Excellence. Integrity. Success.

On July 24, 2020, in a splintered three-opinion decision,[1] the Federal Circuit held that due to Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity, the University of Texas (“UT”) could not be involuntarily joined by its licensee, Gensetix, as a plaintiff to a patent infringement lawsuit.  Despite prior case law finding that a patent

The International Trade Commission (“ITC”) issued an exclusion order prohibiting the importation of products infringing a patent that teaches a self-anchoring beverage container, used to prevent spills. Mayborn was not included in the original complaint to the ITC, and none of the defaulting respondents raised invalidity challenges. Mayborn appealed the

On July 6, the PTO’s Precedential Opinion Panel (“POP”) held that when examining proposed amended claims in AIA trials, PTAB panels may raise grounds for rejection sua sponte, but should do so only in rare circumstances and with adequate notice.  In this, the fourth opinion issued by the POP, a

Plaintiff Stephanie Sinclair brought suit against Defendant Mashable and its parent company, alleging copyright infringement when Mashable posted Sinclair’s photograph on its website without Sinclair’s authorization.  The Court originally granted Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss, finding that the Defendants had a valid sublicense from Instagram to post the photograph. However, on

In a summary order, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit recently side-stepped a difficult question currently facing copyright law: whether the human body is a sufficiently tangible medium of expression to warrant copyright protection.   Plaintiff Sammy Mourabit (“Mourabit”), a makeup artist, provided makeup services for a 2013

The Federal Circuit recently issued two opinions regarding fee awards in patent cases, both of which show the Court’s reticence to award fees in contravention of the “American Rule” where each party bears its own costs.  As such, if patent litigants seek fees as an exception to this rule (e.g.,

The cannabis industry is subject to a confusing, complex web of laws that differ among each state, all while marijuana remains illegal at the federal level.  Unable to register trademarks related to cannabis and marijuana with the federal U.S. Patent and Trademark Office or seek protection in federal courts, business

A federal judge recently ruled that the inclusion of the chorus of a children’s song in a documentary about burlesque dancers amounted to fair use.  The decision shows just how impactful the evolving transformative use issue can be in a fair use analysis. Tamita Brown, along with two coauthors (“the

On May 13, 2020, the United States District Court for the Central District of California granted summary judgment to all corporate and individual defendants with respect to Plaintiff’s non-source-code, “know-how”-based Defend Trade Secret Act (“DTSA”) (18 U.S.C. §§ 1830-1839) claims seeking relief for misappropriation of trade secrets.  All source-code based claims

A contentious copyright opinion by the Sixth Circuit reversed the district court’s summary judgment decision, finding that fact issues precluded summary judgment on whether one songwriter repudiated the other’s co-authorship, or whether their agreement transferred ownership and, as such, could be terminated pursuant to 17 U.S.C. § 203.  Between the

On April 27, 2020, in a 5-4 decision with two dissenting opinions, the United States Supreme Court held that the annotations included in Georgia’s official statute are not copyrightable.  The ruling, authored by Chief Justice Roberts, was based on the majority’s conclusion that work performed in official legislative capacity does

On April 23, 2020, the United States Supreme Court resolved an even circuit split[1] by unanimously holding that willful infringement is not a pre-condition to a profits award in a trademark infringement suit.  This ruling increases the likelihood that, in the affected Circuits, more trademark infringement suits will settle for