By Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie
The impetus for the upcoming August 3, 2019 rule change requiring all foreign-domiciled trademark applicants and registrants to retain licensed counsel in the United States is an increase in foreign trademark applicants acting pro se and who are failing to comply with the rules of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”). Many countries …
Last week, the Federal Circuit, in Forum US v. Flow Valve[i], affirmed the lower court’s ruling invalidating a reissue patent because the broadened claims added in the reissue failed to satisfy the original patent requirement under 35 U.S.C. § 251. As a brief refresher, the original patent requirement requires that a reissue patent shall only be …
Continue reading “The Federal Circuit Clamps Down on Broadening Reissues – Or Does It?”
What exactly is an “immoral” or “scandalous” trademark, and should the government be the arbiter of making such a determination? In the second landmark trademark decision in two years, the Supreme Court invalidated the Lanham Act’s prohibition on registering “immoral” or “scandalous” trademarks. Iancu v. Brunetti, 588 U.S. ___ (2019). The Court’s decision expands the …
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Intellectual Property attorney Drew Wilson details the difficulties of ongoing IP conflicts between major brands and somewhat underground edibles manufacturers. The article was originally published in the April edition of Los Angeles Lawyer Magazine. Read the full article by clicking here.
Trademark and IP litigation attorney Michael McCue shares his thoughts on the growth and importance of IP-related legal services in Nevada with Nevada Business Magazine. Read the full article by clicking here.
On November 9, 2018, in Arista Networks, Inc. v. Cisco Systems, Inc., the Federal Circuit held that assignor estoppel does not apply in inter partes review (IPR) proceedings. In this case, a former employee of Cisco Systems, Inc. (“Cisco”), who had assigned his invention as patented (U.S. Patent No. 7,340,597 – “the ‘597 patent”) to Cisco, …
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Pohl v. MH Sub I, LLC d/b/a Officite (N.D.Fla., June 20, 2018) U.S. District Judge Mark Walker of the Northern District of Florida determined that no reasonable jury could find that a plaintiff-dentist’s before-and-after photos of his patient’s teeth are sufficiently creative or original to warrant copyright protection. On summary judgment, the court acknowledged that …
Continue reading “Are Photographs of Utilitarian Objects Copyrightable?”
On May 25, 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) took full effect across the countries of the European Union, with unknown (and highly anticipated) effects on UDRP and related proceedings. In the days leading up to May 25, 2018, many trademark owners prepared and filed UDRP complaints for most, if not all, troublesome domain …