The landscape for international inventors is shifting. On December 29, 2025, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that seeks to end the era of...
Can a person “own” the art on someone else’s skin? That was the high-stakes question at the heart of the recent Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Sedlik v. von Drachenberg. In a case that...
Privacy law is complicated. While U.S. courts have generally refused to recognize personal data as a traditional property right, the right to privacy is a tantamount constitutional right with high...
Privacy law and intellectual property law are two distinct yet increasingly interconnected areas of U.S. law. While I.P. protects creative and innovative works, privacy law protects personal...
One of the fundamental principles of trademark law is that certain terms cannot function as trademarks because, as being merely descriptive of the goods or sources, these marks lack the role as an...
When the USPTO examines trademark applications or when courts assess potential trademark infringement, they rely on a multifaceted analysis to determine whether two marks are likely to cause consumer...
The federal Lanham Act provides trademark owners various legal causes of action, including trademark infringement and dilution. While trademark infringement requires proof of consumer confusion,...
The question of who – or what – can be an author has become one of the most contentious issues in modern copyright law. As artificial intelligence systems generate increasingly sophisticated creative...
Trademark law intersects with First Amendment free speech rights in several key ways: Prior Restraint and Content-Based Restrictions: When the government denies trademark registration based on the...
At the complex intersection of trademark law and First Amendment protections, courts have developed a sophisticated framework to balance commercial trademark rights under the Lanham Act against First...
Derivative works are works based upon one or more preexisting works, such as translations, musical arrangements, dramatizations, fictionalizations, motion picture versions, sound recordings, art...
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have revolutionized digital ownership and created entirely new categories of intellectual property disputes. As these blockchain-based assets continue to evolve, they...
The Lanham Act serves as the cornerstone of federal trademark law in the United States, establishing comprehensive protections for brands, consumers, and public figures alike. Among its many...
In today’s digital age, do-it-yourself legal services promise quick, affordable solutions for complex legal matters. Websites like Trademark Engine, Trademark Genius, and similar platforms market...
The culinary world presents unique challenges when it comes to intellectual property protection. While chefs, food bloggers, and recipe developers invest considerable creativity and effort into their...
The gaming industry sits at a fascinating intersection of creativity and intellectual property law, where developers, content creators, and players constantly navigate complex copyright and trademark...
In our increasingly digital world, data extraction and analysis have become fundamental to how businesses operate, researchers conduct studies, and AI systems learn. Two key concepts at the heart of...
Trademark scams have become increasingly sophisticated, targeting business owners through email, postal mail, and text messages. These fraudulent schemes can cost you hundreds or thousands of dollars...
The intersection of intellectual property law and collegiate athletics has reached a historic turning point. The recent approval of the House v. NCAA settlement represents the most significant...
Section 101 of the Patent Act, establishes the foundation for what constitutes patentable subject matter in the United States. The seemingly straightforward language – “Whoever invents or discovers...
When businesses discover that competitors are using confusingly similar marks, the immediate instinct is often to file a trademark infringement lawsuit. However, before rushing to court, trademark...
Copyright cases require plaintiffs to prove specific elements to establish a valid claim. Understanding these requirements is necessary for both copyright holders seeking to protect their work and...
The zone of interest test is a component of the standing analysis in trademark litigation, serving as a gatekeeper to determine which parties may pursue claims under the federal Lanham Act. This...
The doctrine of foreign equivalents represents one of the more nuanced areas of trademark law, sitting at the intersection of linguistic analysis, consumer perception, and legal precedent. This...
Copyright law protects original works of authorship, but the definition of “originality” often creates layers of confusion among creators and authors (referred to as “authors”). At its core, the...
The Controversy In late May 2025, President Trump fired Shira Perlmutter, who led the U.S. Copyright Office. This was just days after he also dismissing the Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden. The...
The false suggestion doctrine is a limitation on trademark registration, designed to protect the public from misleading associations with recognized entities or symbols. Overview Section 2(a) of the...
In today’s digital economy, subscription-based content platforms like OnlyFans, JustforFans, Vimeo, Patreon, and YouTube have created unprecedented opportunities for creators to monetize their work...
Color Marks: The Basics Color marks represent one of the more challenging types of non-traditional trademarks. Since the landmark Supreme Court decision in Qualitex Co. v. Jacobson Products Co.,...
Introduction In copyright infringement cases, courts must determine whether one work impermissibly copies another’s protected expression. While the widely used “extrinsic test” focuses on comparing...
Patent law can be complex and overwhelming, even for experienced practitioners. In re Donald K. Forest issued by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit highlights one of these challenging...
Understanding Trademark Genericism Trademark law exists to protect distinctive marks that identify the source of a particular good or service. However, when a trademark becomes so widely known that...
Copyright law broadly protects creative works and the human endeavors required to create an original work of authorship. However, creativity should not be confused with utility. A dictionary...
A recent Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit case sheds light on two little-known trademark doctrines: the doctrine of natural expansion and the doctrine of tacking. Both can be useful arguments...
Consistency in intellectual property regimes is essential for a uniform practice of those intellectual property laws. Case in point is Thaler v. Perlmutter, a copyright case holding that works...
On January 31, 2025, the U.S. Copyright Office issued examination guidelines related to registration of works either assisted or generated by artificial intelligence tools. This blog discussed these...
The concept of distinctiveness is important under trademark law because it is one of the requirements for a federally registered mark. Distinctiveness goes to the strength of the mark. In theory, the...
Eight months after the U.S. Supreme Court held in the Elster case that so-called Names Clause under Section 2(c) of the Lanham Act, the federal trademark law, prohibited the use of a living person’s...
The U.S. Copyright Office issued its second report on issues related to registration of works using artificial intelligence (AI). The second report, issued on January 29, 2025, discusses...
Consistent with its previous fee study authorized by Congress in 2022, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is increasing patent fees on a long list of categories. The study culminated in an...
Although USPTO fees typically increase, for different matters, every two years, this year’s increases are sweeping. According to the USPTO, policy rationales for the fee increases included in the...
The ongoing saga between two of the Bay Area’s major airports continues as Oakland International Airport (OAK) filed an appeal on December 12, 2024, on the order for preliminary injunction granted to...
On September 4, 2024, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit decided Hachette Book Group, Inc. v. Internet Archive, denying the online digital repository’s ability to copy and distribute...
The Tax & Trade Bureau of the U.S. Department of the Treasury has approved four new American Viticultural Areas (AVAs) this year: Contra Costa, Comptche, Yucaipa Valley, and Upper Cumberland. The...
Resolving a circuit split on the issue of damages in copyright infringement cases, the U.S. Supreme Court held, in a 6-3 decision, in Warner Chappell Music, Inc. v. Nealy, 601 U.S.\\\ (2024), that a...
It was announced that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the federal agency responsible for enforcement of federal drug laws, will take up the recommendation from the U.S. Health and...
The issues where technology and intellectual property laws collide were discussed in the Ninth Circuit’s opinion in Hunley v. Instagram, LLC, decided on July 17, 2023. In Hunley, the Ninth Circuit...
This posting reviews the last IP case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in its 2022 term. As mentioned before, the keyword among these cases is “limitation.” The consensus of the Court is that...
Reviewing the last U.S. Supreme Court 2022 term, the highest court decided several high-profile cases involving intellectual property rights. The keyword among these cases is “limitation.” There...
Reviewing the last U.S. Supreme Court 2022 term, the highest court decided several high-profile cases involving intellectual property rights. The keyword among these cases – two trademark, one...
On May 18, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court released its long-awaited decision in Amgen Inc. v. Sanofi, which touches on a formal requirement for patentability, the enablement requirement. In a...
U.S. Patent No. PP35,001 P3 (‘001) issued on February 28, 2023 for “Blueberry Plant Named ‘C15-270’.” It was issued to inventors Jessica Scalzo & James W. Olmestead and applicants/assignees Costa...
In order to clarify policy-related issues involving artificial intelligence and the copyright law issue of authorship, the U.S. Copyright Office, on March 16, 2023, commenced an AI initiative....
On February 13, 2023, in ChromaDex, Inc. v. Elysium Health, Inc., the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued its first opinion of the year dealing with patent eligibility under 35 U.S.C....
The Craft Beverage Modernization Act (CBMA) was originally enacted in 2017 as part of the Tax Reform Act, and was meant to provide some tax relief for domestic wineries, breweries, distillers, and...
At long last, the Unitary Patent (UP) and the Unitary Patent Court (UPC) are set to begin on June 1, 2023. This has been a long-awaited process, which has seen the roll-out delayed not once, not...
On February 21, 2023, the U.S. Copyright Office issued an unusual ruling partially cancelling the copyright registration originally issued in September 2022, essentially cancelling any part of the...
On January 24, 2023, the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held in H&R Block, Inc. v. Block, Inc., that defendant Block’s trademark was not likely to confuse consumers as to source of the...
On November 14, 2022, in San Antonio Winery, Inc. v. Jiaxing Micarose Trade Co., Ltd., the Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit held that process may be effected on a nonappearing foreign defendant...
Today is the date in which new patent applications under 35 U.S.C. §111(a) (i.e., any U.S. nonprovisional application) must be filed using the .DOCX format, which is the file extension format used...
The facts are as follows. The plaintiff, Punchbowl, Inc., is an online greeting card company, using and owning the PUNCHBOWL mark since 2006. The defendant AJ Press is the owner of PUNCHBOWL NEWS, an...
In the runup to the issuance of the U.S. Supreme Court opinion in Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. v. Goldsmith, which is due sometime in the spring 2023, which will deal with the...
In In re Apple Inc., the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit granted Apple’s petition for writ of mandamus ordering the judge presiding over its district court patent infringement case, Alan D....
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled on November 9, 2022, in SoClean, Inc. v. Sunset Healthcare Solutions, Inc., in a decision involving trade dress, a sub-category of trademark law....
As part of the implementation of the Trademark Modernization Act (TMA) of 2020, the new USPTO rule (formerly 37 C.F.R. §2.62(a)) to respond to trademark office actions will drop from the former...
Back in July 2022, the new Director of the USPTO, Kathi Vidal, announced that the USPTO would be seeking comments on its anticipated guidance on §101 patent-eligibility. The deadline for those...
On June 30, 2022, the USPTO’s new Director, Kathi Vidal, discussed the new identity verification requirements for filing of new trademark applications, commencing on August 6, 2022 (just in five days...
July 1, 2022 is the so-called “Big Bang” deadline for new PCT applications which disclose nucleotide and/or amino acid sequences to be filed using the new WIPO’s ST.26 Standard, rather than the...
U.S. Copyright Claims Board opens June 16, 2022 The U.S. Copyright Office announced that it will begin accepting claims at the newly-created Copyright Claims Board (CCB), today, June 16, 2022. The...
Just as the war in Ukraine resulting from Russia’s invasion has passed 100 days, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced it will terminate its agreement with its Russian...
On May 23, 2022, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office updated its exam guideline for examining generic marks, Examination Guide 1-22. The guideline clarifies that the establishment of a prima facie...
On May 24, 2022, the U.S. Solicitor General filed the government’s views on patent subject matter-eligibility as requested by the U.S. Supreme Court way back in May 2021. The Solicitor General...
When asked to describe what is I.P., most people will reply with a generalized answer of patents, copyrights, or trademarks. However, the field of intellectual property encompasses more...
TRUMP TOO SMALL mark, Steven Elster, applicant, Ser. No. 87749230, filed Jan. 10, 2018 On February 24, 2022, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held in In re Elster, that Section 2(c) of...
Today, May 1, is Global Love Day. To commemorate the day, we spotlight ”love,” specifically the trademark registrations and copyright applications for LOVE. Registrant At World Properties, LLC, a...
Today, April 26, 2022, is World I.P. Day, where the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a specialized department of the United Nations, focuses attention on educating the public on all...
Today is an auspicious day for cannabis proponents, so we illustrate one recently issued patent to recognize this date. U.S. Patent No. PP34,051&OS=SPEC/cannabis&RS=SPEC/cannabis) P3 (‘051) issued on...
On March 10, 2022, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held in Gray v. Hudson, that an eight-note ostinato allegedly copied by defendants lacked originality to warrant copyright protection,...
The Russia-Ukraine war has just entered its second month, and it appears Russia is using intellectual property piracy as a weapon in retaliation for crippling economic sanctions levied against it...
More RUSSIAN WARSHIP, GO FUCK YOURSELF (and variations) trademark applications filed with USPTO since war in Ukraine began As of March 21, 2022, the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues, and so do...
United with Ukraine On March 7, 2022, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced that it severed its ties with the Federal Service for Intellectual Property of Russia (i.e.,...
The world is currently seeing the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, and there has been one catchphrase which has seemingly captured the fighting ethos of the Ukrainian people: “Russian warship, go fuck...
As news of the Russian invasion of Ukraine happened last week, the Ukraine State Intellectual Property Institute, or Ukrpatent, announced that it is, in fact, still operating on full-time “providing...
In the U.S., patents are issued to inventors and copyrights are registered to authors. Artificial intelligence (AI) has been gaining traction in automation of business processes, creating more...
Applicant’s proposed stylized mark with pixelation On February 2, 2022, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed in In re Vox Populi Registry Ltd., the decision of the USPTO’s Trademark...
On February 4, 2022, the United States Patent and Trademark Office released a new public page showing new ex parte expungement or reexamination petitions for failure to use the challenged mark in...
U.S. Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) has requested the Administrative Conference of the United States, the federal agency tasked with making federal functions more efficient, to conduct a study into the...
On January 25, 2022, the United States Patent and Trademark Office issued sanctions against a group of trademark filing entities (“TFEs”): Abtach, Ltd., 360 Digital Marketing LLC, and Retrocube LLC,...
On September 2, 2021, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office extended the deadline for submission of comments regarding the state of patent eligibility and its effectiveness on U.S. investments and...
On September 15, 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that a Latvian citizen was sentenced to more than four years in federal prison for masterminding a trademark mail fraud scheme....
U.S. Patent No. 10,888,283 B1 (‘283), issued on January 12, 2021, to applicants/inventors Boonsieng Benjauthrit, Sorapod B. Benjauthrit, Vatcharee L. Benjauthrit, and Kamolchanok J. Benjauthrit, all...
U.S. Patent No. 10,874,687 B1 (‘687), issued on December 29, 2020, to inventors Jean-Pierre Sommadossi of Boston, Massachusetts, and Adel Moussa of Burlington, Massachusetts. The applicant/assignee...
U.S. Patent No. D907,885 S1 (‘885) issued on January 21, 2021, for “Funerary Urn.” It was issued to inventor Alex Borzaga of Cavareno, Italy. The applicant/assignee is Fenicetek of Turin, Italy....
U.S. Patent No. 10,780,052 (‘052) B2, issued on September 22, 2020, to inventors Frank DeRosa, Michael Heartlein, and Shirang Karve of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and applicant/assignee, Translate Bio,...
U.S. Patent No. PP31,874 P3 (‘874) issued on June 16, 2020 for “Cannabis Plant Named ‘Holy Crunch.” It was issued to inventor Mark Anthony Lewis and Steven Robert Haba, of Westlake Village,...
U.S. Patent No. PP31,707 P3 (‘707) issued onapril 28, 2020, for “Cannabis Plant Named ‘Grape Lollipop’.” It was issued to inventor Mark Anthony Lewis and Steven Robert Haba, of Westlake Village,...
U.S. Patent No. 10,625,177 B2 (‘177) issued on April 21, 2020, for “Bioavailable Cannabis Plant Blend.” It was issued to inventor David Harold Moore of Henderson, Nevada. The inventor discusses in...
This is something trivial, but important to the daily IP practice. Consistent with 5 U.S.C. §6103(c), which deems “January 20 of each fourth year after 1965, Inauguration Day, is a legal public...
On December 27, 2020, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, the annual defense spending bill, was signed into law. Focused on COVID-19 relief and funding the federal government operations,...
On December 21, 2020, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office amended practice rule 37 C.F.R. §1.27, to expand the government use license exception. First, a Federal employee-inventor must be granted...
U.S. Patent No. 10,752,636 B2 (‘636) issued on August 25, 2020, entitled ”HIV Inhibitor Compounds.” It was issued to inventors Elizabeth Bacon, Elbert Chin, Jeromy Cottell, Ashley Katana, Darryle...
The Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment states that private property “shall not be taken for public use, without just compensation.” Intellectual property rights – patents, trademarks, copyrights,...
In its orders of October 13, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court granted petitions for writ of certiorari to three cases involving Arthrex, Inc., dealing with the constitutionality of the PTAB’s judges:...
A new trademark application for COVID-KUSH was filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), on July 30, 2020. The applicant is Anthony Ariza dba Covid-Kush of Santa Clara, California....
Given the current coronavirus pandemic, much has been discussed about possible vaccine trials and antiviral treatments to coronavirus. One patent directed to therapeutic use is U.S. Patent No....
On August 3, 2020, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a modified opinion in Illumina, Inc. v. Ariosa Diagnostics, Inc., reiterating its earlier opinion finding claims directed to...
On July 31, 2020, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit denied American Axle’s petition for en banc review, in American Axle & Manuf., Inc. v. Neapco Holdings LLC, with those judges seeking...
U.S. Patent No. 10,512,629 B1 (‘629) issued on December 24, 2019, entitled ”Compositions Comprising a Cannabinoid and Spilanthol.” It was issued to inventor Zohar Koren of Gan Ner, Israel. The...
In a major ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court held in U.S.P.T.O. v. Booking.com B.V., that an otherwise generic mark used in commerce conveys source-identifying characteristics when used with the “.com”...
U.S. Patent No. 10,485,373 B1 (‘373) issued on November 26, 2019, entitled ”Method for Cannabinoid Delivery Into Beverages.” It was issued to inventors Rory Chesley Patrick Millikin of Kelowna,...
U.S. Patent No. 10,485,771 B2 (‘771) issued on November 26, 2019, entitled ”Methods of Regulating Cannabinoid Receptor Activity-Related Disorders and Diseases.” It was issued to inventors Irving W....
U.S. Patent No. 10,477,791 B2 (‘791) issued on November 19, 2019, entitled ”Method of Production of Phytocannabinoids for Use in Medical Treatments.” It was issued to inventor Peter Andrew Whitton...
U.S. Patent No. 10,456,435 B2 (‘435) issued on October 29, 2019, entitled ”Topical Antiviral Formulations and Methods of Using the Same.” It was issued to applicant/inventor Christopher A. McElvany...
U.S. Patent No. 10,383,358 B2 (‘358) issued on August 20, 2019, entitled ”Cannabinoid Containing Cannabis Extract Infused into Rolling Paper.” It was issued to inventors Benjamin S. Kaplan of...
U.S. Patent No. D860,392 S (‘392) issued on September 17, 2019, for “Faucet.” It was issued to inventor Celine Kwok Garland of Zionsville, Indiana. The applicant/assignee is Delta Faucet Company of...
The Game Developers Conference is open March 16 – 20, 2020, in San Francisco, California, the industry’s largest trade show. Numerous exhibitors will be present, including Oculus. A recently-issued...
The Game Developers Conference is open March 16 – 20, 2020, in San Francisco, California, the industry’s largest trade show. Numerous exhibitors will be present, including Oculus. A recently-issued...
U.S. Patent No. 10,420,809 B2 (‘809) issued on September 24, 2019, for “buccal and Sublingual Cannabinoid Formulations and Method of Making the Same.” It was issued to inventor Kenton L. Crowley of...
U.S. Patent No. 10,405,515 B1 (‘515) issued on September 10, 2019, for “Soybean Variety 5PZRG70. It was issued to inventor Leslie Charles Kuhlman of Lawrence, Kansas. The applicant/assignee is...
MWC Barcelona 2020 (formerly Mobile World Congress) is was set to open open February 24 – 27, 2020, in Barcelona, Spain, as the the world’s largest mobile industry trade show. However, due to the...
MWC Barcelona 2020 (formerly Mobile World Congress) was set to open February 24 – 27, 2020, in Barcelona, Spain, as the world’s largest mobile industry trade show. However, due to the coronavirus,...
U.S. Patent No. 10,258,601 B1 (‘601) issued on April 16, 2019, entitled ”Vaporizable Cannabinoid Compositions.” It was issued to applicant/inventor Stephen C. Perry of Norwood, Massachusetts. The...
U.S. Patent No. D860,395 S (‘395) issued on September 17, 2019, for “Faucet.” It was issued to inventors Michael Seum of Dusseldorf, Germany and Jacob Nitz of Brooklyn, New York. The...
Source: U.S. Patent No. 10,406,453 B2, Sept. 10, 2019, to Ryan Delmoral Ko, Brock Hughes, Krupal Pal, & Alexzander Samuelsson (inventors); Nextleaf Solutions Ltd. (applicant/assignee) U.S. Patent No....
U.S. Patent No. PP30,879 P2 (‘879) issued on September 10, 2019, for “Blackberry Plant Named ‘Twilight’.” It was issued to inventor Chad E. Finn of Corvallis, Oregon. The applicant/assignee is the...
Source: U.S. Patent No. 10,405,560 B2, Sept. 10, 2019, to Christopher Bhairam (inventor); Blacklist Holdings, Inc. (applicant/assignee) U.S. Patent No. 10,405,560 B2 (‘560) issued on September 10,...
U.S. Patent No. PP30,872 P2 (‘872) issued on September 3, 2019, for “Phalaenopsis Orchid Plant Named ‘Phalgaqxyk’.” It was issued to inventor Martinus Nicolaas Gerardus Van Swieten of Utrecht,...
U.S. Patent No. 10,404,204 B2 (‘204), issued on September 3, 2019, for “Storage of Solar Energy.” The inventor is John Beavis Lasich of Balwyn, Australia. The applicant and assignee is Raygen...
On January 13, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court denied petitions for writs of certiorari in four cases dealing with patent subject matter-eligibility: HP Inc. v. Berkheimer, Hikma Pharms., Inc. v. Vanda...
CES 2020 is open January 7 – 10, 2020, in Las Vegas, Nevada, bringing to the world’s eyes gadgets and technology from Big Tech and startups all over the globe. A product that will be shown at CES is...
U.S. Patent No. D861,725 S (‘725) issued on October 1, 2019, for “Display Screen with Animated Icon.” It was issued to inventors Hélène Park and Alan Bettes of San Francisco, California, and Sidney...
CES 2020 will open January 7 – 10, 2020, in Las Vegas, Nevada, bringing to the world’s eyes gadgets and technology from startups all over the globe. Home appliances are always a popular draw at CES....
On January 10, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court will discuss at its first conference meeting whether or not to take up one to four cases dealing with patent eligibility under 35 U.S.C. §101. Patent...
U.S. Patent No. D859,923 S1 (‘923) issued on September 17, 2019, for “Insulated Glass.” It was issued to inventor Dan G. Danner of Bixby, Oklahoma. The applicant/assignee is Sun Danner Lodge & Pub...
U.S. Patent No. D858,154 S (‘154) issued on September 3, 2019, for “Stocking Holder.” It was issued to inventor/applicant Brad Michael Bourgoyne of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The assignee is Fig &...
There are several new season-appropriate trademarks and service marks registered this year on the Principal Register by the USPTO. WHITE CHRISTMAS®, on September 10, 2019, in International Class 41,...
On December 11, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit’s en banc ruling in Peter v. NantKwest, Inc., holding that the USPTO was not entitled to attorney’s...
U.S. Patent No. PP30,860 P3 (‘860) issued on September 3, 2019, for “Hybrid Tea Rose Plant Named ‘MEITHATIE’.” It was issued to inventor Alain A. Meilland of Antibes, France. The applicant/assignee...
Source: U.S. Patent No. 10,336,597 B2, Jul. 2, 2019, to Gregory James Grischik, Jonathan David Watson, Carl Gregorl Miller, Rosana C. Altoveros, Lawrence E. Tipton, Jeremy Straight, David Alvarez, &...
U.S. Patent No. 10,363,772 B2 (‘772), issued on July 30, 2019, for “Turkey Fan Favorite.” The inventor is Charles D. Brown of Rydal, Georgia. The ‘772 specification describes an invention which...
Two recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions in Matal v. Tam, decided in 2017, and Iancu v. Brunetti, decided this past May, both dealt with registration of trademarks under 15 U.S.C. §1052(a) (§2(a))...
The DreamForce 2019 conference will be held in San Francisco from November 19-22, 2019. To commemorate DreamForce, the blog will highlight a recently-issued Salesforce, Inc. patent. U.S. Patent No....
A fascinating ruling dealing with design patents, amendments made during prosecution, and limitations on claim scope was handed down by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on September 12,...
Source: U.S. Patent No. 10,376,551 B2, August 13, 2019, to Ross Franklin, Ed Rosenthal, & Rachel Franklin (inventors); ERS Holdings LLC (applicant); Pivot Naturals, LLC (assignee) U.S. Patent No....
U.S. Patent No. 10,346,782 B2 (‘782), issued on July 9, 2019, for “Adaptive Augmented Decision Engine.” The inventor is Steven C. Tiell of San Francisco, California. The applicant and assignee is...
Source: U.S. Patent No. 7,033,603, Apr. 25, 2006, to Kevin D. Nelson & Brent B. Crow (inventors); Board of Regents of the Univ. of Texas (assignee) The issue of sovereign immunity has been raised...
Halloween will be commemorated by a review of a creepy patent. U.S. Patent No. 10,313,638 B1 (‘638) issued on June 4, 2019, for “Image Creation Using Geo-Fence Data.” The inventors are Kalidas...
On August 21, 2019, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled in an interesting example of what is deemed “work for hire,” as defined by the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. §201(b), in Morricone...
U.S. Patent No. 10,334,796 B1 issued on July 2, 2019, for “Methods and Systems of Cultivation,” to inventors Eric Speidell and Kyle Speidel of Denver, Colorado. The applicant/assignee is MJ Brain...
Patent, copyright, and trademark are the three most common and well-known IPs. However, there are many other IPs. Three types of IPs protecting new plant varieties, or plant breeder’s rights, are...
U.S. Patent No. 10,279,000 B1 (‘000) issued on May 7, 2019, for “Method for Treating Cannabis Induced Anxiety.” It was issued to inventor Mark Hetherington, of Saskatoon, Canada and Jason Green, of...
On August 21, 2019, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held in The Chamberlain Group, Inc. v. Techtronic Inds. Co., that Chamberlain’s U.S. Patent No. 7,224,275 (‘275) directed to wireless...
On September 18, 2019, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)’s Genome Editing Consortium (GEC) formally sought comments on genome editing, commonly called CRISPR, terminology in...
There have been several patent-eligibility rulings by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit this year, but on August 16, 2019, the Fed Circuit held that claim construction in-dispute must be...
U.S. Patent No. 10,258,601 B1 (‘601) issued on April 16, 2019, for “Vaporizable Cannabinoid Compositions.” It was issued to applicant/inventor Stephen C. Perry, of Norwood, Massachusetts. The...
In a strange ruling by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, on July 29, 2019, although publicly released on August 9, 2019, in Genetic Veterinary Scis., Inc. v. Laboklin GmbH & Co KG, the...
U.S. Patent No. PP30,668 P3 (‘668) issued on July 9, 2019, for “Cannabis Plant Named ‘DD-CT-BR5’.” It was issued to inventor David Holmes of San Gabriel, California. The applicant/assignee is...
Many cases have been heard before the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit dealing with substantive patent issues, like questions involving anticipation under 35 U.S.C. §102, obviousness under 35...
The United States Attorney’s office in San Jose, California, recently indicted Uber Technologies, Inc.’s former autonomous driving car guru, Anthony Levandowski, with thirty-three counts of trade...
Today is Constitution Day. On this day, September 17, 1787, the U.S. Constitution was signed thirty-nine Founding Fathers, ushering the birth of the United States. Several clauses in the...
The Oracle OpenWorld 2019 conference will be held in San Francisco from September 16-19, 2019. To commemorate Oracle OpenWorld, the blog will highlight a recently-issued Oracle, Inc. patent. U.S....
On August 23, 2019, Gilead Sciences, Inc. petitioned the PTAB for inter partes review of three patents behind its blockbuster TRUVADA® HIV-prevention drug. The patents, U.S. Patent No....
On September 5, 2019, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a revised Examination Guidelines 4-19, “Requirement of U.S.-Licensed Attorney for Foreign-Domiciled Trademark Applicants and...
The USPTO promulgated new rules on August 3, 2019, requiring foreign entities applying for a trademark registration to retain U.S.-based counsel for filing and prosecution of the trademark...
U.S. Patent No. 10,245,237 B2 (‘237) issued on April 2, 2019, for “Compressed Tablet Containing Cannabidiol, Method for its Manufacture and Use of Such Tablet in Oral Treatment of Psychosis or...
On August 26, 2019, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced an expansion of a federal program allowing legalized cannabis research, by allowing additional applications from cannabis...
Source: U.S. Patent No. 10,337,029 B2, July 2, 2019, to Jennifer A. Doudna, Martin Jinek, Krzysztof Chylinski, Emmanuelle Charpentier (inventors); Regents of the University of California, University...
Source: U.S. Patent D489,299 S, May 4, 2004, Craig Metros, Patrick J. Schiavone, & Tyler J. Blake (inventors); Ford Global Technologies, LLC (assignee) On July 23, 2019, the Court of Appeals for the...
On June 25, 2019, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit handed down CellSpin Soft, Inc. v. Fitbit, Inc., in what is an important case dealing with patent-eligibility under 35 U.S.C. §101,...
Monsanto Corp., the Big Ag company which manufactures the weed killer ROUNDUP®, and was the loser in three California jury trials which $2.48 billion in potential damages, in which all the plaintiffs...
U.S. Patent No. PP30,434 P3 (‘434) issued on April 23, 2019, for “Cannabis Plant Named ‘LW-BB1’.” It was issued to inventors Andrew Alfred, Ian Dumpert, and Christopher Chapdeline of Denver,...
Source: U.S. Patent No. 5,859,601, Jan. 12, 1999, to Jaekyun Moon & Barrett J. Brickner (inventors); Regents of the University of Minnesota (assignee) On June 14, 2019, the Court of Appeals for the...
U.S. Patent No. 10,265,362 B2 (‘362) issued on April 23, 2019, for “Ingestible Films Having Substances From Hemp or Cannabis.” It was issued to applicant/inventor Scott Schaneville, of St....
U.S. Patent No. 10,239,808 B1 (‘808) issued on March 26, 2019, for “Cannabis Extracts.” It was issued to inventors Jacob Black of New Haven, Connecticut, Ryan Beigle of Littleton, Colorado, and Alex...
Source: FUCT™, soon to be FUCT® On June 24, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down Iancu v. Brunetti, dealing with the Lanham Act’s Section 2(a) bars to trademark registration’s collision against...
On May 30, 2019, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Washington v. Barr, refused to dismiss outright a case where the plaintiffs alleged marijuana’s classification on the Drug Enforcement...
On June 10, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Return Mail, Inc. v. United States Postal Service, in which the Court held that the Government was...
On April 24, 2019, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that the Plant Variety Protection Office (PVPO) will begin accepting applications for new, distinctive hemp-based...
Tenofovir disoproxil fumarate, C23H34N5O14P The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has recently opened an investigation into possible violations of Gilead Sciences, Inc.’s exclusive license with the...
U.S. Patent No. 10,179,694 B2 (‘694) issued on November 20, 2018, for “Constant Illuminated Tamper-Resistant Plant Shipping Container.” It was issued to applicant/inventor Larry D. Fenner, Jr. of...
U.S. Patent No. D844,022 S (‘022) issued on March 26, 2019, for “Computing Device Display Screen with Graphical User Interface.” It was issued to inventor Shalin Amin, of San Francisco, California....
What had opened with a promise of clarity for patent subject matter eligibility under 35 U.S.C. §101 took a detour with the ChargePoint, Inc. v. SemaConnect, Inc., decision issued on March 28 2019,...
The third treatment method case in the last year that was challenged as patent-ineligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. §101 has been found eligible by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit,...
Arctic Cat Inc. has been involved in a few patent-related cases in recent years, including one case from 2018 which we discussed on this blog dealing with the law of obviousness’s motivation to...
U.S. Patent No. 10,206,963 B2 (‘963) issued on January 15, 2019, for “Topical Medicinal Gel.” It was issued to applicants/inventors Joan McMahon of Midland, Michigan and Stephanie House of Merrill,...
U.S. Patent No. D842,331 S (‘331) issued on March 5, 2019, for “Display Screen or Portion Thereof with Animated Graphical User Interface.” It was issued to inventors Jisi Guo, Eli Guerron, Craig...
U.S. Patent No. PP30,260 P3 (‘260) issued on March 5, 2019, for “Apple Tree Named ‘Xeleven’.” It was issued to inventor Jean-Luc Carrieres of Bolazano, Italy. The applicant/assignee is Red Moon of...
An earlier posting on this blog discussed the recent issuance of a U.C.-researched CRISPR patent. Today’s posting discusses a competing team’s recent issuance of another CRISPR patent. U.S. Patent...
U.S. Patent No. D841,260 S1 (‘260) issued on February 19, 2019, for “Cotton Seed Feeder.” It was issued to inventor/applicant Percy English of El Campo, Texas. This patent is a design patent under...
On April 17, 2019, Judge William J. Martinez denied an early motion for partial summary judgment for invalidity based patent-ineligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. §101, in the first federal...
On March 20, 2019, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in SRI Int’l, Inc. v. Cisco Sys., Inc., in which claims directed to network intrusion were found patent-eligible under 35 U.S.C....
U.S. Patent No. 10,172,786 B2 (‘786) issued on January 8, 2019, for “Oral Care Composition Comprising Cannabinoids.” It was issued to applicant Axim Biotechnologies, Inc., of New York, New York....
U.S. Patent No. 10,132,564 B1 (‘564) issued on November 20, 2018, for “Plant Dryer with Improved Convection Flow.” It was issued to applicant/inventor Harvey Romanek of Seminole, Florida. The...
U.S. Patent No. PP30,173 P2 (‘173) issued on February 5, 2019, for “Grandiflora Rose Plant Named ‘KORmonali’.” It was issued to inventor Wilhelm-Alexander Kordes of Klein Offenseth-Sparrieshoop,...
U.S. Patent No. 10,154,254 B2 (‘254), issued on December 11, 2018, for “Time-of-Flight Depth Sensing for Eye Tracking.” The inventor is Nicholas Daniel Trail of Bothell, Washington. The applicant...
U.S. Patent No. 10,144,342 B2 (‘342), issued on December 4, 2018, for “Mobile Robot.” The inventors are Ze Ji of Portsmouth, Great Britain, and Christopher Andrew Smith of Bristol, Great Britain....
U.S. Patent No. 10,155,018 B1 (‘018) issued on December 18, 2018, for “Method of Improving Sexual Response and Sensitivity.” It was issued to applicant/inventor Dennis M. Jenn of South Jordan, Utah....
In its second patent-eligibility ruling in a few weeks, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decided Natural Alts. Int’l, Inc. v. Creative Compounds, LLC, on March 15, 2019, in which it found...
U.S. Patent No. D835,564 S (‘564) issued on December 11, 2018, for “Wiper.” It was issued to inventors Franz Von Holzhausen of Malibu, California, David Tadashi Imai of Los Angeles, California,...
Sometimes substantive patent issues are never dealt with in cases, but rather dispositive issues are handled by procedural mechanisms. One case in point is Momenta Pharms., Inc. v. Bristol-Myers...
In one of the more fascinating legal analyses presented in recent memory, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit handed down Univ. of Florida Res. Foundation, Inc. v. General Electric Co., on...
U.S. Patent No. 10,109,003 B1 (‘003), issued on October 23, 2018, for “Method, Medium, and System for Enhancing Privacy.” The inventors are Jon Jenkins of San Francisco, and Catherine Cissy Lee of...
Today is DNA Day, and to honor the occasion, we present a newly issued patent utilizing deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA. U.S. Patent No. 10,227,611 B2 (‘611) issued on March 12, 2019, for “Methods and...
U.S. Patent No. 10,098,867 B2 (‘867) issued on October 16, 2018, for “Use of Phytocannabinoids in the Treatment of Ovarian Carcinoma.” It was issued to applicant GW Research Ltd. of Cambridge, Great...
U.S. Patent No. 10,152,892 B2 (‘892), issued on December 11, 2018, for “Autonomous Vehicle Notification System.” The inventors are Taggart Matthiesen of Kentfield, California, Jisi Guo of San...
U.S. Patent No. 10,137,161 B2 (‘161) issued on November 27, 2018, for “Medical Cannabis Lozenges and Compositions Thereof.” It was issued to applicant/inventor Jeffrey A. Kolsky of San Francisco,...
In the second copyright case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court on March 4, 2019, Rimini Street, Inc. v. Oracle USA, Inc., the high court dealt with the question of whether “full costs” is more than...
On March 4, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a pair of copyright decisions that will affect copyright owners’ ability to sue and recover in federal court. The first, Fourth Estate Public Benefit...
On February 5, 2019, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit denied a petition for writ of mandamus, with a combined petition for rehearing and/or rehearing en banc, in In re Google LLC, the...
U.S. Patent No. 10,117,891 B2 (‘891) issued on November 6, 2018, for “Cannabinoid Composition for Treating Pain.” It was issued to inventors Ramachandra Mukunda of Potomac, Maryland, and Ranga...
U.S. Patent No. 10,096,319 B1 (‘319), issued on October 9, 2018, for “Voice-Based Determination of Physical and Emotional Characteristics of Users.” The inventors are Huafeng Jin of Sammamish,...
U.S. Patent No. 10,149,453 B2 (‘453) issued on December 11, 2018, for “New Guinea Impatiens Variety SAKIMP042.” It was issued to inventors Chihiro Sato and Shinji Minemura, both of Nagano, Japan....
The Game Developers Conference will be held in San Francisco from March 18-22, 2019. To commemorate the GDC, we will highlight two gaming patents during the conference. U.S. Patent No. 10,158,948 B2...
The Game Developers Conference will be held in San Francisco from March 18-22, 2019. To commemorate the GDC, we will highlight two gaming patents during the conference. U.S. Patent No. 10,157,521 B2...
U.S. Patent No. 10,085,965 B2 (‘965) issued on October 2, 2018, for “Cannabinoid Alcoholic Drink.” It was issued to applicants/inventors Olga Skuratovich of Denver, Colorado and Filipp Mirzakhanov...
In the first split precedential decision of 2019 by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the Fed Circuit assessed the issues of invalidating public disclosure versus an inventor’s exception...
U.S. Patent No. 10,011,804 B2 (‘804) issued on July 3, 2018, for “Method of Extracting CBD, THC, and Other Compounds From Cannabis Using Controlled Cavitation.” It was issued to inventor Douglas G....
On January 23, 2018, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decided Supernus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Iancu, in which the Fed Circuit found defective the USPTO’s calculation of patent term...
Medical diagnostics patents involving a certain lab testing company named Mayo took a hit when those patents were deemed invalid under 35 U.S.C. §101. No, it’s not that Mayo case, but the one in...
Mobile World Congress opens in Barcelona, Spain, on February 25-28, 2019. To commemorate the mobile industry’s largest trade show, this blog will showcase various recently issued U.S. patents...
Mobile World Congress opens in Barcelona, Spain, on February 25-28, 2019. To commemorate the mobile industry’s largest trade show, this blog will showcase various recently issued U.S. patents...
U.S. Patent No. 10,039,740 B2 (‘740) issued on August 7, 2018, for “Therapeutic Combinations of Sesquiterpenes and Flavonoids.” It was issued to inventor Masayoshi Yamaguchi of Shizuoka, Japan. The...
U.S. Patent No. PP29,981 P2 (‘981) issued on December 11, 2018, for “Heuchera Plant Named “Orange Dream’.” It was issued to inventor/applicant Thierry Delabroye of Hantay, France. The assignee is...
U.S. Patent No. 10,123,538 B2 (‘538), issued on November 13, 2018, for “Glyphosate Salt Herbicidal Composition.” The inventors are David R. Eaton of Kirkwood, Missouri, Jeffrey A. Graham of...
U.S. Patent No. PP29,967 P2 (‘967) issued on December 11, 2018, for “Strawberry Plant Named ‘Malibu’.” It was issued to inventor/applicant John Larse of Watsonville, California. The assignee is...
Two cases decided recently by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit discuss the oft-problematic area of 35 U.S.C. §103, or the nonobviousness requirement. This is the second case, Realtime...
On January 22, 2019, the United States Supreme Court handed down a highly anticipated ruling that has caused measurable discrepancies amongst the patent community after the America Invents Act (AIA)...
Two cases decided recently by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit discuss the oft-problematic area of 35 U.S.C. §103, or the nonobviousness requirement. AC Technologies S.A. v. Amazon.com,...
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, on the last day of the court’s calendar year, December 28, 2018, ruled on In re Marco Guldenaar Holding B.V., in what is the last 2018 case discussing...
U.S. Patent No. D825,137 S (‘137) issued on August 14, 2018, for “Garment with Cannabis Leaves.” It was issued to inventor/applicant Brian K. Reaux of Red Oak, Texas. This patent is a design patent...
U.S. Patent No. D826,814 S1 (‘814) issued on August 28, 2018, for “Instrument Panel.” It was issued to inventors Franz Von Holzhausen of Malibu, California, Ivan Lumpkin of Redondo Beach,...
U.S. Patent No. PP29,976 P3 (‘976) issued on December 11, 2018, for “Phlox Plant Named ‘Verpri’.” It was issued to inventor/applicant Janus Verschoor of Haarlem, Netherlands. The assignee is A....
U.S. Patent No. PP29,723 P3 (‘723) issued on October 2, 2018, for “X Mangave Plant Named ‘Catch a Wave’.” It was issued to inventor/applicant Hans A. Hansen of Zeeland, Michigan. The assignee is...
As the new year opens, there have been some developments in legalization of cannabis use, both medicinally and recreationally. First, on the international front, South Korea legalized cannabis for...
Technology has always been a few light years ahead of the law, and when the law catches up, tech usually has moved on to the next big thing. So, because of the glacial pace in which case law does...
As we leave 2018 behind us, there were a number of high-profile states and countries which entered the adult-use cannabis marketplace. More cannabis companies, formerly illegal, find themselves now...
Source: U.S. Patent No. 10,091,202 B2, Oct. 2, 2018, to Aleksandr Kennberg & Alexander Nicolaou (inventors); Google LLC (applicant/assignee) U.S. Patent No. 10,091,202 B2 (‘202), issued on October 2,...
CES 2019 will open January 8 – 11, 2019, in Las Vegas, Nevada, bringing to the world’s eyes gadgets and technology from startups all over the globe. Wearable tech has always been one of the more...
This is the second case dealing with Novartis in which the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has handed down a decision related to patent term. While the facts of this case, Novartis AG v....
An interesting case which revolved around the interplay between differing patent terms, patent term extension under 35 U.S.C. §156, and obviousness-type double patenting was decided on December 7,...
Another patent-eligibility case has made its rounds through the appeals process, as the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in an opinion dated November 16, 2018, in Ancora Techs., Inc. v. HTC...
U.S. Patent No. D814,244 S1 (‘244) issued on April 3, 2018, for “Champagne Bucket.” It was issued to inventor Matthew Hartley of Eversham, Great Britain. The applicant/assignee is Robert Welch...
U.S. Patent No. 10,034,907 (‘907) issued on July 31, 2018, for “Flavored and Edible Cannabinoid Composition and Method of Manufacturing.” It was issued to sole inventor and applicant Gerald...
At midnight on Friday, December 21, 2018, the U.S. government entered a partial shutdown, which means all non-essential federal departments will close operations until funding has been appropriated...
U.S. Patent No. D814,343 S (‘343) issued on April 3, 2018, for “Dachshund Christmas Stocking.” It was issued to inventors/applicants Maria Lynne Ampolo of West Springfield, Massachusetts and Robert...
U.S. Patent No. D822,384 S1 (‘384) issued on July 10, 2018, for “Christmas Tree Storage Bag.” It was issued to inventor/applicant Jamie Limber of Phoenix, Arizona. This patent is a design patent...
U.S. Patent No. PP29,724 P3 (‘724) issued on October 2, 2018, for “Salvia Plant Named ‘Balmirvio’.” It was issued to inventor Troy Thorup of Chiang Mai, Thailand. The applicant/assignee is Ball...
This is the second §101 case decided by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on October 9, 2018, Roche Molecular Systs., Inc. v. Cepheid. This case is not so remarkable because it held...
In the first of two cases analyzing patent subject matter-eligibility under 35 U.S.C. §101 decided by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Data Engine Techs. LLC v. Google LLC, issued on...
U.S. Patent No. 10,028,987 (‘987) issued on July 24, 2018, for “Cannabis-Infused Milk.” It was issued to inventor Dylan Pillsbury, of Dos Rios, California. The applicant/assignee is Chocowaska...
On September 27, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in Rimini Street, Inc. v. Oracle USA, Inc., in order to resolve a split in the circuits related to prevailing copyright litigant’s...
U.S. Patent No. 10,057,241 (‘241) issued on August 21, 2018, for “Toggle Between Accounts.” It was issued to inventors Anand Subramani and François Alexander Allain, both of San Francisco,...
A recent case decided by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Natural Alternatives Int’l, Inc. v. Iancu, on October 1, 2018, highlights one of the pitfalls of patent prosecution that is...
U.S. Patent No. D814,846 S1 (‘846) issued on April 10, 2018, for “Rotisserie Turkey Deep Fryer.” It was issued to inventors James A. Hedrington of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin and Michael R. Berge of...
U.S. Patent No. 9,974,821 B2 (‘821) issued on May 22, 2018, for “Method of juicing cannabis plant matter.” It was issued to applicant/inventor Matthew Kennedy, of Westminster, California, although...
On October 11, 2018, the USPTO published in the Federal Register a rule change, 83 F.R. 51340, to take effect today, November 13, 2018. For all AIA post-grant petitions (IPRs, PGRs, and CBMs) filed...
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) seems to have bungled an obviousness analysis (again), and was dinged by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in E.I. DuPont de Nemours v. Synvina...
On October 26, 2018, the dying plaintiff in the first-of-its-kind case involving Monsanto Co.’s glyphosate product, ROUNDUP®, has accepted a judge’s punitive damages award reduction prior to the...
On September 27, 2018, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) scheduled EPIDIOLEX® as a Schedule V regulated drug under the Controlled Substance Act (CSA). In doing so, the DEA has expressly scheduled a...
An interesting question has been presented to the U.S. Supreme Court when it granted a writ of certiorari on October 26, 2018. That is, is the United States Government, through one of its agencies,...
Since today is Halloween, this blog will commemorate the occasion with a creepy patent. U.S. Patent No. 9,406,092 B2 (‘092) issued on August 2, 2016, for “Targeting items to a user of a social...
As a follow-up to our previous posting on the blockbuster glyphosate trial in which a plaintiff suffering from non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma was awarded $289 million by a San Francisco jury, the judge, on...
On September 7, 2018, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decided Worlds Inc. v. Bungie, Inc., representing another case in the growing case law of IPRs and specifically, the time-bar...
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit presented an interesting paradox in patent validity challenges, especially when the same parties bring forth essentially the same issues, but have...
On September 10, 2018, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decided Orexo AB v. Actavis Elizabeth LLC, in what turns out to be a fairly straightforward analysis of an obviousness case under...
U.S. Patent No. 9,675,579 B2 (‘579) issued on June 13, 2017, for “Tetrahydrocannabivarin for use in the treatment of nausea and vomiting.” It was issued to applicant GW Pharma Ltd., of Salisbury,...
Monsanto Co. is fighting back against the $289 million jury verdict for its glyphosate product, ROUNDUP®. On September 19, 2018, Monsanto filed two post-trial motions for relief with the Superior...
U.S. Patent No. D822,755 S (‘755) issued on July 10, 2018, for “Eyeglasses.” It was issued to inventors Evan Spiegel of Venice, California, Lauryn Morris, of Los Angeles, California, David...
On September 10, 2018, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decided Regents of the Univ. of Calif. v. Broad Inst., Inc., in the latest court battle in the CRISPR patent challenge pitting...
Another recently unsealed opinion from August 15, 2018 revealed a decision of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit involving inequitable conduct and fee award. In the opinion dated July 28,...
U.S. Patent No. 9,987,567 B1, June 5, 2018, to Ryan Delmoral Ko (inventor), and NextLeaf Solutions Ltd. (applicant/assignee) U.S. Patent No. 9,987,567 B1 issued on June 5, 2018, to inventor Ryan...
On August 27, 2018, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a rare trademark ruling, Zheng Cai, dba Tai Chi Green Tea Inc. v. Diamond Hong, Inc., dealing with the more mundane aspects of...
U.S. Patent No. 9,981,203 B2 issued on May 29, 2018, entitled “Rapid drying extraction targeting oil resin plant extracts.” It was issued to applicant and inventor Ahmed Shuja of San Francisco,...
On August 27, 2018, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit handed down Ericsson Inc. v. Intellectual Ventures I LLC, in which the rules played an important role in decisions made in the case....
In a potentially ground-breaking decision in design patent prosecution, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit handed down In re Maatita, on August 20, 2018. The facts are as follows. Ron...
Inter partes reviews (IPRs) (37 C.F.R. §42.100 et seq.) may be instituted by the USPTO, at its discretion, but there are some defined statutory requirements. On August 17, 2018, the Court of Appeals...
On August 15, 2018, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued BSG Tech LLC v. Buyseasons, Inc., which represents one additional case in the §101 jurisprudence. This particular case bears...
On August 10, 2018, a California state jury for the first time found Monsanto’s blockbuster herbicide, ROUNDUP®, was the cause of cancer, finding the weed killer caused a plaintiff’s terminal...
On July 25, 2018, the USPTO submitted for publication a Federal Official Gazette notice of public hearing 2018-16432 pursuant to the Patent Public Advisory Committee (PPAC). The notice specifies...
“Each litigant pays his own attorney’s fees, win or lose.” As such, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld the American Rule by holding that 35 U.S.C. §145 does not require losing...
This case is the latest iteration of a protracted litigation between non-practicing entity Interval Licensing and AOL. In the current case, Interval Licensing LLC v. AOL, Inc., the Court of Appeals...
Anticipation in patent law means the claimed invention lacks novelty, or is not new; in other words, the invention was already invented. Anticipation, as codified in 35 U.S.C. §102(a) (or...
U.S. Patent No. 9,981,886 B2 issued on May 29, 2018, for “Fertilizer.” It was issued to applicant Acupac Packaging, Inc., of Mahwah, New Jersey, and inventors Banak Ghalili of New York, New York,...
What constitutes prior art is not as easy as it may seem. While it may be uncontroverted that a Federal Register notice is prior art, the hyperlinked materials in that notice is what was at issue in...
U.S. Patent No. 9,943,491 B2 issued on April 17, 2018, for “Compressed tablet containing cannabidiol, method for its manufacture and use of such tablet in oral treatment of psychosis or anxiety...
U.S. Patent No. 9,962,340 B2 issued on May 8, 2018, for “Device and method for the transdermal delivery of cannabidiol.” It was issued to applicant Medipatch Inc., of San Diego, California, and...
Technology is meant to make things easier or improve conditions in society. However, sometimes technology, in the form of software, can sometimes do errant things that can create issues later. So...
In what will be a major case to shake up the art world, the nation’s only droit de suite statute has again been eviscerated as a federal appeals court has found the resale royalty right only applies...
Sovereign immunity is the right of the government to not be sued absent waiver or consent. The federal government retains sovereign immunity rights. States, through the Eleventh Amendment, also...
On June 19, 2018, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued Sirona Dental Systs. GmbH v. Institut Straumann AG. The case is important because two other recent court decisions – SAS and...
In a rare review of a Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) case, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit vacated and remanded the decision in Royal Crown Co., Inc. v. The Coca-Cola Co.,...
On July 2, 2018, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a mandate in Adidas AG v. Nike, Inc., in yet another post-SAS determination. Before a panel composed of Judges Moore, Wallach,...
U.S. Patent No. 9,938,663 B2 issued on April 10, 2018, for “Methods for Producing Raw Materials from Plant Biomass,” to applicant 9Fiber, Inc., of Silver Spring, Maryland, and inventor Adam Powars,...
In FastShip, LLC v. United States, the patented Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) was allegedly infringed. This case is interesting, in part because the defendant was the U.S. Government, and it is a...
On June 7, 2018, the Court of Appeals for Federal Circuit handed down PGS Geophysical AS v. Iancu, which has a tangential relationship to the WesternGeco LLC, of the recent WesternGeco LLC v. ION...
In a somewhat unsurprising move, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit denied an interlocutory appeal (28 U.S.C. §1292) requested by publisher defendants in Heavy, Inc. v. Goldman. The order...
On June 28, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court granted the petition for writ of certiorari in Fourth Estate Pub. Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com, LLC. The justices took up the case to resolve a split in...
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit waded into a convoluted case involving patents directed to X-Y chromosome sorting techniques for selective breeding in livestock. This case is XY, LLC v....
U.S. Patent No. 9,937,147 B2 issued on April 10, 2018, for “Edible Base Product Composition,” to applicant NBDD, Inc., and inventor Doug DeGeeter, of San Francisco, California. The claims are...
On June 15, 2018, an expanded panel of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit denied petitions for rehearing and rehearing en banc in a per curiam order. This case is Xitronix Corp. v....
On June 22, 2018, the United States Supreme Court handed down its decision in the case, WesternGeco LLC v. ION Geophysical Corp., which will change the landscape for patent damages because foreign...
On June 25, 2018, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) issued a press release in which it approved EPIDIOLEX® for treatment of epilepsy, Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, and Dravet syndrome. Lennox-Gastaut...
On June 25, 2018, the United States Supreme Court granted the petition for writ of certiorari requested by Helsinn Healthcare S.A. In the appellate case which had been winding its way through the...
U.S. Patent No. 9,901,607 B2 issued on February 27, 2018, to Mark J. Silen, directed to compositions and method of manufacture of preparing and manufacturing smokeless controlled release of...
Two recent examination guidance memoranda issued by the USPTO to assist patent examiners in examination procedures highlight the importance of two recent Fed Circuit cases: Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc....
On May 31, 2018, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued two per curiam orders denying petitions for en banc review. Berkheimer v. HP Inc., and Aatrix Software, Inc. v. Green Shades...
On May 14, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court granted PNC Bank National Assoc.’s petition for writ of certiorari and vacated the Fed Circuit’s ruling limiting the scope of a covered business method (CBM),...
On May 15, 2018, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit handed down SAP America, Inc. v. InvestPic, LLC. The patent at-issue, U.S. Patent No. 6,349,291 (‘291) was directed to systems and...
A particular copyright case, although not dealing directly with technology, has fingerprints that lead to one area of technology that shares some legal issues with animals: artificial intelligence....
The doctrine of unclean hands is a judicially-created equitable defense in which equitable relief is denied where that party has acted in a fraudulent manner or in bad faith. Gilead Scis., Inc. v....
Although the U.S. Supreme Court rendered its decision in T.C. Heartland, LLC v. Kraft Foods Group Brand LLC more than one year ago, which this blog discussed, the contours of its holding are still...
Because patent infringement is the exclusive jurisdiction of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, any procedural rules governing the cases are examined under the Federal rules. These...
U.S. Patent No. 9,894,936 B2 issued on February 20, 2018, for “Zoned Vaporizer,” to Mark Krietzman. The claims are directed to vape apparatuses, one a full system and the other a portable device....
In the second of two patent decisions handed down by the United States Supreme Court on April 24, 2018, SAS Inst. Inc. v. Iancu was the less visible of the two cases. However, SAS’s close split...
Geoblocking is the practice of digitally embedding territorial access restrictions into content distributed across the Internet. At a time when the European Union is legislating anti-geoblocking...
On April 20, 2018, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held in Voter Verified, Inc. v. Election Sys. & Software LLC, that in spite of a favorable prior judicial ruling (although not...
In a blend of jurisdictional and patent formality law, James v. J2 Cloud Services, LLC, deals with the question of whether the inventor retained ownership over a patent so he had standing to sue for...
On April 19, 2018, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit handed down Droplets, Inc. v. E\Trade Bank*, in a case dealing with the formal issue of preparing a proper claim of priority in the...
On April 17, 2018, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held in Apator Miitors ApS v. Kamstrup A/S, that in order for a patent assignee to swear behind a reference by antedating its own...
Article III of the U.S. Constitution states: The judicial power of the United States, shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain...
An interesting study in organic chemistry appeared at the Federal Circuit. On April 16, 2018, a Fed Circuit panel in Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Co., Ltd. v. Emcure Pharm. Ltd., held that plain claim...
A recently-issued decision from the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit may have implications on a pending case before the U.S. Supreme Court. That case, WesternGeco LLC v. ION Geophysical...
Normally, this blog is devoted to intellectual property issues specific to technology, much of which is case law analysis primarily in the areas of patent, trademark, and copyright laws. However, as...
This case, Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc. v. West-Ward Pharmaceuticals Int’l Ltd., arrived to the appeals court through an unusual, but not uncommon, route: a 35 U.S.C. §271(e)(4)(A) infringement...
In a case of déjà vu, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit handed down Knowles Electronics LLC v. Iancu, on April 6, 2018. This case bears striking resemblance to an earlier-issued case this...
One of the most important copyright cases was recently decided by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, addressing Google’s use of Java code owned by Oracle. On March 27, 2018, in Oracle...
On March 27, 2018, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in In re Brandt, which is just another case in a long line of cases dealing with ranges and obviousness under 35 U.S.C. §103....
U.S. Patent No. 9,889,100 B2 issued on February 13, 2018, for “Cannabidiol for Treatment of Severe and Refractory Graft-Versus-Host Disease.” The inventor is Moshe Yeshurun, and the...
On March 21, 2018, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled in a split decision in Williams v. Gaye, that the Estate of Marvin Gaye was entitled to broad copyright protection over Gaye’s 1977...
On March 23, 2018, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit handed down DSS Techs. Mgmt., Inc. v. Apple Inc., reversing two IPR decisions in Apple’s favor on a DSS-owned patent which the PTAB...
In another fairly big copyright decision by a federal court of appeals, another seeming technological innovation in the digital space was viewed as copyright infringement. The Court of Appeals for...
On March 19, 2018, the Court of Appeals for Federal Circuit handed down Dell Inc. v. Acceleron, LLC (and an erratum) In this case, the panel, composed of Judges Moore, Reyna, and Taranto, ruled that...
On March 19, 2018, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit rejected, in In re Power Integrations, Inc., a PTAB decision finding that claims were invalidated as anticipated as unreasonably...
On March 14, 2018, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled on Hologic, Inc. v. Smith & Nephew, Inc., which deals with many areas in patents, including foreign applications, priority...
U.S. Patent No. 9,895,342 B2 issued on February 20, 2018, for “Cannabinoids for Use in the Treatment of Neuropathic Pain.” It is assigned to GW Pharma Ltd., which is a fairly large pharmaceutical...
This, unfortunately, was a bad week for Steuben Foods, Inc., since this is the second case it lost at the Federal Circuit against the same adversary, Nestlé Foods. This time, in Nestle USA, Inc. v....
Steuben Foods, Inc. did not have a good week at the Federal Circuit. On March 13, 2018, two decisions were rendered against it in two patent cases, although for different rationales. The first,...
On March 12, 2018, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit delivered a ruling that will stymie Google’s efforts to shake off a pesky serial patent litigator deemed a “patent troll” by the tech...
On March 1, 2018, in a fairly convoluted and highly fractured decision, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) was not bound to collateral...
U.S. Patent No. 9,895,404 B1 issued on February 20, 2018, for “Cannabidiol Extraction Plant and Processes,” to Paul T. Baskis. Source: U.S. Patent No. 9,895,404 B1, “Cannabidiol Extraction Plant and...
U.S. Patent No. 9,888,703 was issued on February 13, 2018, for “Method for Making Coffee Products Containing Cannabis Ingredients,” to Christopher Bhairam. It is one of the latest issued patents...
U.S. Patent No. PP27,475 was issued on December 20, 2016, for “Cannabis Plant Named ‘Ecuadorian sativa’.” It is the first plant patent issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a new strain...
This is the third recent precedential case issued by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in January that disposed of patent claims as obvious. This case is noteworthy because the losing...
U.S. Patent No. D798,739 was issued for “Cannabis Storing Container with Individual Tear Off Lids,” a design patent, on October 3, 2017. It was issued to Brian K. Reaux. The invention is actually...
This is the second of a trio of recent Federal Circuit precedential cases that have dealt with the law of obviousness that we will review for this blog. Here, in Elbit Systems of America, LLC v....
On February 14, 2018, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit handed down Aatrix Software, Inc. v. Green Shades Software, Inc., which signals a possible sea change in the §101 patent-eligibility...
On February 9, 2018, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit handed down Polaris Indus., Inc. v. Arctic Cat, Inc., where a Fed Circuit panel criticized the invalidation of all 38 claims of...
On February 23, 2018, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a decision denying the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe’s various motions to terminate several inter...
On February 15, 2018, a federal judge sitting in the Southern District of New York issued an opinion that could have profound ramifications for the average Internet user. In the case, Goldman v....
On February 9, 2018, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a short order refusing jurisdiction over a Walker Process antitrust claim, and transferred the case, Xitronix Corp. v....
As of February 14, 2018, at last count, there have been six substantive opinions rendered by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit relating to 35 U.S.C. §101, creating an unusually large body...
On February 6, 2018, an interesting ruling was handed down by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. In The Medicines Co. v. Hospira, Inc., the Fed Circuit held that a distribution agreement...
On February 6, 2018, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in Actelion Pharm., Ltd. v. Matal. This case deals with the sometimes mundane aspects of filling out the proper forms required...
On January 24, 2018, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled on Arthrex, Inc. v. Smith & Nephew, Inc., holding that the patent owner’s pre-IPR-institution statutory disclaimer resulting in...
On January 17, 2018, the United States Copyright Office issued a final rule simplifying the deposit requirements for certain literary works and musical compositions. Specifically, during copyright...
On January 25, 2018, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled claims directed to improved display interface for cell phones was patent-eligible under 35 U.S.C. §101 in Core Wireless...
It is perplexing there is still a belief (even among some trademark practitioners) that it is possible to file federal trademark applications at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for...
On January 11, 2018, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled on the Advanced Video Technology, LLC v. HTC Corp., case. This case is a unique one dealing with the logistics of a patent...
On January 23, 2018, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit handed down In re Janssen Biotech, Inc., which dealt with the specific issue of the double patenting safe harbor under...
There have been a few observers, commentators, and practitioners who have been reporting that state trademarks/service marks can be freely registered through the Secretary of State’s office. This is...
Way back on August 25, 2017, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office designated Ex parte McAward as precedential authority for defining the USPTO and the PTAB’s policy on assessing indefiniteness as...
Many of us patent practitioners like to think we are somewhat immune to politics, but unfortunately that is not always the case. As the threat of a government shutdown looms later today, January 19,...
On January 16, 2018, in a non-precedential per curiam order (the order was not published, but was made available from our colleagues at the Patently-O blog), the United States Court of Appeals for...
On January 10, 2018, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit handed down Finjan, Inc. v. Blue Coat Systems, Inc. Finjan sued Blue Coat, a subsidiary of rival Symantec Corp., for patent...
On January 8, 2018, the USPTO quietly issued a notice that beginning on January 16, 2018, all reissue patent family members, as well as the original parent patent from which the reissue...
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) releases data and statistics compiled over the world of various intellectual properties each year. These include patent, trademark, industrial...
One January 8, 2018, the Court of Appeals of the Federal Circuit issued Wi-Fi One, LLC v. Broadcom Corp., in which the en banc panel held the PTAB decision to institute or not an inter partes review...
As we await a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court on the constitutionality of IPRs before the PTAB at the USPTO, I reviewed two related points relevant to the underlying discussion in Oil States...
On January 4, 2018, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions officially rescinded the so-called Cole Memo limiting federal prosecution of marijuana offenses. The Cole Memo was enacted in 2013 under...
Back in May 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in T.C. Heartland, LLC v. Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC, that patent venue selection was limited to the defendant’s state of incorporation or principal...
On December 26, 2017, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit denied a request for rehearing en banc for reconsideration made by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc., in a precedential decision....
On December 19, 2017, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) published a news release formally retiring the ROMARIN trademark search database, and replacing it with the new Madrid...
On January 1, 2018, the largest market in the U.S. is set to begin licensing and commercializing adult-use marijuana. California’s adult-use marijuana start date is highly anticipated by many in the...
On December 15, 2017, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit handed down its decision in In re Brunetti. In Brunetti, the Federal Circuit panel, consisting of Judges Moore,...
On November 27, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the Oil States Energy Services, LLC v. Greene’s Energy Group, LLC. This case is discussed in a previous blog posting, but as a...
On November 27, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the appeal from the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Oil States Energy Services v. Greene’s Energy Group. Certiorari...
On November 16, 2017, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) revised its Standard Operating Procedures 9 (SOP9) involving cases remanded for further review from the Federal Circuit. These standard...
On November 14, 2017, the USPTO issued its final rule on new fees for Fiscal Year 2017. There are some marked increases, several moderate increases, some nominal increases, a few new fees, and some...
On November 14, 2017, six years to the day after the application was first filed with the USPTO which precipitated the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Matal v. Tam[1] striking down the...
On November 7, 2017, the USPTO issued its long-awaited new rule extending the USPTO’s attorney-client privilege to registered U.S. patent agents. The final rule can be found here. This new rule has...
On August 1, 2017, the USPTO designated a Patent Trial and Appeal Board case as precedential authority. This case was decided four years ago, on October 25, 2013. That case, Athena Automation Ltd....
On July 30, 2017, the USPTO issued an Examination Guideline 2-17 on Merely Informational Matter. The Guideline is meant to assist Trademark Examining Attorney on case law relevant to trademarks and...
By Brent T. Yonehara On July 30, 2017, the USPTO released its §101 report, Patent Eligible Subject Matter: Report on Views and Recommendations From the Public. The report is a rather dry recitation...
By Brent T. Yonehara On July 27, 2017, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decided Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Merus B.V. In Regeneron, the Federal Circuit affirmed a district...
On June 26, 2017, the United States Patent and Trademark Office issued an updated Examination Guideline 01-17, consistent with the recent Matal v. Tam, 582 U.S.\\\_ (2017), ruling by the United...
By Brent T. Yonehara On June 19, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court finally, and somewhat as expected, handed down its ruling in Matal v. Tam (formerly Lee v. Tam). By a unanimous vote, the Supreme Court...
By Brent T. Yonehara On June 12, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court granted the petition for certiorari in Oil States Energy Services v. Greene’s Energy Group, LLC. Of the three issues presented by...
By Brent T. Yonehara On May 30, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Impression Products, Inc. v. Lexmark International, Inc., reversing the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on the scope of...
By Brent T. Yonehara On May 1, 2017, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals decided Helsinn Healthcare S.A. v. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc., 2016-1284, 2016-1787 (Fed. Cir. 2017), holding that the...
By Brent T. Yonehara On May 22, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down an important ruling, TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC, 581 U.S.\\\ (2017), in patent venue, and specifically...
By Brent T. Yonehara Several cases and proposed rule changes within that last few months harken changes to the professional ethics landscape for patent practitioners. Patent Agent Privilege Perhaps...
INTRODUCTION The growth of on-demand car sharing and ridesharing companies has become a phenomenon as a popular form of transportation in high-density urban areas. This is especially true...
By Brent T. Yonehara INTRODUCTION Alice Corporation v. CLS Bank International was recently decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in the closing days of its 2013-2014 term. In Alice, the Supreme Court...
INTRODUCTION A new phenomenon is turning the world of technology upside-down. It is “Big Data.” In this digital age, our everyday electronic necessities utilize an increasing amount of data. Multiply...
By Brent T. Yonehara Introduction There are myriad reasons on how corporate special interests have decimated the American political system. Jack Abramoff traded gifts for votes and tax breaks in a...
Introduction On March 10, 2015, a federal jury found singers Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams infringed the copyright of Marvin Gaye’s song “Got to Give It Up.” The jury verdict is the first...
By Brent T. Yonehara INTRODUCTION There has been a lot of commentary on Twitter, Inc.’s lack of patent portfolio. It has only increased in light of Twitter’s recent disclosure that growth potential...
By Brent T. Yonehara INTRODUCTION There has been recent controversy regarding the use of the Washington Redskins trade name. Today, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) summarily cancelled six...
By Brent T. Yonehara Undoubtedly, the right of suffrage is a fundamental matter in a free and democratic society. Especially since the right to exercise the franchise in a free and unimpaired manner...
By Brent T. Yonehara Modern art is Communistic because it is distorted and ugly, because it does not glorify our beautiful country, our cheering and smiling people, and our material progress. Modern...