The US Patent Office (USPTO) recently issued new guidance and three examples for AI-related patent claims, which indicate that claims applying AI to a process are unlikely to render the process patent-eligible at the USPTO...more
8/7/2024
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
Innovative Technology ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Inventions ,
Inventors ,
New Guidance ,
Patent Applications ,
Patent-Eligible Subject Matter ,
Patents ,
Section 101 ,
Technology ,
USPTO
A split Supreme Court has decided that, under a plain reading of the Copyright Act, a party alleging copyright infringement may obtain damages for the entire damages period, so long as the suit itself is timely brought....more
5/15/2024
/ Appeals ,
Copyright ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Copyright Litigation ,
Damages ,
Discovery Rule ,
Intellectual Property Litigation ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Music Industry ,
SCOTUS ,
Statute of Limitations ,
The Copyright Act ,
Warner Chappell Music v Nealy
Artificial intelligence (AI) has dominated the headlines over the last several years. As technology has continued to advance, computers and robots have progressed from merely assisting human beings with common tasks to making...more
While the humanitarian crisis has received the most attention during the emerging situation in Ukraine, numerous other facets of the world economy, international relations, and daily life have also been affected. One...more
On September 15, 2021, the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina imposed significant penalties on a defendant who defrauded thousands of trademark registration holders. The imposition of such...more
On June 30, 2020, the US Supreme Court held that a “generic.com” mark (a generic term in combination with “.com”) could be eligible for federal trademark registration, refusing to adopt the US Patent and Trademark Office’s...more
7/1/2020
/ Acquired Distinctiveness ,
Appeals ,
Booking.com ,
Domain Name Registration ,
Domain Names ,
Generic Marks ,
Lanham Act ,
SCOTUS ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ,
Trademarks ,
United States Patent and Trademark Office v Booking.com BV ,
USPTO
On May 14, 2020, in a unanimous opinion authored by Justice Sotomayor, the US Supreme Court overturned the “defense preclusion” doctrine proposed by the Second Circuit, upholding the requirement that preclusion of a defense...more
5/19/2020
/ Claim Preclusion ,
Collateral Estoppel ,
Counterclaims ,
Defense Preclusion ,
Fashion Branding ,
Issue Preclusion ,
Lucky Brand Dungarees v Marcel Fashion Group ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Release Agreements ,
Remand ,
Res Judicata ,
SCOTUS ,
Split of Authority ,
Subsequent Litigation ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Trademark Litigation ,
Trademarks ,
Vacated
On April 23, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously clarified that the Lanham Act does not require a showing of willful trademark infringement as a statutory prerequisite for a plaintiff to recover a defendant’s profits...more
4/29/2020
/ § 1125(a) ,
§ 1125(c) ,
Appeals ,
Burden of Proof ,
Charge-Filing Preconditions ,
Compensatory Awards ,
Dilution ,
Lanham Act ,
Lost Profits ,
Remand ,
Remedies ,
Romag Fasteners v Fossil ,
SCOTUS ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Trademark Litigation ,
Trademarks ,
Vacated ,
Willful Infringement
Strong brands are prime targets for trademark scams in times of crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic because of the trust and goodwill they have built with the consuming public. Brands in the medical products sphere should be on...more
On February 14, 2020, the United States Patent and Trademark Office issued Revised Examination Guide 1-20, which addressed new mandatory electronic filing and specimen requirements and became effective on February 15, 2020....more
President Trump has signed Phase I of a much anticipated multi-part trade agreement between the United States and China with provisions that will aid the branded pharmaceutical industry. One of the main goals of the agreement...more
1/23/2020
/ China ,
Counterfeit Drugs ,
Criminal Liability ,
Dispute Resolution ,
Generic Drugs ,
Hatch-Waxman ,
Injunctive Relief ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Patent Infringement ,
Patents ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Prescription Drugs ,
Trade Agreements ,
Trade Secrets ,
Trump Administration ,
US Trade Policies
According to the USPTO Commissioner of Trademarks, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has seen a significant increase in the number of applicants who are not fulfilling their legal and ethical obligations...more
On June 24, 2019, the US Supreme Court clarified that the Lanham Act’s bar on “immoral” or “scandalous” trademarks violates the First Amendment because it discriminates based on viewpoint. The decision followed the Supreme...more
6/26/2019
/ Appeals ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Iancu v. Brunetti ,
Lanham Act ,
Reaffirmation ,
Reversal ,
Scandalous/Immoral Marks ,
SCOTUS ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademarks ,
USPTO ,
Viewpoint Discrimination
On May 20, 2019, the US Supreme Court clarified that when a trademark licensor rejects a trademark license agreement in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding, the rejection does not rescind the use rights of the licensee under...more
6/24/2019
/ Bankruptcy Appellate Panel (BAP) ,
Bankruptcy Code ,
Breach of Contract ,
Chapter 11 ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Debtors ,
Exclusions ,
Executory Contracts ,
IP License ,
Mission Product Holdings Inc v Tempnology LLC ,
Rescission ,
Reversal ,
SCOTUS ,
Section 365 ,
Split of Authority ,
Trademark Licenses ,
Trademarks ,
Trustees
On June 10, the US Supreme Court ruled 6-31 that the Federal Government is not a “person” entitled to institute post-grant proceedings - inter partes review, post-grant review, or covered business method review (CBM review) -...more
It has been a big week for copyright cases, and it’s only Wednesday. This Monday, the Supreme Court issued opinions on two copyright cases pending before it from the October 2018 term. ...more
3/7/2019
/ Appeals ,
Copyright ,
Copyright Exhaustion ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Copyright Litigation ,
Copyright Registration ,
Damages ,
Expert Fees ,
Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp v Wall-Street.com LLC ,
Judicial Discretion ,
Litigation Fees & Costs ,
Prevailing Party ,
Remedies ,
Rimini Street Inc v Oracle USA Inc ,
SCOTUS ,
Split of Authority ,
The Copyright Act ,
Uniformity
On June 22, 2018, the US Supreme Court clarified the scope of permissible patent damages awards by holding that when a party is found liable under
35 U.S.C. § 271(f) for exporting components of a patented invention, foreign...more
6/26/2018
/ 35 U.S.C. § 271(f)(2) ,
Appeals ,
Component Parts Doctrine ,
Damages ,
Domestic Injury ,
Exports ,
Extraterritoriality Rules ,
Foreign Profits ,
Foreign Sales ,
Lost Profits ,
Patent Act ,
Patent Infringement ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patents ,
SCOTUS ,
WesternGeco LLC v Ion Geophysical Corporation
The United States International Trade Commission (ITC) has recently amended its rules governing section 337 unfair trade practice investigations. The amendments formally add the 100-day program, permit the Commission to split...more
On May 22, 2017, the Supreme Court fundamentally narrowed patent venue by unanimously holding in TC Heartland that patent holders must follow the patent venue statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1400(b), which requires suing (1) “where the...more
On April 24, 2018, the US Supreme Court decided two important cases that directly impact inter partes reviews (IPRs) before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), and patent litigation as a whole. In Oil States Energy...more
4/30/2018
/ Administrative Proceedings ,
America Invents Act ,
Article III ,
Chevron Deference ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Estoppel ,
Inter Partes Review (IPR) Proceeding ,
Oil States Energy Services v Greene's Energy Group ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patent Ownership ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Patents ,
Post-Grant Review ,
Public Rights Doctrine ,
SAS Institute Inc. v Iancu ,
SCOTUS ,
Seventh Amendment ,
USPTO
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has decided that patent owners may appeal the decisions of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) regarding the timeliness of inter partes review petitions under 35 U.S.C. §...more
1/16/2018
/ § 315(b) ,
Appeals ,
Broadcom ,
En Banc Review ,
Inter Partes Review (IPR) Proceeding ,
Judicial Review ,
Non-Appealable Decisions ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Patents ,
Time-Barred Claims ,
USPTO
In a unanimous October 26, 2017, decision, the Supreme Court of Florida concluded that Florida common law does not recognize an exclusive right of public performance in pre-1972 sound recordings. Thus, members of the band,...more
On October 4, 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a divided en banc decision in Aqua Products, Inc. v. Matal, vacating the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) final written decision insofar as it...more
On September 21, 2017, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in In re Cray, Inc. clarified the rules for determining proper venue in patent suits, building on the US Supreme Court’s May 2017 ruling in TC Heartland...more
When the US Supreme Court decision in TC Heartland was published, many patent practitioners thought that the decision would adversely affect the Eastern District of Texas, a popular venue for patentees because of its quick...more
7/13/2017
/ Corporate Counsel ,
Forum Shopping ,
Patent Infringement ,
Patent Litigation ,
Personal Jurisdiction ,
Principal Place of Business ,
Raytheon ,
SCOTUS ,
State of Incorporation ,
TC Heartland LLC v Kraft Foods ,
Venue