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Welcome to the Snell & Wilmer intellectual property and technology litigation blog! Check here for useful news and information about patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret, and other IP and technology litigation developments.
Our IP & Technology Litigation Attorneys:
First Amendment Free Speech Protection Is Alive and Well
By Jessica D. Kemper* and Andrew F. Halaby The First Amendment’s free speech guarantee has proved determinative in a variety of very recent Supreme Court decisions. In Matal v. Tam (see here), the Court held that the First Amendment precludes denial of registration of an allegedly offensive trademark. In National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra (“NIFLA”) (2018), the Court held that California may not compel crisis pregnancy centers to provide, against their wishes, abortion-related information. And in Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Council 31 (2018), the Court held that the First Amendment Read More »
SCOTUS to Consider Copyright Registration Circuit Split
By Peter R. Montecuollo and David G. Barker The Supreme Court of the United States granted certiorari in Fourth Estate Public Benefit v. Wall-Street.com to resolve a long-standing split among the United States Circuit Courts of Appeals concerning whether copyright owners must wait to file infringement suits until the United States Copyright Office has registered their works. For instance, the Fifth and Ninth Circuits apply the “application approach,” which permits copyright owners to file infringement suits once upon applying for copyright registration. Other circuits, including the Tenth and Eleventh Circuits, apply the “registration approach.” In those circuits, failure to secure Read More »
Posted in Copyright Litigation, IP and Technology Litigation
| Tagged copyright, Eleventh Circuit, Ninth Circuit, Supreme Court
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Supreme Court Opens the Door to Recovering Lost Foreign Profits in Patent Cases
By Peter R. Montecuollo and David G. Barker In a 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court of the United States has opened the door for patent owners to recover lost foreign profits under §§ 284 and 271(f)(2) of the Patent Act. Although the Court’s decision in WesternGeco LLC v. ION Geophysical Corp. represents a marked shift from the lost-foreign-profits calculus courts applied previously, it does not create an automatic right to recover lost foreign profits. Instead, the Court supplanted the Federal Circuit’s rigid prohibition against recovering lost foreign sales (see Power Integrations, Inc. v. Fairchild Semiconductor Int’l, Inc.) with a case-by-case Read More »
Posted in IP and Technology Litigation, Patent Litigation
| Tagged Federal Circuit, Lost Foreign Profits, patent, Supreme Court
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Supreme Court Uproots Current PTAB Practice by Quashing Partial Decisions
By Trisha Farmer Lau and David G. Barker On April 24, 2018, in SAS Institute, Inc. v. Iancu, the Supreme Court held that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) must decide the validity of every patent claim challenged when it undertakes inter partes review under the America Invents Act (“AIA”). In a 5-4 decision, the Court ruled in favor of SAS Institute, Inc., a software developer that filed an inter partes review petition and argued that the PTAB’s final decision must address all challenged claims in the petition. Before this decision, a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office regulation, 37 Read More »
Posted in Inter Partes Review, IP and Technology Litigation, Patent Litigation
| Tagged inter partes review, IPR, patent, PTAB, Supreme Court
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Supreme Court Confirms Inter Partes Review Is Constitutional
By Jacob C. Jones and David G. Barker In Oil States Energy Services, LLC v. Greene’s Energy Group, LLC, the United States Supreme Court held today, in a 7-2 decision, that the inter partes review process under the America Invents Act (AIA), 35 U.S.C. § 100 et seq. (2011), does not violate Article III or the Seventh Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. As we noted previously, inter partes review is a popular administrative proceeding where the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB; part of the United States Patent and Trademark Office) decides whether challenged patents are valid. As of March Read More »
Posted in Inter Partes Review, IP and Technology Litigation, Patent Litigation, Post Grant Proceedings
| Tagged Federal Circuit, inter partes review, IPR, Oil States, patent, PTAB, Supreme Court
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