While recent discussions on copyright protections and anti-piracy crackdowns have focused on the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect Intellectual Property Act now pending in Congress, states have also entered the fray, particularly in the area of stolen or misappropriated information technology harming competition. At least thirty-nine states have called on the Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") to define theft or misappropriation of information technology ("IT") as unfair competition under Section 5 of the FTC Act, while other states have enacted new statutes or amended their consumer protection laws to explicitly define piracy as unfair competition. For example, in 2010, Louisiana enacted a law making it illegal to sell products or offer services in
Client Alert | May 7, 2012
Brussels partner Peter Alexiadis is the author of "Balancing the Application of Ex Post and Ex Ante Disciplines under Community Law in Electronic Communications Markets: Square Pegs in Round Holes?" [PDF] appearing in the publication Rights and Remedies in a Liberalised and Competitive Internal Market available from the Law Faculty Office, University of Malta. It was published in March 2012.
Client Alert | March 28, 2012
On March 20, 2012, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, 566 U.S. __ (2012), addressing the scope of the "laws of nature" exception to the definition of patentable subject matter set out in 35 U.S.C.
Client Alert | March 21, 2012
In an unprecedented move, the Controller of Patents in India ("Controller") issued the first compulsory license under the Indian patent regime, since the Patent Act, 1970 ("Act") was amended in 2005 to permit product patents in India.
Client Alert | March 20, 2012
On February 23, 2012, the Obama Administration unveiled a new framework for protecting privacy and promoting innovation on the internet and in the digital economy ("Framework"). The Framework consists of five key elements: (1) a Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights ("Bill of Rights") that sets out seven basic principles; (2) a process to develop more detailed sector-specific opt-in codes of conduct ("Codes of Conduct"); (3) enforcement powers for the Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") to enforce both the Bill of Rights and Codes of Conduct (when a company opts to abide by a Code of Conduct); (4) a national standard for security breach notification; and (5) greater global interoperability.
Client Alert | February 24, 2012
On February 10, 2012, the U.S.
Client Alert | February 13, 2012
The pace of data privacy and security legal events accelerated in 2011, as the global economy became increasingly dependent on online, mobile and server-based platforms and networks.
Client Alert | February 7, 2012
Orange County partner Alan Bick and associate John Carter are the authors of "A Fishy Default" [PDF] published by Law360 at www.law360.com on February 3, 2012.
Article | February 3, 2012
Washington, D.C. partner Howard Hogan is the co-author of "Unique Online Trademark Issues" and "Domain Name Registration, Maintenance and Protection," appearing as Chapters 7 and 8 in BNA's Intellectual Property Law in Cyberspace [PDF], Second Edition, published in January 2012.
Client Alert | January 20, 2012
While the members of the Eurozone are still struggling to find an adequate answer to the sovereign debt crisis and the stock markets are on a roller-coaster ride, the German economy is still doing remarkably well and continues to attract foreign investors from all over the world, notably China. At the same time, German lawmakers have not remained idle and have enacted a long-expected reform of the insolvency laws to facilitate corporate restructuring and debt-equity swaps.
Client Alert | January 10, 2012
Brussels partners Peter Alexiadis and David Wood are the authors of "Free Market 1: Copyright 0 - UK Premier League Loses Away from Home" [PDF] published in Volume 18, Issue 6 of the Utilities Law Review, January 2012.
Client Alert | January 10, 2012
In a Judgment which rattles the foundations of national copyright laws, the European Court of Justice held on October 4th that broadcasting licenses which prohibit the broadcasting of football matches outside the particular European Union ("EU") Member State for which the license was granted cannot be enforced.If any comfort can be found in the Judgment for copyright holders, it lies in the fact that the Court has opened up the possibility that football broadcasts which include elements of "literary or artistic works" alongside them might nonetheless be able to benefit fully from the grant of exclusivity.
Client Alert | October 7, 2011
On September 20, 2011, Judge Lucy H. Koh of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California issued an order in In re iPhone Application Litigation, Case No.
Client Alert | September 27, 2011
After more than six years of negotiation, patent reform is here. The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, which President Obama signed into law on September 16, 2011, is nearly 60 pages long and revises a broad swath of patent law. Summaries, reviews, and commentaries abound on the web, and patent law practitioners have a plethora of resources describing technical amendments and effective dates. This short overview is not for them; it is instead intended to capture some of the highlights for business leaders and general counsel who are wondering how the changes may affect their IP strategy and their patent litigation portfolios. One caveat: Some provisions of the new law go into effect immediately, while others will be implemented over a longer period.
Client Alert | September 22, 2011
On August 23, 2011, Judge Richard S. Sullivan of the Southern District of New York issued a decision in Gucci America, Inc. v. Li, No. 10 Civ. 4974 (RJS) granting the plaintiffs' motion to compel the production of counterfeiters' bank records from non-party Bank of China.
Client Alert | September 6, 2011
Washington, D.C. partner Howard Hogan and Palo Alto associate Michael Smith are the authors of "Courts Continue to Question Whether Using the Trademarks of Others to Trigger Search Engine Advertising Gives Rise to Trademark Liability" [PDF] published in the June 24, 2011 issue of BNA's Patent, Trademark and Copyright Journal.Reproduced with permission from BNA’s Patent, Trademark & Copyright Journal, 82 PTCJ 274, 06/24/2011.
Client Alert | June 24, 2011
On June 9, 2011, the Supreme Court in Microsoft Corp. v. i4i Limited Partnership, 564 U.S. ___ (2011), held that a party seeking to establish the invalidity of a patent must prove such invalidity by clear and convincing evidence. Slip op.
Client Alert | June 9, 2011
On June 6, 2011, the Supreme Court in Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University v. Roche Molecular Systems, Inc., 563 U.S. ___ (2011), held that the University and Small Business Patent Procedures Act of 1980--popularly known as the Bayh-Dole Act, 35 U.S.C.
Client Alert | June 7, 2011
On May 31, 2011, in Global-Tech Appliances, Inc. v. SEB S.A., 563 U.S. ___ (2011), the Supreme Court toughened the standard for establishing that a party has "actively induce[d] infringement of a patent" under 35 U.S.C.
Client Alert | June 3, 2011
On May 25, 2011, the Federal Circuit issued its much-anticipated decision in the Therasense case, in which it granted en banc review to consider a series of questions regarding the scope and contours of the "inequitable conduct" doctrine in patent cases. Therasense, Inc.
Client Alert | May 25, 2011
Washington, D.C. partner Howard Hogan and Palo Alto associate Michael Smith are the authors of "Search Engine Advertising Trademark Claims" [PDF] published in the May 2011 edition of the Intellectual Property Strategist.
Client Alert | May 1, 2011
On April 8, 2011, the Delaware Court of Chancery, in denying a motion to dismiss, ruled in Meso Scale Diagnostics, LLC v. Roche Diagnostics GmbH, C.A.
Client Alert | April 26, 2011
Printable PDFOn March 8, 2011, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued its decision in Network Automation, Inc. v. Advanced Systems Concepts, Inc., No.
Client Alert | March 11, 2011
Hardly a day went by in 2010 when the daily case summaries did not include some mention of trade secret litigation, often in conjunction with the breach of non-competition covenants and other related claims.
Client Alert | January 21, 2011
The improvements in the German economy in 2010 have eased some of the restructuring pain, but have not prevented lawmakers from responding to certain deficiencies that are widely believed to have caused the financial crisis.
Client Alert | January 14, 2011
On June 28, 2010, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Bilski v. Kappos, No. 08-964.In Bilski, the Court affirmed the rejection of an application seeking patent protection for a method of managing risk. In so doing, the Court expressly declined to adopt the Federal Circuit's analysis or its recent case law, relying instead on the statutory text and the Court's own opinions on patent eligibility. The Court held that the Federal Circuit had erred in its holding that the "machine-or-transformation" test was the exclusive test for patent eligibility under 35 U.S.C.
Client Alert | June 28, 2010
On June 23, 2010, U.S. District Judge Harold Baer, Jr. of the Southern District of New York issued his decision in Gucci America, Inc. v. Frontline Processing Corp., 09 Civ.
Client Alert | June 25, 2010
Los Angeles partner Ron Ben-Yehuda and associate Benyamine S. Ross are the authors of "Agilent Technologies v. Kirkland: Inventions Assignment Obligations and Equitable Considerations" [PDF] published in the June 2010 issue of Bloomberg Law Reports - Intellectual Property.
Client Alert | June 8, 2010
On April 14, 2010, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued its decision in Novo Nordisk A/S v. Caraco Pharmaceutical Laboratories, Ltd., No.
Client Alert | April 16, 2010
On March 2, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Reed Elsevier v. Muchnick, ___ U.S. ___, No. 08-103, interpreting the Copyright Act to allow judicial approval of settlements of copyright infringement claims involving unregistered works. Reversing the U.S.
Client Alert | March 3, 2010
As it has every year since 2005, the United States Congress failed to pass its much-debated Patent Reform Act in 2009. Even without Congress' action, however, the courts have continued to shape patent law over the past year. Thus, in the spirit of the changing of the calendar, we look back and review of some of the important patent decisions from 2009.
Client Alert | February 3, 2010
Los Angeles associate Angelique Kaounis is the author of "High-Tech Stakes" [PDF] published in the February 2010 issue of Los Angeles Lawyer.
Client Alert | February 3, 2010
Since the mid-1990s, following amendments to the U.S. Patent Act, the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued patents with a term of 20 years following the filing of an application. Due to concerns that delays in prosecution would diminish the effective lifespan of a patent, Congress legislated that the term of a patent be extended if the USPTO caused certain types of delays in prosecution through no fault of the applicant. However, the statute does not allow the adjustment to include any "periods of delay .
Client Alert | January 22, 2010
As the German economy continues to suffer heavily from the consequences of the global financial crisis, 2009 saw the introduction of many changes in the fields of corporate, securities and banking law.
Client Alert | January 20, 2010
In an 11-1 en banc decision issued on August 19, 2009, the Federal Circuit has held that 35 U.S.C. § 271(f), which prohibits exporting the components of patented inventions, does not apply to method claims.
Client Alert | August 20, 2009
Dallas partner M. Sean Royall, Denver associate Amanda Tessar and Washington, D.C. associate Adam J. Di Vencenzo are authors of "Deterring 'Patent Ambush' in Standard Setting: Lessons from Rambus and Qualcomm" [PDF] published in the Summer 2009 issue of ABA's Antitrust.Reprinted with permission from Antitrust, Vol.
Client Alert | July 7, 2009
Orange County partner Jeffrey T. Thomas and associate Joshua A. Jessen are the authors of "New Hurdle to Limiting Foreign Infringement" [PDF] published in the July 2009 issue of the Orange County Business Journal.
Client Alert | July 1, 2009
Washington, D.C. partner Thomas G. Hungar is the author of "Observations Regarding the Supreme Court's Decision in Quanta Computer, Inc v. LG Electronics, Inc." [PDF] published in the June 2009 edition of IDEA: The Intellectual Property Law Review.
Client Alert | June 8, 2009
On March 3, 2009, the California Court of Appeal for Sixth Appellate District issued a significant published opinion substantively analyzing the scope of the preemption clause (Civ.
Client Alert | June 3, 2009
Over the last decade, the United States Patent and Trademark Office's patent allowance rate has decreased from over 70% in 1999 and 2000 to roughly 42% in the first quarter of 2009, notwithstanding a steady increase in the number of applications during this period. Perhaps consistent with this trend, the USPTO has made efforts to place new limitations on the prosecution of patents, including four new rules that the agency recently attempted to implement to restrict the number of claims that may be included in each patent application, as well as the number of continuation applications that may be filed. On Friday, March 20, 2009, in a closely watched decision, the Federal Circuit in Tafas v. Dudas upheld the USPTO's authority to make these rules and disallowed only one of the fo
Client Alert | March 23, 2009
The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has granted en banc rehearing in Cardiac Pacemakers, Inc. et al. v. St. Jude Medical et al., a case with important ramifications for all companies that do business both in the United States and abroad. The question that the en banc Court has agreed to decide is "does 35 U.S.C.
Client Alert | March 10, 2009
On July 17, 2008, Washington, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty signed legislation that would prohibit unsolicited commercial e-mail, commonly known as "spam." Although forty states as well as the federal government already regulate spam, spam has increased to the point that it now constitutes roughly 80% of all email traffic.
Client Alert | July 29, 2008
Dallas partner M. Sean Royall and Washington, D.C. associate Adam J. Di Vincenzo are the authors of "The FTC's N-Data Consent Order: A Missed Opportunity To Clarify Antitrust in Standard Setting" [PDF] published in the Summer 2008 issue of ABA's Antitrust.Reprinted with permission from Antitrust, Vol.
Client Alert | July 7, 2008
Denver Of Counsel Gregory Whitehair is the author of "So You Want To Sue For Trade Secret" [PDF] published in the March 24, 2008 issue of Law Week Colorado.
Client Alert | March 24, 2008
Gibson Dunn of counsel James C. Ho is the author of "The Supreme Court's Renewed Interest in Antitrust and Intellectual Property Law" [PDF] published in the ABA Antitrust Litigator.
Client Alert | September 23, 2007
On April 30, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous opinion in KSR Int'l Co. v. Teleflex Inc., which has the potential to reshape long-standing Federal Circuit law and United States Patent and Trademark Office practice on determining whether a patent is "obvious" under 35 U.S.C.
Client Alert | May 3, 2007
On April 30, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a 7-1 decision in Microsoft Corp. v. AT&T Corp. that held that Microsoft is not liable under 35 U.S.C.
Client Alert | April 30, 2007
Washington, D.C. associate Dr. Tanya Mazur is the author of "Free for the Taking: Why States Should Not Be Able to Invoke Sovereign Immunity in Patent Infringement Disputes" [PDF] published in the February 2007 issue of The George Washington Law Review.
Client Alert | February 1, 2007
In a recent decision of note, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled patent licensees in good standing may challenge the validity of the patent, or assert non-infringement, without first terminating their license agreements.
Client Alert | January 11, 2007