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Partes On! Survival of Inter Partes Review May Signal an SOS for Parties Entering the Uncharted Waters of Inter Partes Review in the Post-SAS World
The Supreme Court issued decisions in the cases of Oil States v. Greene’s Energy and SAS v. Iancu , addressing the constitutionality of inter partes review (“IPR”) and determining whether the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) must decide the...
TVEyes Inc. Crosses the Boundary of Fair Use Defense in Copyright Infringement Case Against Fox News Network, LLC
Plaintiff Fox News Network, LLC (“Fox”) brought a copyright infringement action against Defendant TVEyes, Inc. (“TVEyes”) for the copying and redistribution of Fox’s copyrighted content to consumers. On appeal, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held...
Surprise – EU Data Privacy Laws Could Impact You, Too!
On May 25, 2018, the European Union’s data privacy regime is getting an upgrade and like many operating system upgrades, the EU’s new approach (the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR) is designed to improve individual protections. It will also...
Hey, You, Get Off Of My Cloud – New DOJ Approach To Remote Data Storage
Last month, the Department of Justice’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, Criminal Division (“CCIPS”) issued new guidance advising prosecutors seeking enterprise customer data stored “in the cloud” to attempt to collect responsive information from the enterprise first, instead of...
Reminder: Re-Register Your DMCA Agent Designations Before End of Year or Risk Losing Safe Harbor Protections!
U.S. Copyright Office Goes Paperless for DMCA registered agents; All paper registrations invalid as of December 31, 2017. As you’re making your end of year lists and checking them twice, better make sure you’ve registered your company’s DMCA designated agent...
Scandalous and Immoral Trademarks Awarded First Amendment Protection
On December 15, the Federal Circuit held that the prohibition on the registration of scandalous and immoral trademarks is unconstitutional because it violates the First Amendment. In re Brunetti , No. 2015-1109, 2017 WL 6391161 (Fed. Cir. 2017). This decision...
Supreme Court to Slants: “Rock On!” Trademark Ban on Offensive Trademarks Held Unconstitutional
On June 19, 2017, the Supreme Court unanimously held that Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act (15 U.S.C. §1052(a)), the provision of federal trademark law barring registration of disparaging trademarks, violates the First Amendment’s Free Speech Clause when applied to...
Data Breach Lawsuit Survives Motion to Dismiss
In an April 13, 2017 decision in Walters v. Kimpton Hotel , 1 a California federal judge rejected the bid of hotel chain Kimpton Hotel and Restaurant Group, LLC to dismiss a proposed class action arising from a data breach...
Supreme Court Clarifies Copyright Protection for Artistic Features in Clothing
On March 22, 2017, the Supreme Court held that a two- or three-dimensional work of art on a useful article, such as clothing, is protectable under copyright law if: (1) the work of art can be perceived as separate from...
Patentee's Day of Thanks Comes in Early November: Assessment of the USPTO's Recent Memorandum Regarding Patent Eligibility for Software Claims
A recent U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) memorandum to the Patent Examining Corps, in combination with precedential cases from the Federal Circuit, provides positive guidance to owners of software patents and patent applicants having software claims pending at the...
The High Court takes the High Road on Patent Eligibility - The Supreme Court refuses to consider patents invalidated under the Mayo/Alice framework
The Supreme Court on October 3, 2016, denied certiorari in a number of patent cases, including four cases concerning subject matter eligibility in the wake of the Mayo and Alice decisions. The Mayo decision essentially held that because laws of...
Keep Quiet and Carry On under the EU Trade Secrets Directive
Much as the recent U.S. Defend Trade Secrets Act establishes uniform federal trade secrets protections across the states, the EU Trade Secrets Directive (the “Directive”) harmonizes similar protections across its Member States to encourage cross-border investments. The Directive addresses hot...
Willful Infringement: "If I could turn back time..."
Unlike Cher, the U.S. Supreme Court can turn back time. In Halo Electronics v. Pulse Electronics , 1 the Court unanimously upended the law on enhanced damages for willful patent infringement set forth in by the Federal Circuit in In...
Federal Circuit goes Enfish-ing for Software Patent Eligibility
In Enfish, LLC v. Microsoft Corp . , decided on May 12, 2016, the Federal Circuit ( “the Enfish court” or “the Court”) has provided much-needed clarification to the Alice test for patent-eligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101...
It's No Secret: Employment & Federal Considerations in New Trade Secrets Law
On May 11, President Obama signed into law the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 (DTSA). The result of rare bipartisan support, the DTSA was passed unanimously by the House last month. It creates the first federal civil cause of...