In a sua sponte Director Review, USPTO Director Vidal vacated an adverse judgement against Patent Owner for Patent Owner’s failure to submit a mandatory notice of information or file a preliminary response to a Petition...more
The Director of the US Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) overturned the Patent Trial & Appeal Board’s premature adverse judgment against a patent owner and remanded an inter partes review (IPR) proceeding based on the fact that...more
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), acting through its various agencies, including the Farm Service Agency (FSA) and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), offers a variety of loan, risk...more
Precedential Decisions - Penumbra, Inc. v. RapidPulse, Inc., IPR2021-01466, Paper 34 (March 10, 2023) (designated: November 15, 2023) (regarding prior art status under AIA § 102) The Director designated as precedential...more
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) granted Petitioner’s motions to sanction Patent Owner for failure to meet its duty of candor and fair dealing in five related inter partes review proceedings. The PTAB found that...more
Immediately before opening statements were to begin, Dominion settled its defamation lawsuit against Fox News for its coverage of Donald Trump’s “Big Lie” about the 2020 presidential election for a landmark $787.5 million. ...more
The Trademark Trial & Appeal Board (Board) addressed, for the first time, whether an applicant is required to submit an English translation for a word that is created by spelling out the pronunciation of Chinese characters...more
The USPTO Director recently conducted sua sponte review of a Patent Trial and Appeal Board decision granting adverse judgment in four IPR proceedings where a panel found that the patent owner had abandoned the contests. In a...more
The Trademark Trial & Appeal Board (Board) addressed, for the first time, whether the deletion of goods and services as a result of a post-registration audit during a cancellation proceeding triggers Trademark Rule 2.134 and...more
Apple Inc. v. Zipit Wireless, Inc. (IPR2021-01124, -01125, -01126, -01129) - Director Kathi Vidal has issued a new precedential decision sua sponte that impacts the standard for abandonment of contest in inter partes...more
Getting a trial court to rethink its prior decision is a steep climb. The United States Supreme Court’s decision in Kemp v. United States, issued June 13, 2022, makes achieving such outcomes easier in one sense, but more...more
On June 13, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Kemp v. United States, No. 21-5726, holding that the term “mistake” in Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b)(1) includes a judge’s errors of law, and therefore Petitioner...more
In Ruderman v. Liberty Mut. Grp., Inc., No. 21-817, 2022 WL 244086 (2d Cir. Jan. 27, 2022), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that reclassification of a claimant’s disability from one that is...more
The Illinois Supreme Court held that hiring new counsel and incurring legal fees did not, by itself, trigger the two-year statute of limitations to file a legal malpractice action (735 ILCS 5/13-214.3(b)) because plaintiffs...more
For many years, Illinois plaintiffs in personal injury and wrongful death actions have been entitled to statutory postjudgment interest, currently at a rate of 9% per year. (735 ILCS 5/2-1303(a)). Prejudgment interest,...more
Although the Federal Circuit had previously held that the PTAB may enter adverse judgment when a patent owner disclaims all claims challenged in an inter partes review (“IPR”) petition before an institution decision, in...more
As previously reported, the Illinois Human Rights Act was amended to require employers to report adverse judgments and administrative rulings in cases involving sexual harassment or unlawful discrimination to the Illinois...more
Nearly one year after Governor JB Pritzker signed the Illinois Workplace Transparency Act (WTA), the Illinois Department of Human Rights (IDHR) issued much-needed guidance on one of the WTA’s most arduous requirements—the...more
In August 2019, SB0075 – the Workplace Transparency Act – was signed in Illinois. The Act created a number of new requirements for employers including, but not limited to, a new reporting requirement regarding adverse...more
The first annual report to the Illinois Department of Human Rights (IDHR) of employers’ information about adverse judgments or administrative rulings against them in the prior year is due October 31, 2020. Section 2-108 of...more
It’s hard to keep up with all the recent changes to labor and employment law. While the law always seems to evolve at a rapid pace, there have been an unprecedented number of changes for the past few years—and this past month...more
After state lawmakers passed sweeping expansions to the Illinois Human Rights Act (IHRA) in August 2019, employers have been left in the dark as to how the state would interpret and enforce the new requirement forcing...more
Bass, Berry & Sims attorney Chris Lazarini reviewed a case in which a putative class of individuals that transacted certain Korean futures contracts on the Korea Exchange through the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s Globex...more
The Federal Circuit affirmed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's (PTAB) claim construction (and inter partes review (IPR) decision invalidating claims for obviousness) in it recent Genentech, Inc. v. Iancu decision, and also...more
Smith & Nephew petitioned for inter partes review (IPR) of Arthrex’s patent. After the petition was filed, but before the Board issued an institution decision, Arthrex statutorily disclaimed all the challenged claims under 37...more