A Southern District of New York Judge denied a Motion for Preliminary Injunction filed by plaintiff NuCurrent Inc. against defendant Samsung, which sought to enforce a forum selection clause— contained in a mutual non-disclosure agreement (“NDA”) between the parties—to prohibit Samsung from initiating inter partes review (“IPR”) proceedings before…
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.
On June 24, 2019, the Supreme Court held that the Lanham Act’s restriction against registration of immoral or scandalous trademarks, set forth in 15 U.S.C. § 1052(a), discriminated between speech based upon viewpoint in violation of the First Amendment. Iancu, Under Sec’y of Commerce for Intellectual Prop. & Dir.,…
Although neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night prevents the United States Postal Service from the swift completion of its appointed rounds, the Supreme Court has prevented it from challenging patents. In Return Mail, Inc. v. United States Postal Service et al., 587 U. S. ____…
The Supreme Court’s decision in Alice has alternately been wielded as a sword and a shield, but, with alarming frequency, the end result of an Alice challenge is a holding that the patent at issue is invalid. In fact, over half of patents challenged by Alice have been held…
To native Chicagoans, the Super Bowl Shuffle is revered as the hype song for the 1985 Chicago Bears who went on to win Super Bowl XX. But to the Plaintiffs in Red Label Music Publishing Inc., et al., v. Chila Productions, et al.,1 the Super Bowl Shuffle is their…
On May 22, 2019, a divided panel of the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals demonstrated the true meaning of de novo review, vacating a Final Written Decision (the “Decision”) issued upon Inter Partes Review by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (the “Board”) invalidating certain claims of U.S. Patent…
On May 20, 2019, in Mission Product Holdings, Inc. v. Tempnology LLC, n/k/a Old Cold LLC, the Supreme Court settled a circuit split between the Seventh and First Circuits regarding what happens to a trademark licensee’s rights under a trademark license after that license is rejected by the licensor…
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“Board”) recently designated as precedential an opinion denying the institution of petitions for inter partes review (“IPR”) on the grounds that the petitions were serial and repetitive attacks in light of an earlier-filed petition brought by another party. This case makes clear that…
In a recent cautionary tale, the Fourth Circuit in Brammer v. Violent Hues Productions, LLC1 held that a showing of good faith by an accused copyright infringer does not weigh in favor of finding fair use. In doing so, the Fourth Circuit reversed the district court’s decision, which held…
Trying to deal with infringing goods on the internet has been a problem as long as the internet has been around and can be frustrating for patentees. Typically, the circumstances of online marketplaces have required patentees to file direct infringement suits against potential infringers, and only after a court…
On request from the USPTO pursuant to Fed. Cir. R. 32.1(e), the Federal Circuit reissued a precedential version of a non-precedential opinion affirming the refusal to register a trademark because the specimen was not a point of sale display. This case makes clear that when relying upon a webpage…
On April 1, 2019, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in a nonprecedential decision Cleveland Clinic Foundation v. True Health Diagnostics, affirmed the invalidity of two patents regarding medical diagnostic tests for determining whether a patient was at risk for cardiovascular disease. This follows a previous 2017…
This week, in Kroma Makeup EU, LLC v. Boldface Licensing & Branding, Inc., the Eleventh Circuit held that a Plaintiff trademark licensee lacked standing to enforce a trademark, even though the licensee had been granted an exclusive license to import, sell, and distribute products branded with the mark in…
On March 20, 2019, a divided panel of the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals held, among other things, that two network security patents asserted by SRI International, Inc. (“SRI”) against Cisco Systems, Inc. (“Cisco”) were not directed towards an abstract idea, thus affirming the District of Delaware’s denial of…
Places You’ll Boldly Go!”— a self-described “mashup” of the Dr. Seuss copyrighted publication “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” and Star Trek—is fair use of the Dr. Seuss elements. Despite the Defendants admitting that they copied liberally from the copyrighted work, and admittedly not having a license for the Star…
The Federal Circuit affirmed a decision finding that patents directed to virtual slot machines were invalid as improper means-plus-function claims and as being directed to an abstract idea. Failure to disclose an algorithm performing the function recited in means-plus-function claim limitations can not only fail the requirement to disclose…
The Supreme Court handed down a judgment resolving an ongoing circuit split and issued a rare black- letter rule, both relieving the uncertainty of the “copyright registration question” and sounding a death knell for those representing plaintiffs in copyright infringement cases based upon unregistered works.1 In an opinion written…
On February 26, 2019, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois entered judgment in favor of GC2 Incorporated (“GC2”), an Illinois developer of wagering games and associated artwork, in the amount of over $16 million against a number of wholly owned subsidiaries of International Game…
The Federal Circuit vacated decisions of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (the “Board”) regarding four patents directed to a graphical user interface (“GUI”) on the basis that the patents are for “technological inventions” and thus not subject to covered business method (“CBM”) review. According to the Leahy-Smith America…
On February 5, 2019, the Federal Circuit denied a petition for rehearing en banc regarding a requested writ of mandamus by petitioner Google, Inc. Google sought the petition to overturn an earlier decision from the Eastern District of Texas finding that physical servers, belonging to Google, that were installed…