(Podcast) The Briefing: Thirsty for Clarity – Brand Confusion In The Beverage Category
The Briefing: Thirsty for Clarity – Brand Confusion In The Beverage Category
The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board often consider wine, beer, and non-alcoholic beverages related when determining the likelihood of confusion despite there being no per se rule on the matter. Scott Hervey and Jamie...more
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit recently issued a landmark decision that temporarily altered the standard of review for antitrust bid-rigging prosecutions against manufacturers and distributors in...more
2023 was a dramatic year for criminal antitrust enforcement in the United States. The Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) garnered big wins: three convictions at trial,1 $267 million in criminal fines...more
The year 2023 ended with a bang in the cartel space, with a federal court of appeals upending what was long believed to be the scope of conduct that should be considered per se under the Sherman Act. The new year, 2024,...more
A three-judge panel from the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit overturned an executive’s bid-rigging antitrust conviction, holding that the district court erred in applying the per se standard to the executive’s...more
In recent court filings and public comments, the Department of Justice Antitrust Division (“DOJ” or “the Division”) has stated that price fixing using algorithmic software is per se illegal under the antitrust laws. These...more
Introduction - No-poach agreements, wherein companies agree not to solicit or hire employees away from a competitor, have been targeted by the White House, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Antitrust Division....more
Attorneys and in-house counsel who provide both legal and business advice to their clients should consider the scope of the attorney-client privilege relating to dual-purpose communications. On January 23, 2023, after...more
For plaintiffs, defamation cases are often an uphill battle to prove and win. For defendants, they can be a slam dunk or a fact-intensive battle over defamation defenses. But knowing the hurdles, and how to avoid them, can...more
United States District Court Acquits all Defendants in US v. Patel - On April 28, 2023, the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut acquitted the defendants in US v. Patel of the charges of conspiring...more
On April 28, 2023, a US District Court for the District of Connecticut judge dismissed the US Department of Justice’s (DOJ) criminal non-solicitation case against six aerospace industry employees, acquitting all the...more
The various antitrust laws can seem unfair, complicated, and many times irrelevant to the practice of dentistry. However, these laws do apply. The U.S. Justice Department (“DOJ”) and the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”)...more
In July 2021, the US Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Antitrust Division brought its first-ever criminal no-poach market allocation case. The Antitrust Division indicted DaVita, Inc. and its former CEO Kent Thiry on three counts...more
The Antitrust Division won a preliminary skirmish against two co-defendants who challenged the criminal indictment against them charging price-fixing in the labor market. District Court Judge Mazzant, in the Eastern District...more
The Development: Congress unanimously passed and before leaving office, President Trump signed into law, the Competitive Health Insurance Reform Act ("CHIRA"). CHIRA limits application of the McCarran-Ferguson Act, an...more
With the “improper Markush grouping” rejection, U.S. patent examiners may reject claims reciting various alternative polynucleotide or polypeptide sequences. However, there is no per se rule that groupings of alternative...more
Federal district courts around the country continue to grapple with how to analyze “no-poach” agreements — whereby two or more companies agree not to hire or recruit each other’s workers — under the antitrust laws. Beginning...more
In a recent precedential decision, the TTAB held that the addition of one initial —or possibly even more than one initial—in front of a surname does not necessarily create the impression of a personal name. Rather, the Board...more
On August 23, 2019, President Trump signed H.R. 3311 into law. The goal of the Small Business Reorganization Act is to facilitate reorganization among small businesses. But in addition to helping small businesses, the SBRA...more
In an opinion evidencing the split in opinion regarding the patent eligibility of diagnostic methods, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit denied a petition for panel rehearing or rehearing en banc, leaving in...more
‘No-poach’ agreements between businesses not to compete with each other for employees have long been held unlawful under Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act, which prohibits certain restraints on trade and competition....more
On June 11, 2019, Judge Colleen McMahon of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York denied defendants’ motion for judgment on the pleadings in a putative securities class action asserting...more
Legal battles over the antitrust treatment of no-poach agreements continue to escalate with new district court decisions and new pronouncements from two “titans” of antitrust policy, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the...more
A recent decision by the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit is important for competitors involved in joint ventures because it states what mode of antitrust analysis—the per se rule or the rule of reason—applies to the...more