By: Christina E. Brule and Teige P. Sheehan On May 5, the Biden administration signaled the United States’ support for a proposed waiver of certain World Trade Organization (WTO) rules that require member countries to enforce intellectual property (IP) rights, particularly those related to confronting the COVID-19 pandemic. This article sets out an explanation of…
By: Thomas L. Sica On April 5, 2021, the Supreme Court released its decision in the case of Google LLC v. Oracle Am., Inc., 593 U.S. ___, No. 18-956 (U.S. 2021), ending an 11-year legal battle between the two companies over Google, LLC’s (“Google”) copying of certain aspects of Oracle America, Inc.’s (“Oracle”) Java programming…
By: Christina E. Brule The Consolidated Appropriations Act 2021 (the “Act”), a.k.a. the Coronavirus Relief Bill, was signed into law on December 27th, 2020. In addition to COVID-19 relief, the Act includes several provisions that will significantly influence intellectual property law. This article will focus on provisions of the Act that affect copyright law, namely…
By: Alana M. Fuierer On December 27th, 2020, the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2021 (the “Act”) was signed into law. Despite commonly being thought of as merely a “Coronavirus Relief Bill”, it surprisingly contained much more than COVID-19 relief. One of the lesser-known parts of the Act is the Trademark Modernization Act (“TMA”) which amends the…
By: David P. Miranda This column typically discusses legal topics related to technology, this month we look at how technology relates to the law, specifically our court system. In the midst of a pandemic, our world in lockdown, lawyers are learning to navigate the challenges of working remotely. These circumstances provided the Chief Judge of…
By: Wayne F. Reinke There is some concern in the patent-sphere about the CAFC conflating §101 (patentable subject matter) with §112 (issues with claim wording and/or support of claims in specification) and other considerations. There is no better example of this than the recently modified (twice) opinion of July 31, 2020 for American Axle &…
By: Lloyd J. Wilson There are many reasons you may choose to start your own business, with one of those reasons being that you believe the businesses will be financially successful. Patents may be key to helping you achieve your financial goals, but understanding whether to get a patent, how to get a patent, and…
By: Stephen P. Scuderi Jack Daniel’s iconic bottle design is an example of a famous trade dress, which is registered as a trademark. In order to maintain the value of its trademark, Jack Daniel’s has aggressively and successfully policed its trade dress design against several competitive distilleries. However, Jack Daniel’s may have bitten off more…
By: Alana M. Fuierer, Esq. A trademark (or service mark) is a business asset akin to other forms of intellectual property (e.g. patents, copyrights) and tangible business assets. And, yes, it is true that, just like other tangible or intangible business assets, trademarks frequently are bought, sold, transferred, licensed, and even used as security interest. …
By: Kristian E. Ziegler A patent confers the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale or selling an invention, as recited in the claims of the patent, within the jurisdiction or from importing the invention into the jurisdiction in which the patent is obtained. When most people think of patent protection, they…