On October 24, 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit after an en banc rehearing in Sunearth, Inc. v. Sun Earth Solar Power Co., LTD., adopted the Octane Fitness standard for determining whether a case is...more
10/26/2016
/ Abuse of Discretion ,
Appeals ,
Attorney's Fees ,
Exceptional Case ,
Lanham Act ,
Octane Fitness v. ICON ,
Popular ,
Preponderance of the Evidence ,
Prevailing Party ,
Standard of Review ,
Totality of Circumstances Test ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Trademarks
Late last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit determined a court had jurisdiction to decide a trademark lawsuit filed by a U.S. grocery store against a Canadian reseller where the products at issue were only...more
8/31/2016
/ Appeals ,
Canada ,
Comity ,
Dismissals ,
Extraterritoriality Rules ,
Grocery Stores ,
International Litigation ,
Lanham Act ,
Reputational Injury ,
Reversal ,
Subject Matter Jurisdiction ,
Trade Dress ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Trademarks ,
Trader Joes ,
Unfair Competition ,
Use in Commerce
As game developers continue to face both the threat of having their games cloned and accusations that they too are cloning games, it is increasingly important for developers to understand the safeguards that intellectual...more
This week, the Ninth Circuit clarified the scope of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) in upholding the defendant’s criminal conviction in United States v. David Nosal....more
A California Court of Appeal has taken its first stance on the website design requirements necessary for an enforceable browsewrap agreement. On March 17, 2016 the Court of Appeal affirmed the California Superior Court of Los...more
Hector recently graduated from UC Berkeley and is anxious about his upcoming job interview. He is about to enter the adult world. But he has also got a bigger problem: When he was 17, he was not as wise as he is now at the...more
California’s Eraser Law: What IP Attorneys and Owners Need to Know -
Hector recently graduated from UC Berkeley and is anxious about his upcoming job interview. He is about to enter the adult world. But he has also got...more
6/23/2015
/ Abstract Ideas ,
Attorney's Fees ,
Bad Faith ,
Claim Construction ,
COPPA ,
Copyright Office ,
DMCA ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Facebook ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Induced Infringement ,
Laches ,
Minor Eraser Law ,
Misappropriation ,
Patents ,
Recruitment Incentives ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Section 101 ,
Social Media ,
Social Networks ,
Software ,
Takedown Notices ,
Trade Secrets ,
Trademarks ,
Twitter
Hector recently graduated from UC Berkeley and is anxious about his upcoming job interview. He is about to enter the adult world. But he has also got a bigger problem: When he was 17, he was not as wise as he is now at the...more
Copyrighting Player-Generated Content in Video Games -
Last year, consumers spent more than $21 billion on the video game industry. The Entertainment Software Association reports that almost 60% of Americans—roughly...more
4/6/2015
/ Claim Construction ,
Clear Error Standard ,
Copyright ,
Costco ,
Entertainment Industry ,
Film Industry ,
Hana Financial v Hana Bank ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Patents ,
Pharmaceutical Patents ,
Tacking ,
Teva Pharmaceuticals ,
Teva v Sandoz ,
The Copyright Act ,
Trade Secrets ,
Trademarks ,
Video Games
This week, the Supreme Court issued an important ruling that will significantly impact the way parties handle trademark disputes in the United States. The opinion in B&B Hardware, Inv. v. Hargis Industries, Inc., 575 U.S....more
In the first substantial trademark case in over a decade, the Supreme Court unanimously decided that a jury can apply the tacking doctrine and decide whether two trademarks, used by a single party, convey the same commercial...more
The America Invents Act (AIA) came into law back in September 2011, but it was not until last March that its provisions were completely phased in. The changes last year included not only the switch from a “first-to-invent” to...more
2/25/2014
/ America Invents Act ,
Beastie Boys ,
CLS Bank v Alice Corp ,
Copyright ,
Covered Business Method Patents ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
Fair Use ,
First-to-File ,
First-to-Invent ,
GoldieBlox ,
Inter Partes Review (IPR) Proceeding ,
Irreparable Harm ,
Paid Time Off (PTO) ,
Patents ,
Post-Grant Review ,
SCOTUS ,
STEM ,
Trade Secrets ,
Trademark Litigation
Reversing decades of precedent, on Monday the Ninth Circuit ruled that trademark owners no longer enjoy a presumption of irreparable harm when seeking a preliminary injunction. As we wrote last year, the presumption of...more