On February 13, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) issued a precedential decision reversing the International Trade Commission finding that US Synthetic’s composition of matter claim was not…
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/ Administrative Law, Intellectual Property, Science, Computers, & Technology
An edict issued without warning in February 2025 by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), having the effect of slashing funding by the NIH across the board, has been put on a nationwide hold for now by a federal court in…
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/ Administrative Law, Constitutional Law, Health
In Kroy IP Holdings v. Groupon, The Federal Circuit issued a decision that should come as a comfort to patent owners, addressing the interplay between decisions of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) in inter partes…
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/ Administrative Law, Civil Procedure, Intellectual Property
On February 26, 2025, in Dewberry Group v. Dewberry Engineers, the Supreme Court unanimously vacated a $43 million damages award for trademark infringement, ruling that the lower court improperly conflated the defendant with its…
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/ Business Organizations, Civil Remedies, Intellectual Property
A recent decision from a California federal district court should make patent prosecutors and their clients more alert when looking at recent prior art references: they may refer to patent applications filed by competitors who…
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/ Business Torts, Civil Procedure, Intellectual Property
The dispute at issue in Jack Daniel’s arises from a conflict between the well-known whiskey company and a dog toy company (VIP) regarding VIP’s unauthorized use of Jack Daniel’s trademarks and trade dress in connection with a…
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/ Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Intellectual Property
Three recent federal court cases consider whether the use of third party trackers embedded in websites can be the basis of class action lawsuits alleging violations of statutes enacted before the internet existed. These trackers…
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/ Communications & Media Law, Privacy, Science, Computers, & Technology
At our webinar, "Trademarks & The First Amendment," featuring litigators Lisa Tittemore and Katherine Soule, we promised to provide an update regarding the status of the injunction in the VIP Products v. Jack Daniel’s case…
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/ Antitrust & Trade Regulation, Civil Procedure, Intellectual Property
On October 3, 2024, in Crocs v. Effervescent, the Federal Circuit ruled that falsely advertising that a product feature is patented can constitute a violation of the Lanham Act. All the way back in 2006, Crocs sued several…
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/ Antitrust & Trade Regulation, Consumer Protection, Intellectual Property
The new year will bring big changes to how U.S. trademark applications are filed. Based on a USPTO final rule that will take effect on January 18, 2025, trademark applicants will see increases in many USPTO fees, including…
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/ Civil Procedure, Finance & Banking, Intellectual Property
In August, Vans, a globally-known footwear and apparel company, and MSCHF, a Brooklyn-based art collective, settled their trademark and trade dress dispute, entering an agreement that permanently enjoins and restrains MSCHF from…
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/ Antitrust & Trade Regulation, Civil Procedure, Intellectual Property
In the Federal District Court of Oregon, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) sought a declaration that a state law compelling the disclosure of trade secrets was unconstitutional. PhRMA is a trade…
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/ Antitrust & Trade Regulation, Constitutional Law, Intellectual Property
In December, a Massachusetts corporation won the largest jury verdict ever awarded under the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA). The award of $452 million is part of a recent trend of massive awards to trade secret owners…
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/ Antitrust & Trade Regulation, Business Torts, Intellectual Property
The Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) requires most small companies doing business in the United States to disclose information about their beneficial owners to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), by January 1,…
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/ Administrative Law, Business Organizations, Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law
To date, 19 states have adopted comprehensive data privacy laws, but Massachusetts is not among them. Thus, Massachusetts residents whose web browsing activities result in an unexpected loss of privacy sometimes base their…
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/ Communications & Media Law, Consumer Protection, Privacy
