Intellectual Property

Update on Protecting IP In China
For most global entertainment and media companies, the need to think about how to protect intellectual property in China is an inevitable reality. For a few years, there have been indications that China is willing to be more protective of IP owners' rights. But recent events signal there's still work to be done. These developments highlight that, despite small gains, protecting intellectual property in China can still be a major headache for companies and in-house attorneys.
November 02, 2017Jennifer Williams-Alvarez
EU Push to Filter 'Illegal' Content Raises Alarms in Silicon Valley
The European Commission (EU) is ramping up pressure on tech companies to more aggressively use automated filtering to scrub "illegal" content from the Internet, a move that is drawing criticism from some lawyers and free speech activists in Silicon Valley.
November 02, 2017Ben Hancock
Retail Restructuring
Various debt-burdened retailers are looking to their intellectual property assets as a source of untapped value for refinancing transactions. While it remains to be seen which strategies will be most successful, IP assets will play a key role in future retail restructurings.
November 02, 2017Adam C. Rogoff, Erica D. Klein and Marsha Sukach
IP News
Federal Circuit: Collateral Estoppel Can Apply to Patents With Claims Similar To Those in Previously Litigated
Federal Circuit Uses 'Rule of Reason' To Determine Patent Owner Had an Early Reduction to Practice
November 02, 2017Jeff Ginsberg and George Soussou
Protecting Product Packaging and Product Configuration
Registering and protecting product designs is challenging. Preliminarily, trade dress cannot be registered or protected as a trademark if it is functional — if it is “essential to the use or purpose of the article or it affects the cost or quality of the article.”
November 01, 2017Marcus S. Harris
Procedures for Protecting Entertainment Domain Names Against Cybersquatters
Because there are so many new digital channels for possible intellectual property infringement, knowledge of the various mechanisms available to combat the issue is vital to enabling entertainment industry owners to protect their brand.
October 02, 2017Karen Levin, Ariel Ronneburger and Damias Wilson
Patent Lost Profit Damages and Apportionment
Split Federal Circuit Declined to Reconsider Panel's Decision that Lost Profits Based on the Panduit Factors Are Fully Apportioned
On Sept. 1, 2017, a split Federal Circuit declined to rehear a panel decision in Mentor Graphics Corp. v. EVE-USA, Inc., a case that could have significant implications for lost profit damages and apportionment.
October 02, 2017Amy Proctor and Molly Russell
Qualcomm Slammed In Patent Brawl With Apple
Qualcomm Inc. lost two pretrial skirmishes last month in its patent and antitrust battle against Apple Inc. — in just about every way imaginable.
October 02, 2017Scott [email protected]
Tactical Considerations for Patent Owner Responses in IPRs
U.S. Patent Office statistics show that the PTAB has found at least one claim of a challenged patent to be unpatentable in over 80% of IPRs. Given these odds, and the fact that institution of an IPR is not appealable, a patent owner's best shot at preserving its patent rights intact is to defeat institution of the IPR trial in the first instance.
October 02, 2017Susan Perng Pan
Trade Secrets Litigation: The No-Longer-Forgotten Part of the Tech IP Arsenal
With Massive Jury Rewards and the DTSA Encouraging Federal Litigation, Trade Secrets Litigation Is Seeing a Surge in the Tech Industry
These days, many of the big IP litigation battles involving companies like Facebook, Uber, and Epic, have nothing to do with patents, trademarks or copyrights at all. Instead, it's all about the perhaps forgotten part of IP: trade secrets.
October 02, 2017Zach Warren