Our new litigation practice group leader, Jeff Ali, and managing principal, Tom Dickson, sat down with Attorney at Law Magazine recently to talk about big changes in our litigation practice. Read the article here > Patterson Thuente IP - Law Firm of the Month...
Litigation
The case for a patent lawyer to fill Breyer’s Supreme Court vacancy
Last week, Stephen Breyer, an associate justice on the Supreme Court of the United States, decided the time had come to hang up his robes. Breyer, appointed to the bench by President Bill Clinton in 1994, announced his retirement on Jan. 26 after more than 27 years...
Ariel Howe, Nick Kuhlmann Join Litigation Practice at Patterson Thuente IP
Patterson Thuente IP is pleased to announce the additions of Ariel Howe and Nick Kuhlmann, two intellectual property litigators, to its full-service legal team. "Our clients see great value in our ability to help them gain IP protection and enforce or defend those...
Court of Appeals revives denied trademark application
Two companies with similar marks operated in the same region for more than 40 years without any actual confusion arising for consumers. Nonetheless, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) found a disqualifying likelihood of confusion when one company tried to...
Timing matters in inter partes review
Inter partes review (IPR) offers parties an expedited opportunity to challenge the validity of a patent outside of court. But, as one challenger recently learned the hard way, it’s critical that arguments against patentability be raised at the proper time. Out of the...
No harm, no foul
Fair use defense wins trademark infringement case Athletes are known for “leaving it all on the field,” or going all out in competition. A nutritional consultant firm for athletes recently took the same mindset to a trademark battle — but it didn’t emerge...
Back to the future
Federal Circuit rejects narrow approach to relation back doctrine The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the appellate court that hears all patent-related appeals, recently revived an infringement lawsuit based on the relation back doctrine. The court...
Food for thought: Court rules banana costume is copyrightable
In 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court in Star Athletica, L.L.C. v. Varsity Brands, Inc., established a two-part test for analyzing which elements of a piece of clothing are design elements protectable by copyright and which are nonprotectable functional elements. The U.S....
Third Circuit rejects copyright presumption in favor of permanent injunctions
After securing a copyright infringement verdict, it should be easier to obtain a permanent injunction against the infringing party, right? Not so in several jurisdictions. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has now made it harder for copyright holders to...
Beyond words: Federal Circuit faults PTAB’s written description analysis
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) doesn’t always get it right. This was demonstrated once again in a case where the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit found that the board had improperly failed to consider some vital factors when evaluating whether a...