Insurance Coverage for Trademark Infringement Lawsuits
This article provides an overview of case law holding that insurance companies are obligated to provide coverage for trademark claims under advertising injury coverage, even when the word "trademark" does not appear anywhere in the policy. Further, it discusses rulings on the prior publication exclusion, which insurers frequently assert applies to advertising injury in the trademark infringement context.
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Professional Development: Maximizing the Impact of Women's Programming
It's no secret that our clients are busy. From spa days to fancy dinners, they likely have more invitations for law firm networking events than they have the time (or the desire) to attend. This is especially true for our female clients, who often find their available time further compressed by obligations outside the office.
The Place to Network: Working ' and Networking ' for a Cause
By investing your time, skills and money in volunteer efforts, you stand to benefit your own morale, while also making and furthering contacts that can be extremely helpful to your legal career, both now and down the road.
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Law Firm Leadership: Giving Feedback
The goal of feedback is improved performance. Teams committed to giving honest, constructive, thoughtful, feedback are intelligent, self-correcting and constantly improving their individual and team performance.
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Virtual Worlds
Given the rising popularity of virtual worlds and the ability to generate real-world income from activities within the virtual realm, it is not surprising that the virtual marketplace is thriving and that trademark and copyright infringements occur on a regular basis.
Announcing the Fifth Annual MLF 50
What a year it has been and now once again, it is time for law firm marketing and communications departments to start thinking about their submissions for consideration to earn a spot on the coveted MLF 50 ' The Top 50 Law Firms in Marketing and Communications.
Federal Circuit Puts Teeth in the 'Process' of Product-By-Process Claims
Is a "product by process" claim infringed by products that are made by other processes? After 17 years of waiting, the Federal Circuit emphatically answered the question: No; product-by-process claims are only infringed by products made using the claimed process. Although the law now appears to be clear, the strongly worded dissent questions the soundness of the ruling and warns of potentially far-reaching implications for the pharmaceutical and biotech industries.
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Prior Art Reference Need Not Disclose Claimed Invention's Utility
Addressing the issue of whether a comprehensive reference listing of every relevant antisense oligodeoxynucleotide in a known nucleic acid sequence anticipates claims to specific antisense sequences, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that anticipation merely requires that the oligonucleotide sequence was in the prior art, not that its usefulness was previously disclosed.
Is Patent Marking an Issue?
When choosing which claims to assert against an infringer, the traditional thought is "more is better." That is, many choose to assert any and every claim that passes the Rule 11 test. While this strategy is understandable and often the best course of action, it might not yield the best damages result.
Are Case Predictions Part of the Hypothetical Negotiation?
Because a finding of patent infringement no longer automatically results in an injunction, courts have been struggling to determine the proper calculus for calculating post-verdict damages — or "ongoing royalty rates" — when the court declines to issue an injunction.
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- Protecting Innovation in the Cyber World from Patent TrollsWith trillions of dollars to keep watch over, the last thing we need is the distraction of costly litigation brought on by patent assertion entities (PAEs or "patent trolls"), companies that don't make any products but instead seek royalties by asserting their patents against those who do make products.Read More ›
- Meet the Lawyer Working on Inclusion Rider LanguageAt the Oscars in March, Best Actress winner Frances McDormand made “inclusion rider” go viral. But Kalpana Kotagal, a partner at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll had already worked for months to write the language for such provisions. Kotagal was developing legal language for contract provisions that Hollywood's elite could use to require studios and other partners to employ diverse workers on set.Read More ›
- Use of Deferred Prosecution Agreements In White Collar InvestigationsThis article discusses the practical and policy reasons for the use of DPAs and NPAs in white-collar criminal investigations, and considers the NDAA's new reporting provision and its relationship with other efforts to enhance transparency in DOJ decision-making.Read More ›
- The DOJ Goes Phishing: The Rise of False Claims Act Cybersecurity LitigationWhile the DOJ Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative is still in its early stages and cybersecurity regulations are evolving, whistleblower plaintiffs have already begun leveraging the FCA to pursue alleged noncompliance with government cybersecurity requirements.Read More ›
- Private Equity Valuation: A Significant DecisionInsiders (and others) in the private equity business are accustomed to seeing a good deal of discussion ' academic and trade ' on the question of the appropriate methods of valuing private equity positions and securities which are otherwise illiquid. An interesting recent decision in the Southern District has been brought to our attention. The case is <i>In Re Allied Capital Corp.</i>, CCH Fed. SEC L. Rep. 92411 (US DC, S.D.N.Y., Apr. 25, 2003). Judge Lynch's decision is well written, the Judge reviewing a motion to dismiss by a business development company, Allied Capital, against a strike suit claiming that Allied's method of valuing its portfolio failed adequately to account for i) conditions at the companies themselves and ii) market conditions. The complaint appears to be, as is often the case, slap dash, content to point out that Allied revalued some of its positions, marking them down for a variety of reasons, and the stock price went down - all this, in the view of plaintiff's counsel, amounting to violations of Rule 10b-5.Read More ›