Recent Articles and Case Updates:
Patent
Since the "America Invents Act" (AIA) was signed into
law on September 16, 2011, patent attorneys and their
clients have been grappling with the multitude of
changes in patent law, as well as the complex array of
effective dates.
Trademark
On June 20, 2011, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers (ICANN) approved a plan to permit new generic top-level
domains (gTLDs), thereby increasing the number of gTLDs from the
current 22 (.com, .net., .biz, etc.) to a potentially unlimited number.
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
Decision Tree Analysis facilitates complex decision-making. In addition to its use in commercial settings and economics departments, for example, “DTA” works well in the legal environment.
Case Law Update
With a unanimous decision issued on March 20, 2012 in Mayo v. Prometheus Laboratories, the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated the process claims of Prometheus’ two patents as not patent eligible based on the finding that the steps in the claimed processes apart from the natural law inherent in the definition of the invention “involve [only] well-understood, routine, conventional activity previously engaged in by researchers in the field.”
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.
