The legalization of recreational marijuana in Colorado and
Washington has lead to many novel intellectual property issues.
For example, in March 2014, a new state tax was proposed that
would on Washington marijuana-related businesses seeking IP protection.
Specifically, a tax of $3.60 would be assessed per $1000 of value of a
business’s IP assets, including trademarks, trade names, brands, patents, and
copyrights related to marijuana. The
intended purpose
of the tax is to “capitalize on [Washington’s] unique position” and use the
generated revenue for agricultural research.
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Back in June, electric car manufacturer Tesla Motor’s CEO
Elon Musk “opened up” Tesla’s patents to other car manufacturers. Now that the dust
has settled, was this really the game-changing move that analysts and news
outlets had predicted? And how will it affect Tesla’s recently unveiled Model D?
What Tesla’s
Announcement Really Means
To explore the real reason behind Musk’s seemingly bold decision,
we need to examine what the phrase “opened up” actually means in this context.
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A major challenge facing firms and in-house legal
departments is staying abreast of new lawsuits relevant to their clients and
respective practice areas. Most firms employ paralegals to constantly check the
court docket, while others have created their own platform by piecing together
various services and tools. Not enough are taking advantage of readily available solutions.
Google Alerts:
Information Overload
One such tool favored by many is Google’s “Alerts” feature,
which allows an individual to enter a keyword or phrase as they would if
conducting a search, and receive updates on that information.
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Sept.
29
Websites like
Flickr offer a wealth of user-generated images, making it easy to create a
visually compelling blog. However, using another’s work is always a tricky
business, and bloggers need to be aware of the legal ramifications that may
accompany use of a found photograph.
So, how can you tell if you can use someone
else’s photograph?
Whether or not
you can legally use another’s photo on your blog depends on the kind of license
governing the particular photo you want to use.
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This month, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB)
celebrated its second birthday.
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Apple is famous, or maybe infamous, for its comprehensive
approach to IP protection. One of the latest victories for the computer giant
comes out of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). On July 10,
2014, the CJEU issued
a preliminary ruling that a distinctive store layout may be registered as a
protected trademark with the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA).
Procedural History
The procedural history of this ruling takes us back across
the pond.
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On August 27, 2014, California Federal District Court Judge
Lucy Koh denied Apple’s request for a permanent injunction against Samsung,
which would have prevented the telecom giant from “making, selling, developing
or advertising” features in its products that infringed on three of Apple’s
patents. Apple, Inc. v. Samsung
Electronics Co. Ltd. et al, No. 5:12-cv-00630-LHK, slip op at 1 (N.D. Cal.
August 27, 2014). In her ruling, Judge Koh cited Apple’s failure to demonstrate any irreparable harm it was
likely to suffer as a result of Samsung’s exploitation of Apple’s patented
features as the basis for denial.
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After the United States, Germany has the second most active
patent docket in the world. With so much activity, Germany has a body dedicated
to patent invalidity and appeal proceedings, known as the Federal Patent Court
(“Bundespatentgericht”). This forum has original jurisdiction over challenges
to a patent’s validity and appellate jurisdiction over decisions issued by the
German Patent and Trademark Office (“DPMA”).
Similarities Between
PTAB and Germany’s Federal Patent Court
Similar to America’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”),
the Federal Patent Court of Germany provides parties with an alternative to
civil litigation for patent disputes.
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Aug.
25
With over eight USPTO
regional offices across the country, there are more than 170 Patent Trial and
Appeals Board (PTAB) administrative judges currently on the bench. Who are
these judges? What are their backgrounds? What should attorneys know before
appearing in front of a PTAB panel?
Backgrounds
While the PTAB
judges come from a variety of backgrounds, they share a similar set of
qualifications.
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What is a Post Grant
Review?
Post Grant Review (PGR), another product of the America
Invents Act (AIA), is an invalidity proceeding that went into effect September
16, 2012. Along with Inter Partes Review,
PGR is meant to phase out Inter Partes Reexamination. The petitioning party has
up to nine months after the a patent is granted to file a PGR petition to invalidate one
or more claims of the patent in question.
First PGR Petition: LaRose
Industries, LLC v. Choon’s Design, Inc.
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July
23
The last decision in a trio
of derivation petitions filed by Catapult Innovations against adidas AG has
been released by the PTAB. In derivation proceeding DER2014-00005,
Catapult filed a petition for derivation against adidas AG, alleging its U.S.
Pat. App. 13/543,428 was derived from Catapult’s invention disclosed in
U.S. Pat. App. 14/045,954.
Again, the Catapult disclosure in
question, for purposes of proving derivation in this petition, is the same
disclosure referred to in Case DER2014-00002 and
Case DER2014-00006— a
two-day presentation and demonstration given by Catapult’s CEO to adidas AG
subsidiary AWSE, during which technical information regarding the subject
matter of Catapult’s application was disclosed.
On July 18, 21014, the PTAB denied Catapult’s petition for the same reasons the petitions in DER2014-00002 and DER2014-00006 were denied.
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July
20
Derivation Proceedings
Along with the switch from a “first
to invent” to a “first to file” patent system, the America Invents Act (AIA)
created a new proceeding to deal with disputes over the true inventor of the
subject matter of a patent application – Derivation Proceedings.
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In high
stakes litigation, an expert’s testimony can be determinative of the outcome of
a case. It is of the utmost importance to ensure your expert is not only
qualified and experienced in their area of expertise, but has offered credible
testimony in past litigation
Using Docket
Alarm, you can quickly search for a particular individual and find all of their
litigation history in the US Court PACER database. Using terms and connectors,
you can conduct
a search of PACER dockets and documents that leverages the relationship
between the expert’s name and keywords indicative of the expert’s credibility.
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Docket Alarm can conduct natural language searches and terms and
connectors searches. Searching with natural language is easy, just type
what you’re looking for and we’ll find the most relevant documents.
Terms and connectors searching provides a high level of precision that can help narrow down search results. Docket Alarm supports many terms and connectors, including Boolean, proximity, stemming, wildcard, and phrase searches.
Below is a summary of Docket Alarm’s connectors:
Terms and connectors searching provides a high level of precision that can help narrow down search results. Docket Alarm supports many terms and connectors, including Boolean, proximity, stemming, wildcard, and phrase searches.
Below is a summary of Docket Alarm’s connectors:
Connector
|
Description
|
Example
|
AND default
|
Find documents containing all
connected terms. |
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Part
important public resource, part anachronistic PDF filing cabinet, PACER (Public
Access to Court Electronic Records) is outdated at best and downright primitive
at worst.
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