On February 13, 2024, the USPTO (PTO) published its guidance for inventions made with the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI). The PTO published the guidance in response to the directive it received in the Executive...more
As we near a standoff in Congress on the budget, we write to remind clients about how a government shutdown would affect patent and trademark operations at the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO), copyright operations at the...more
The Constitution’s Article II “Appointments Clause” requires the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint “officers” of the United States. In United States v. Arthrex, Inc., the Supreme Court reviewed...more
6/24/2021
/ Administrative Patent Judges ,
Appointments Clause ,
Arthrex Inc v Smith & Nephew Inc ,
Executive Branch ,
Executive Powers ,
Inter Partes Review (IPR) Proceeding ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Patents ,
SCOTUS ,
United States v Arthrex Inc ,
USPTO
The decade-long dispute between Google LLC and Oracle America Inc. has now ended with the Supreme Court ruling 6-2 in favor of Google. This dispute concerned Google’s use of Oracle’s “declaring code” – software that provides...more
4/21/2021
/ Copyright ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Copyright Litigation ,
Fair Use ,
Google ,
Intellectual Property Litigation ,
Java ,
Oracle ,
Oracle v Google ,
SCOTUS ,
Transformative Use
While all eyes have been trained on the confirmation hearings from last week, the Supreme Court made news in the IP world. The Court granted certiorari in Arthrex v. Smith & Nephew (Nos. 19-1434, -1452, -1458), a decision...more
10/20/2020
/ 5 U.S.C. § 7513(a) ,
Administrative Patent Judges ,
Appointments Clause ,
Arthrex Inc v Smith & Nephew Inc ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Director of the USPTO ,
Inferior Officers ,
Inter Partes Review (IPR) Proceeding ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Patents ,
Polaris Innovations Ltd v Kingston Technology Co ,
Principle Officers ,
SCOTUS ,
Severability Doctrine ,
Tenure ,
United States v Arthrex Inc
A recent Supreme Court decision sets important precedent on the retroactive effect of legislation amending the law governing sovereign immunity in the United States. On May 18, 2020, the Supreme Court handed a victory to...more
6/16/2020
/ Al-Qaeda ,
Amended Complaints ,
Appeals ,
Bodily Injury ,
Congressional Intent ,
Exceptions ,
Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976 (FSIA) ,
Opati v Republic of Sudan ,
Preenactment Conduct ,
Punitive Damages ,
Remand ,
SCOTUS ,
State Sponsors of Terrorism ,
Sudan ,
Terrorist Acts ,
Vacated ,
Wrongful Death
On April 27, the Supreme Court took us on a stroll down memory lane in its decision in Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, Inc., referring us back to its very first copyright case and revisiting the government edicts doctrine for...more
5/11/2020
/ Annotated Case Law ,
Appeals ,
Copyright ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Copyrightable Subject Matter ,
Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org Inc ,
Government Edicts Doctrine ,
Legislative Duties ,
Reaffirmation ,
Reversal ,
SCOTUS ,
Statutory Code ,
The Copyright Act
On March 21, 2020, the last of the features of the NY Stop Hacks and Improve Electronic Data Security Act (“SHIELD Act”) became effective: its data security requirements. The SHIELD Act is a sweeping statute governing...more
Since the issuance of stay-at-home orders relating to COVID-19 on March 20, 2020, the state courthouses in New York have been mostly inaccessible to litigants, closing their doors to all “nonessential” matters, which includes...more
Edward Teach, more popularly known as Blackbeard, roamed the seven seas and terrorized merchant vessels off the U.S. and Caribbean coasts during the colonial period. He ultimately met his demise when the colony of Virginia...more
4/2/2020
/ Abrogation ,
Allen v Cooper ,
Authors ,
Certiorari ,
Congressional Intent ,
Copyright ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Copyright Ownership ,
Copyright Remedy Clarification Act ,
Eleventh Amendment ,
Fourteenth Amendment ,
SCOTUS ,
Sovereign Immunity
The Appointments Clause in Article II of the Constitution requires the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint “officers” of the United States. Many of us are familiar with this process as it applies...more
Under 15 U.S.C. § 1117(a), trademark holder who proves infringement may receive as damages an award of profits “subject to the principles of equity.” This phrase has divided the circuit courts going back several decades, with...more
7/1/2019
/ Appeals ,
Calculation of Damages ,
Certiorari ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Damages ,
Fashion Design ,
Patent Infringement ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patents ,
Profits ,
Remand ,
Romag Fasteners v Fossil ,
SCOTUS ,
Split of Authority ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Trademark Litigation ,
Trademarks ,
Willful Infringement
In our prior blog entries... we followed the course of Matal v. Tam, the case involving the mark “THE SLANTS.” In that case, the Supreme Court struck down a portion of Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1052(a), on...more
7/1/2019
/ Appeals ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Iancu v. Brunetti ,
Lanham Act ,
Reaffirmation ,
Reversal ,
Scandalous/Immoral Marks ,
SCOTUS ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademarks ,
USPTO ,
Viewpoint Discrimination
Last year, in St. Regis Mohawk Tribe v. Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc., the Federal Circuit rejected the use of tribal sovereign immunity as a defense to the institution of an IPR. We questioned in a previous alert whether the...more
Does it Open the Door to Challenge Patents Held by State Entities? -
In Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe v. Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc., the Federal Circuit affirmed the PTAB’s decision denying Saint Regis from using sovereign...more
The Supreme Court recently handed down two highly anticipated decisions concerning inter partes review (IPR) challenge proceedings in the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). In Oil States Energy Services, LLC v. Greene’s...more
In my never-ending quest to write articles that my children would read, I bring you the case of Grumpy Cat.
The guardians of Grumpy Cat (whose actual name is Tardar Sauce), through its company, Grumpy Cat Limited,...more
On January 8, 2018, the en banc Federal Circuit, in Wi-Fi One, LLC v. Broadcom Corp., held that a PTAB decision upon institution as to whether a petition for inter partes review is timely under 35 U.S.C. § 315(b) is...more
1/18/2018
/ § 315(b) ,
Appeals ,
En Banc Review ,
Inter Partes Review (IPR) Proceeding ,
Judicial Review ,
Non-Appealable Decisions ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Patents ,
Real Party in Interest ,
Time-Barred Claims ,
Wi-Fi One
We recently hosted an event at the firm where we discussed legal issues concerning parallel imports in the transportation industry, so a recent decision by the U.S. Court of International Trade discussing “Lever Rule”...more
Well, that happened! According to the Supreme Court’s opinion in Matal v. Tam, Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act, which purports to prohibit the registration of marks that “disparage . . . persons,” is unconstitutional. ...more
6/26/2017
/ Commercial Speech ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Disparagement ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Lanham Act ,
Matal v Tam ,
NFL ,
Redskins ,
SCOTUS ,
The Slants ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademarks
The Supreme Court, in a 7-1 decision written by Justice Alito, has held that laches cannot be invoked as a defense against any claim for damages in a patent case brought within the 6-year limitation on damages prescribed by...more
With some cases, you just shake your head. In this case, a restaurant purveyor thought it would be okay to open a restaurant by the name of the “Krusty Krab.” For those of you who have no reason to have been watching...more
The peoples of France and the United States tend to view things very differently — Jerry Lewis, berets and processed cheese food, to name just a few. Law sometimes transcends this divide – for example, French and American...more
We have been following the course of In re Tam as it has progressed through the PTO and the courts. To recap, at issue is whether Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act, which prohibits the registration of marks that may disparage...more
9/30/2016
/ Blackhorse v Pro-Football ,
Disparagement ,
First Amendment ,
Football ,
Free Speech ,
Lanham Act ,
Petition for Writ of Certiorari ,
Redskins ,
The Slants ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademarks
Patent infringers take note: clever defenses by ingenious litigation counsel may come too late to save you from an award of exemplary damages. On Monday, June 13, in Halo Electronics v. Pulse Electronics and Stryker Corp. v....more
6/16/2016
/ 35 U.S.C. § 284 ,
Abuse of Discretion ,
Enhanced Damages ,
Halo v Pulse ,
Highmark ,
Judicial Discretion ,
Patent Infringement ,
Patents ,
Preponderance of the Evidence ,
SCOTUS ,
Standard of Proof ,
Standard of Review ,
Stryker v Zimmer ,
Willful Infringement