This presentation is great for entrepreneurs looking to learn more about patent basics and patent searching….
Publications
Irwin IP Publications is the go-to resource for the latest updates and insights in the world of intellectual property. Over 250 articles are published on cases addressing unique issues, all of which can be found using the search tool below. Additionally, there is a collection of articles/papers and presentations that cover a wide range of topics. Whether you’re a legal professional, business owner, or simply someone passionate about IP, our publications page will provide you with all the knowledge needed to navigate this dynamic field.
Music piracy poses a large threat to artists’ copyrights, depriving the music industry of billions of dollars annually. To combat this, music producers often seek out the assistance of Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”) in stopping copyright infringement by the ISPs’ customers. For ISPs that cooperate, the Digital Millennium Copyright…
The Federal Circuit’s opinion in Rex Medical, L.P. v. Intuitive Surgical, Inc. underscores the judiciary’s strict insistence on reliable damages methodology and proper apportionment in patent cases. Although the jury initially awarded Rex Medical $10 million for infringement of U.S. Patent No. 9,439,650 (“the ‘650 Patent”), the district court reduced the award to nominal damages of $1,…
Fair use just got a late-night twist: the Second Circuit says Jimmy Kimmel’s jokes about former Congressman George Santos were more than funny—they were transformative. On September 15, 2025, the Second Circuit held that Kimmel’s segments titled “Will Santos Say It?” constituted fair use (and thus did not infringe)…
Last week, the Eastern District of New York (“Court”) refused to dismiss PleasrDAO’s trade secret claims against Martin Shkreli, finding that Wu-Tang Clan’s exclusive, unreleased album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin (“Album”), could plausibly qualify as a trade secret. The only official physical copy of the Album (which…
The Federal Circuit recently issued its first precedential decision addressing derivation proceedings under the America Invents Act (“AIA”). A derivation proceeding is a trial before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) to determine whether the first-filed patent application was based on an invention taken from the true inventor…
On September 8, 2025, the Federal Circuit reversed and remanded a judgment in Magēmā Technology LLC v. Phillips 66, which held that the district court erred in allowing Phillips 66 (“Phillips”) to present an improper noninfringement theory to the jury. The Federal Circuit found that Phillips’ infringement theory was…
The Federal Circuit’s recent decision in Future Link Systems, LLC v. Realtek Semiconductor Corp. highlights two important issues in patent litigation: when does a defendant qualify as a prevailing party entitled to seek fees and costs and what are the risks of unconventional litigation funding practices. Future Link, a…
Parties that believe their U.S. patents are being infringed by products being imported into the United States can ask the U.S. International Trade Commission (“ITC”) to bar importation of those products into the U.S. Masimo did that, via its 2021 complaint, when it asked the ITC to bar importation…
For years, the Northern District of Illinois has served as the hub for “Schedule A” cases—mass actions against online sellers premised on allegations of counterfeiting across ecommerce platforms. Notably, the parties being sued in this case were only identified in a document filed under seal on a so-called “Schedule…
What went wrong is plain from the record. Phillips 66 courted Propel, obtained deep access to Propel’s models and strategy during diligence, and repeatedly signaled that a deal was on track. Inside Phillips 66, however, executives debated a “go it alone” pivot while still drawing on Propel’s information. The…
In patent cases, successful patent owners can obtain an injunction against an infringer to prevent the infringer from making, using, and selling the infringing product in the United States. Recently, there has been a lot of press questioning whether a district court sitting in one circuit (which may arguably…
The USPTO must reject a patent application if the applicant’s claim covers what the prior art already disclosed, and patent applicants may respond to such rejections with arguments that what they claimed was different. Prosecution history disclaimer (i.e. ‘disclaimer by argument’) prohibits patent applicants from arguing to the USPTO…
Over a decade ago, the U.S. Supreme Court arguably made it easier to invalidate a patent for claiming nonpatentable abstract ideas when it established a two-step test for evaluating whether patent claims are drawn to patentable subject matter, referred to as the Alice/Mayo framework. In short, the test requires…
Written by Irwin IP attorneys Joseph Marinelli and Bailey Sanders, this article explores a pivotal issue in patent litigation—the scope of IPR estoppel under 35 U.S.C. § 315(e)(2). Since inter partes review (IPR) was introduced in 2012, courts have grappled with how far estoppel reaches in barring district court defendants from…
In 1984, acclaimed composer Jay Livingston assigned his interests in numerous musical compositions, including the classics “Silver Bells” and “Que Sera, Sera” to a publishing company called Jay Livingston Music (“JLM”). In 1985, Jay created a family trust, transferring to it his royalty rights flowing from the JLM transfer,…
In Bartz et al. v. Anthropic, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California considered whether Anthropic’s use of copyrighted books—many sourced from pirated libraries, others destructively scanned from purchased print copies—to train its Claude AI models qualified as fair use. The court held that the latter…
The Northern District of Illinois (“NDIL”) has been a hotbed for “Schedule A” litigation—a legal tactic often used by intellectual property (“IP”) owners to crack down on online counterfeiters by filing a single complaint against sometimes hundreds of alleged defendants. NDIL Judge John Kness, however, recently stayed dozens of…
On June 6, 2025, United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) Acting Director Coke Morgan Stewart exercised her authority under 35 U.S.C. § 314(a) to grant Welch Allyn’s (“Patent Owner”) request to discretionarily deny institution of five inter partes review (“IPR”) proceedings initiated by iRhythm Technologies (“Petitioner”). The USPTO…
When prosecuting a patent with similar language across various claims make sure your claim terms have different meanings, otherwise, during litigation you may lose the strategic opportunity to keep some claims valid if others are found invalid. In Power2B v. Samsung, the Federal Circuit (“CAFC”) reversed a decision of…