COVID-19 has taken an unprecedented toll on the United States and the world at large. It has impacted nearly every facet of both professional and personal life and, with that, the patent landscape, too—especially as it...more
Shearman & Sterling’s IP litigation team has published its latest newsletter. The newsletter addresses a number of current IP topics, ranging from the constitutionality and judicial reviewability of inter partes review to...more
1/12/2018
/ CAFC ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Inter Partes Review (IPR) Proceeding ,
Lanham Act ,
Oil States Energy Services v Greene's Energy Group ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Patents ,
SCOTUS ,
USPTO
At first glance, the development of Section 101 jurisprudence appears chaotic. The Supreme Court captured several different kinds of problems in Alice and its earlier patentable-subject-matter opinions, and the Federal...more
Shearman & Sterling’s IP litigation team has published its quarterly newsletter. The newsletter covers a wide range of current IP topics: the Supreme Court’s TC Heartland patent-venue decision, the constitutionality of inter...more
6/22/2017
/ Abuse of Discretion ,
America Invents Act ,
Attorney's Fees ,
Covered Business Method Patents ,
Disparagement ,
Estoppel ,
First Amendment ,
Inter Partes Review (IPR) Proceeding ,
Oil States Energy Services v Greene's Energy Group ,
On-Sale Bar ,
Patent Expiration ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patents ,
SCOTUS ,
TC Heartland LLC v Kraft Foods
Yesterday, the Supreme Court held in an 8–0 decision that the disparagement clause in the Trademark statute—which prohibits the registration of trademarks that may “disparage . . . or bring . . . into contemp[t] or disrepute”...more
6/21/2017
/ CAFC ,
Disparagement ,
Due Process ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Matal v Tam ,
Redskins ,
SCOTUS ,
The Slants ,
Trademark Cancellation ,
Trademark Registration ,
USPTO
On March 22, 2017, the Supreme Court decided that federal copyright protection applies to cheerleading-apparel designs. The decision, which has far-reaching implications for the fashion and sports industries, sets a new and...more
3/27/2017
/ Cheerleaders ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Fashion Design ,
Fashion Industry ,
SCOTUS ,
Separability ,
Sports Apparel ,
Star Athletica v Varsity Brands ,
The Copyright Act ,
Uniforms ,
Utilitarian Function
Shearman & Sterling’s IP litigation team has published its quarterly newsletter. The newsletter covers a wide range of current IP topics: updated predictions on patent policy under the Trump administration; recent happenings...more
3/13/2017
/ Apple v Samsung ,
Certiorari ,
Component Parts Doctrine ,
Covered Business Method Patents ,
Design Patent ,
Estoppel ,
Inter Partes Review (IPR) Proceeding ,
Judicial Review ,
Patents ,
Remand ,
TC Heartland LLC v Kraft Foods ,
Trump Administration
Earlier this year, the Shearman patent litigation team published an article predicting patent policy under the Trump Administration.[1] To briefly recap that article: President Trump has given few indications about where he...more
The America Invents Act (“AIA”), signed into law by President Obama on September 16, 2011, was the biggest legislative overhaul to the United States patent system since the Patent Act of 1952. Among other changes, the AIA...more
Patent Venue at the Supreme Court -
If TC Heartland has its way, patent venue law is about to fundamentally change.
Factual Background -
Kraft sued TC Heartland, a limited liability company organized...more
Shearman & Sterling’s IP litigation team has published its quarterly newsletter. The newsletter covers a number of current IP topics, including a look at the America Invents Act, five years in; the U.S. International Trade...more
8/22/2016
/ America Invents Act ,
Claim Construction ,
En Banc Review ,
Enhanced Damages ,
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ,
Halo v Pulse ,
Hospira ,
International Trade Commission (ITC) ,
Patent Litigation ,
Pharmaceutical Patents ,
Seagate ,
Twombly/Iqbal Pleading Standard ,
Willful Infringement
On June 20, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court released its much-anticipated decision in Cuozzo Speed Technologies, LLC v. Lee, the first Supreme Court case to pass upon the post-grant patent review procedures created by the...more
On June 13, 2016, the Supreme Court eliminated the rigid test for enhanced damages that the Federal Circuit had erected in In re Seagate Technology LLC. The Supreme Court held that, under 35 U.S.C. 284, district courts have...more
6/15/2016
/ 35 U.S.C. § 284 ,
Abuse of Discretion ,
Enhanced Damages ,
Halo v Pulse ,
Judicial Discretion ,
Patent Infringement ,
Preponderance of the Evidence ,
SCOTUS ,
Seagate ,
Stryker v Zimmer ,
Willful Infringement
Shearman & Sterling’s IP litigation team has published its first quarterly newsletter. The newsletter covers a number of current IP topics, including details about soon-to-be enacted federal trade secret legislation, pending...more
On March 23, 2016, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that the estoppel provisions of 35 U.S.C. § 315 do not extend to grounds rejected by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“Board”) in a decision...more
On March 18, 2016, Judge Lefkow of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois held that the estoppel provision of 35 U.S.C. § 315(e)(2) does not extend to prior art that was not reasonably available during...more
On November 10, 2015, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit unanimously held in a published opinion that (i) the attorney-client privilege was not waived by appellants-taxpayers who shared a group of documents,...more
On Nov. 10, 2015, the Federal Circuit issued a fractured opinion holding that the ITC does not have jurisdiction over digital transmissions since they are not “articles” within the meaning of 19 U.S.C. § 1337.
...more