Intellectual Property

PTAB Did Not Deny Procedural Due Process By Adopting a Claim Construction not Offered by the Parties During IPR
USPTO Did Not Exceed Authority in Granting Inter Partes Reexamination after Requester Sought to Have It Denied

Starting in 2013, the USPTO has been requesting reimbursement for the time spent by its attorneys and paralegals on district court challenges to PTAB and TTAB decisions.

The landscape for patent law has changed more quickly over the last five years than it had in preceding decades. Recent cases have profoundly changed the way courts and the USPTO treat patents and patent applications. The U.S. Supreme Court will have ample opportunity, if it chooses, to revisit the issues that have been raised by these cases over the next few terms.

District Court's Decision Retroactively Excusing Failure to Mark Patented Products Vacated By Federal Circuit
Federal Circuit Affirms PTAB's Unpatentability Findings Made In an IPR Proceeding Despite Prior Judicial Opinions Upholding Validity

Fashion, furniture, and other design-oriented companies will take note of the Supreme Court's recent decision in Star Athletica, L.L.C. v. Varsity Brands, Inc., which resolved a division among the federal circuits on the issue of the separability of designs of useful articles under the Copyright Act.

The U.S. Supreme Court did not appear eager to upset the patent litigation landscape by drastically limiting where infringement lawsuits can be filed.

Recent U.S. cases have created benchmarks of patent, trademark, copyright, and trade secret liability for foreign activity, and businesses should take heed.

IT security professionals used to warn that only two types of businesses exist: those that have been hacked, and those that will be. Now, many are even more pessimistic, and divide the world's businesses into companies that know that they have been hacked, and those that don't. Law firms are juicy targets with all the personal identifiable information (PII) contained in client files. Intellectual property practices are especially attractive to cyber thieves because of the value of patent, trademark and trade secret information.