By Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie
“There is no blue without yellow and without orange.” — Vincent Van Gogh (June 1888). It is extremely difficult to secure trademark rights to a single color. Success stories are few and far between. Recently, General Mills, maker of Cheerios, sought trademark protection for the color yellow “as the predominant uniform background color on product …
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Last Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit revived a California man’s lawsuit accusing Spokeo, Inc. of violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”). The FCRA regulates any “consumer reporting agency” that furnishes a “consumer report,” and those terms are broadly defined to include operators such as Spokeo. The lawsuit arose when …
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The decision by Judge Gilstrap in the Eastern District of Texas, in Raytheon Company v. Cray, Inc., has generated much discussion and misleading commentary. Judge Gilstrap denied Cray’s Motion to Dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction and improper venue, as follows: The Federal Circuit resolved competing authorities on the issue of “an established place of …
“Impossible, simply impossible.” A common and candid response to the question of whether we can go a day without checking our social media. This simple response embodies the world we live in and the power that social media has over our personal lives. Social media is equally important in the corporate world. Companies ranging from …
On June 21, 2017, Sen. Christopher Coons (D-Del) introduced legislation that would limit patent validity challenges at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”), and strengthen patent owners’ rights in court. The bill is named the Support Technology & Research for Our Nation’s Growth and Economic Resilience Act, or the “STRONGER Patents Act of 2017,” …
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639 F.App’x 639 (Fed. Cir. 2016), cert. granted (June 12, 2017) (No. 16-712) Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court has granted certiorari in Oil States Energy Services LLC v. Greene’s Energy Group, LLC to examine the constitutionality of inter partes review proceedings by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”). Specifically, …
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The Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009 (“BPCIA”), codified in 42 U.S.C. § 262, ushered in a new wave of patent litigation for large molecules, and a bounty of questions regarding the application and interpretation of the statue. In Sandoz v. Amgen, –U.S.–, June 12, 2017, The Supreme Court weighed in for the …
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Under the longstanding doctrine of patent exhaustion, a patentee’s rights are “exhausted” once an authorized sale has occurred. For many years, however, some courts have recognized exceptions to the doctrine, such as when the parties agree to various post-sale restrictions in an arms-length transaction, or where the patented item was first sold outside of the …
Continue reading “Supreme Court Finds Patent Exhaustion Alive and Well”