Litigation

Microsoft and other U.S.-based internet service providers won a major victory on July 14 at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which reversed a lower court in finding the company is not required to comply with a U.S. warrant for customer e-mails stored on a server in Dublin.

Issuing its second decision in Supap Kirtsaeng's long-standing dispute with John Wiley & Sons ' and its first copyright decision in nearly two years ' the SCOTUS recently clarified the applicable standard for evaluating the appropriateness of an attorney's fee award under Section 505 of the Copyright Act, holding that a district court should give substantial weight to the objective reasonableness of the losing party's position, while also taking into consideration all other circumstances relevant to the attorney's fees inquiry.

Federal Circuit Remands PTAB Decision Due to Claim Construction Change
Supreme Court Restricts Challenges to PTAB's Institution Decisions and Upholds Broadest Reasonable Interpretation Standard in IPR Proceedings

This edition of the Quarterly State Compliance Review looks at some legislation of interest to corporate lawyers that went into effect between May 1 and July 1, 2016, as well as some recent cases of interest.

Discussion of two key rulings, one in Pennsylvania, one in New Jersey.

The Federal Circuit decision in Medtronic highlights the tension faced by alleged patent infringers, who must balance invalidity issues where a broad construction is desirable, against non-infringement issues, where narrow constructions are desired.

Analysis of a recent ruling in which a New York appeals court reversed the dismissal of a suit brought by a tenant seeking recission of his commercial lease and a declaration that he was not bound by it.

June 23's verdict for Led Zeppelin in the copyright trial over the 1971 hit song 'Stairway to Heaven' reaffirms the creative rights of songwriters while demonstrating the difficulties in pursuing infringement over sheet music, according to legal experts following the case.