After first granting a request for an interim stay of an injunction entered against Evenflo Co. Inc. for selling certain car seats which were found to infringe patents owned by Wonderland Switzerland AG, the Federal Circuit later removed that interim stay as to one patent. The district court’s granting…
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.
In a motion to dismiss before the Central District of California, District Judge Garnett made clear that personal jurisdiction stands for the foreign affiliate when the foreign affiliate is merely an “alter ego” of their domestic partner. The Central District considered a motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction…
Choose your trade dress carefully, if the design as a whole has any function, your trade dress may be invalid. On September 7, 2023, the Third Circuit held that a candy’s trade dress consisting of a wedge shape with red, white, and green colors was functional because the combination…
In a recent decision, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“CAFC”) resolved district court splits regarding obviousness-type double patenting (“ODP”) by holding that ODP is still a valid challenge to patent validity and that the application of ODP is not dependent on intent of the patentee. ODP…
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia affirmed the Copyright Office’s denial of a copyright registration for a work of art created by an artificial intelligence (AI) computer system. Plaintiff Stephen Thaler sought to register a copyright based on visual art his computer system created, and the…
Addressing not one but three matters of first impression, the Ninth Circuit held that willful blindness giving rise to contributory trademark infringement requires a defendant to have specific knowledge of specific infringers or acts of infringement and without specific knowledge there is not a duty to search whether third…
On remand from the Sixth Circuit, the Eastern District of Michigan (“District Court”) declined FCA US LLC’s (“Jeep”) motion to enjoin importation of rival automaker Mahindra’s post-2020 ROXOR utility terrain vehicle (“UTV”). The Sixth Circuit had reversed the District Court for failing to analyze the factors for applying the…
Be cautious when deciding whether to do business in a state in a way that requires you to register in that state; you may be consenting to general personal jurisdiction in that new state by doing so. On June 27, 2023, the Supreme Court held that Pennsylvania’s consent statute—which…
By choosing to ‘embed’ social media posts, BuzzFeed News and Time avoided copyright liability due to unauthorized display of two photographers’ Instagram content. Embedding occurs when a website links to content from another website to display on the site, without re-storing the content. In Hunley v. Instagram, the Ninth…
Who owns the trademark to a subreddit name? This week, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California (the “Court”) considered the issue in an opinion dismissing each of Plaintiff Jaime Rogozinski’s (“Rogozinski”) eight claims against Reddit, comprising four federal trademark claims and four state law…
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“CAFC”) recently revived a patent infringement suit dismissed in the Western District of Wisconsin brought by Inguran, LLC (“Inguran”) against ABS Global, Inc. (“ABS”). The CAFC held that Inguran was not barred by claim preclusion from asserting claims of induced infringement…
The Supreme Court decided the extraterritorial reach of two provisions of the Lanham Act prohibiting trademark infringement. Abitron appealed the Tenth Circuit’s decision that the Lanham Act extended to Abitron’s foreign infringing conduct. The Supreme Court vacated and remanded the decision, explaining that the provisions of the Lanham Act…
Courts continue to measure that fine line between reliable expert testimony and legal opinion that patent experts constantly walk on. In a recent opinion, the Eastern District of Texas denied a patentee’s motion to exclude the accused infringer’s expert testimony holding that the expert was merely doing his job,…
On June 2, 2023, the Ninth Circuit reversed a dismissal of Plaintiff Enigma Software Group’s (“Enigma”) Lanham Act false advertising and related state law claims against its competitor, Defendant Malwarebytes, Inc. (“Malwarebytes”). The primary basis for the reversal was that designating Enigma’s products as “malicious,” “threats,” and “malware” were,…
On June 8, 2023, the Supreme Court vacated a Ninth Circuit decision holding that a poop-themed chewable dog toy resembling a Jack Daniel’s whiskey bottle was protected by the First Amendment and did not infringe Jack Daniel’s trademark rights. This case makes the use of the parody exception defense—which…
In a highly anticipated ruling, the Supreme Court found that the Andy Warhol Foundation (“AWF”)’s licensing of “Orange Prince” to Condé Nast was not “fair use” of a Lynn Goldsmith photograph that served as the basis for Andy Warhol’s Prince Series. In affirming the Second Circuits’ ruling that the…
In a stark order, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) invalidated patents because a patent owner failed to disclose test results that were inconsistent with the patent owner’s arguments, underscoring the PTAB’s focus on holding parties accountable when they fail to meet their duty of candor and fair…
Few litigation events cause tempers to flare as surely as depositions, but only once in a blue moon, it seems, will a Court take action against an attorney for violating the rules. However, the planets aligned over the District of Colorado on May 5 when counsel for a defendant…
While it is accepted that filing an amended complaint supersedes the original complaint rendering it without legal effect, a defendant may waive certain defenses by not raising them as to the original complaint. The District Court of Nevada is the latest court to find that a defendant may assert…
This week, the Federal Circuit reversed the United States District Court for the District of Delaware’s (“District Court”) decision to add David Howard as a joint inventor on Hormel Food Corporation’s (“Hormel”) U.S. Patent No. 9,980,498 (“the ’498 patent”). Despite the District Court finding the opposite, the Federal Circuit…