Intellectual Property

Many lawyers and executives view confidentiality and nondisclosure agreements as run-of-the-mill, cookie-cutter agreements or clauses. Often, these types of agreements/clauses are signed and never looked at again. But when disputes arise, particularly when company trade secrets are at stake, the confidentiality agreement or provision can be key to the outcome of the matter.

A federal appeals court said Jack Daniel’s can’t stop the maker of the “Bad Spaniels” dog toy from selling the bottle-shaped parody, ruling the whiskey maker failed to show the toy was likely to tarnish its famous trademarks.

The Supreme Court recently granted certiorari in RiseandShine Corp. v. PepsiCo, Inc., a trademark dispute that presents a question with potentially significant implications for trademark litigation: whether a trademark’s inherent strength is a question of fact for a jury or a question of law for a court.

Sampling portions of preexisting songs and sound recordings in new works became common in the 1980s, with the rise of hip-hop music and the widespread availability of digital sampling technology. This article examines several 2026 court decisions involving music sampling disputes.

Agentic AI introduces risks that are novel and complex, but the most effective response is a familiar one. Zero Trust answers the problem of when an AI agent misfires on its own by constraining what an agent can do rather than betting on how it will behave.

Aldi’s shoppers know exactly what they are buying. Mondelez v. Aldi will test whether trademark law can see, and price, what a package borrows.

Federal Circuit: Construing a Structural Claim Term as a “Means” for Performing a Function Improperly Converts the Claimed Structure into a Means-Plus-Function TermPatent Trial and Appeal Board: Obviousness-Type Double Patenting is Not Limited Only to Patent Claims That Would Effectively Extend the Term of an Existing Patent (But Clarification Would Be Welcome)

It is one of the more common questions a trademark practitioner fields at the start of a brand launch: “We found the name we want to use, but somebody else is already using it — and they never registered it. Are we blocked?” Surprisingly, the answer is oftentimes “not necessarily.”