Recent Articles and Case Updates:
Patent
As an intellectual property attorney, the federal jurisdiction of patent-related cases always seemed clear to me. 28 U.S.C. 1338 provides that: "The district courts shall have original jurisdiction of any civil action arising under any act of Congress relating to patents."
Trademark
With the arrival of over one thousand new Generic Top Level Domain Names (gTLDs) only months away, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers’ (ICANN’s) Trademark Clearinghouse is now accepting applications for trademark registration.
Copyright
Among the bundle of rights set forth in 17 U.S.C. § 106, copyright owners of certain works have the exclusive right to publicly perform the work.
Trade Secret
To successfully take legal action against a party who misappropriates a trade secret, the owner of the trade secret must have used “reasonable steps” to protect it. In the absence of proof that sufficient “reasonable steps” were taken, a court will not recognize information developed or possessed by a company as a trade secret and thus will deny attempts to enjoin the use of the information by another party or to seek damages resulting from the third party’s use of the information.
IP Strategy, Due Diligence and Risk Assessment
China intellectual property protection: not too many years ago that would have been considered an oxymoron. Then the Chinese government announced its future economy would be based on innovation, not manufacturing.
Licensing
How do trademarks relate to the antitrust lawsuit filed by Tom Brady et al. against the National Football League (NFL), you ask?
Litigation and Dispute Resolution
As financial institutions race to capture a portion of the increasingly popular online and mobile banking markets, they are going to be targeted by patent owners in litigations across the country. There are, however, approaches they can take to protect themselves and their customers.
Case Law Update
Today’s unanimous ruling by the Supreme Court sends a message to would be copiers of self-replicating products, such as Monsanto’s genetically modified, Roundup Ready soybean seeds – and that message is -- tread carefully.
Practice Management
Effective February 1, 2011, Jonathan H. Spadt, who has been with the firm since 1997, becomes the firm’s new CEO and President.
