrimination in Indiana federal court, alleging she was passed over for a promotion in favor of a less qualified man who later mistreated the women on staff.

  • November 08, 2024

    Chancery Tosses Microchip Co.'s Tech Licensor Challenge

    A Delaware vice chancellor on Friday dismissed a lawsuit filed by Swiss microchip maker u-blox AG against tech licensor InterDigital Inc., finding among other points that u-blox was barred from moving forward with potentially unsettled claims arising from the same issues in a California federal court case.

  • November 08, 2024

    Justices Urged To Review Amazon Patent Program Case

    A company alleging patent infringement through Amazon's patent evaluation program is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to take up its appeal of a Federal Circuit ruling that said it had to face a declaratory judgment suit in the purported infringer's home state.

  • November 08, 2024

    White & Case Adds Life Sciences IP Atty From A&O Shearman

    A veteran life sciences patent litigator has jumped from Allen Overy Shearman Sterling to White & Case LLP in New York, expanding the firm’s capabilities to represent medical and pharmaceutical industry clients in complex litigation.

  • November 08, 2024

    Logan Paul's Drink Co. Blasts Olympic Committee's TM Suit

    Prime Hydration, a sports beverage company co-founded by social media influencer and wrestler Logan Paul, has struck back at a trademark infringement complaint from the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee, accusing it of taking a "shotgun pleading" approach without supporting its claims.

  • November 08, 2024

    New Patent Filings Hit Global Record, WIPO Says

    A new report from the World Intellectual Property Organization has found that new patent filings worldwide reached a record high in 2023, as patent applications exceeded 3.5 million for the first time.

  • November 08, 2024

    Disney Hit With Suit Over Streaming Media Patents

    The Walt Disney Co. and subsidiaries like Hulu and ESPN have been hit with a federal lawsuit claiming that the entertainment giant's various streaming services infringe a series of media patents owned by Adeia Technologies Inc.

  • November 08, 2024

    UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

    This past week in London has seen collapsed German airline Air Berlin take action against its former auditor KPMG, the associate editor at The Spectator hit with a libel claim by a mosque over the far-right riots that took place in August and British licensing authority the Performing Right Society sue Parklife Manchester and four other festival organizers. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

  • November 07, 2024

    Oakland Airport Name Has Travelers Flying In Circles, SF Says

    Attorneys for San Francisco urged a California federal judge Thursday to block Oakland from renaming its airport the "San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport," saying travelers are mistakenly showing up to San Francisco International Airport instead of Oakland's hub because the new name is "dangerously and confusingly similar."

  • November 07, 2024

    OpenAI Beats Copyright Suit By 2 News Websites, For Now

    OpenAI preliminarily escaped one of the many copyright suits it's facing from journalism publishers on Thursday, as a New York federal judge found that two alternative news websites didn't sufficiently allege harm from the removal of author information in ChatGPT training sets.

Expert Analysis

  • Why Attorneys Should Consider Community Leadership Roles

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    Volunteering and nonprofit board service are complementary to, but distinct from, traditional pro bono work, and taking on these community leadership roles can produce dividends for lawyers, their firms and the nonprofit causes they support, says Katie Beacham at Kilpatrick.

  • Firms Must Offer A Trifecta Of Services In Post-Chevron World

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    After the U.S. Supreme Court’s Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo decision overturning Chevron deference, law firms will need to integrate litigation, lobbying and communications functions to keep up with the ramifications of the ruling and provide adequate counsel quickly, says Neil Hare at Dentons.

  • Takeaways From UPC's Amgen Patent Invalidity Analysis

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    The Unified Patent Court Central Division's decision in Regeneron v. Amgen to revoke a patent for lack of inventive step is particularly clear in its reasoning and highlights the risks to patentees of the new court's central revocation powers, say Jane Evenson and Caitlin Heard at CMS.

  • How Cos. Can Leverage IP In Corporate Bankruptcy

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    In light of an increase in year-to-date Chapter 11 filings, businesses must understand the importance and value of intellectual property in corporate bankruptcy and restructuring, from contributing to enterprise value, to providing leverage in negotiations and facilitating recovery, says Gregory Campanella at Ocean Tomo.

  • 5 Tips To Succeed In A Master Of Laws Program And Beyond

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    As lawyers and recent law school graduates begin their Master of Laws coursework across the country, they should keep a few pointers in mind to get the most out of their programs and kick-start successful careers in their practice areas, says Kelley Miller at Reed Smith.

  • Examining Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Of AI Inventions

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    In light of U.S. Patent and Trademark Office data showing that patent applications for artificial intelligence inventions are likelier to get rejected based on patent-ineligible subject matter, inventors seeking protection should be aware of the difficulties and challenges pertaining to patent eligibility, say Georgios Effraimidis at NERA and Joel Lehrer at Goodwin.

  • IP Hot Topic: The Intersection Of Trademark And Antitrust Law

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    Antitrust claims – like those in the U.S. Department of Justice’s recent case against Apple – are increasingly influencing trademark disputes and enforcement practices, demonstrating how antitrust law can dilute the power of a trademark, say attorneys at Dentons.

  • When Trauma Colors Testimony: How To Help Witnesses

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    As stress-related mental health issues continue to rise, trial attorneys must become familiar with a few key trauma-informed strategies to help witnesses get back on track — leaning in to the counselor aspect of their vocations, say Ava Hernández and Steve Wood at Courtroom Sciences.

  • Series

    Being An Opera Singer Made Me A Better Lawyer

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    My journey from the stage to the courtroom has shown that the skills I honed as an opera singer – punctuality, memorization, creativity and more – have all played a vital role in my success as an attorney, says Gerard D'Emilio at GableGotwals.

  • How Law Firms Can Avoid 'Collaboration Drag'

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    Law firm decision making can be stifled by “collaboration drag” — characterized by too many pointless meetings, too much peer feedback and too little dissent — but a few strategies can help stakeholders improve decision-making processes and build consensus, says Steve Groom at Miles Mediation.

  • When The Supreme Court Gives You Lemons, Make Lemonade

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    Instead of grousing about the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decisions overturning long-standing precedents, attorneys should look to history for examples of how enterprising legal minds molded difficult decisions to their advantage, and figure out how to work with the cards they’ve been dealt, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.

  • Fed. Circ. Resolves Post-AIA Question On Prefiling Activity

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    For more than a decade, patent attorneys have worried about what the America Invents Act means for specific prefiling activities, but two recent Federal Circuit decisions suggest the enumerated prefiling activities in Section 102(a)(1) will not affect validity if done within a year of filing the application, says Howard Skaist at Berkeley Law.

  • Opinion

    Litigation Funding Disclosure Key To Open, Impartial Process

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    Blanket investor and funding agreement disclosures should be required in all civil cases where the investor has a financial interest in the outcome in order to address issues ranging from potential conflicts of interest to national security concerns, says Bob Goodlatte, former U.S. House Representative for Virginia.

  • Fed. Circ. Patent Ruling Clarifies Section 101 Procedures

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    The Federal Circuit’s recent ruling in Mobile Acuity v. Blippar affirming a dismissal at the pleading stage illustrates important considerations and potential pitfalls for both filing and opposing a Section 101 motion to dismiss, say Thomas Sprankling and Vikram Iyer at WilmerHale.

  • What NFL Draft Picks Have In Common With Lateral Law Hires

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    Nearly half of law firm lateral hires leave within a few years — a failure rate that is strikingly similar to the performance of NFL quarterbacks drafted in the first round — in part because evaluators focus too heavily on quantifiable metrics and not enough on a prospect's character traits, says Howard Rosenberg at Baretz+Brunelle.

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