Intellectual Property News and Reports

After negotiations for a patent licensing agreement soured, the plaintiffs sued the defendants and alleged that they had breached their contractual obligation to offer a license on fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory terms. The jury found in the defendants’ favor, and... Read more →

Purchasers of brand diabetes drug ACTOS brought suit against the manufacturer (“Takeda”) for improperly describing its patents to the Food and Drug Administration, in effect extending the duration of its patent protection over ACTOS and delaying generic competition. The district... Read more →

This trade secret case arises from a short‐lived business relationship between two companies that sell spinal implant devices. Life Spine, Inc. makes and sells a spinal implant device called the ProLift Expandable Spacer System. Aegis Spine, Inc. contracted with Life... Read more →

Held: Assignor estoppel is well grounded in centuries-old fairness principles, and the Federal Circuit was right to uphold it. But assignor estoppel applies only when the assignor’s claim of invalidity contradicts explicit or implicit representations he made in assigning the... Read more →

Held: The judgment is vacated, and the case is remanded. 941 F. 3d 1320, vacated and remanded. THE CHIEF JUSTICE delivered the opinion of the Court with respect to Parts I and II, concluding that the unreviewable authority wielded by... Read more →

Google’s copying of the Java SE API, which included only those lines of code that were needed to allow programmers to put their accrued talents to work in a new and transformative program, was a fair use of that material... Read more →

This appeal involves a patented drug called AndroGel. A blockbuster testosterone replacement therapy that generated billions of dollars in sales, AndroGel caught the attention of the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC sued the owners of an AndroGel patent—AbbVie, Inc., Abbott... Read more →

This is a tale of more than just desserts. Decades ago, Ezaki Glico invented Pocky, a chocolate-covered cookie stick. Pocky was very popular. And its success drew imitators, including Lotte’s Pepero. Ezaki Glico now sues Lotte for trade-dress infringement. The... Read more →

This appeal involves a patented drug called AndroGel. A blockbuster testosterone replacement therapy that generated billions of dollars in sales, AndroGel caught the attention of the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC sued the owners of an AndroGel patent—AbbVie, Inc., Abbott... Read more →

Inter partes review is an administrative process that permits a patent challenger to ask the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office to reconsider the validity of earlier granted patent claims. For inter partes review to proceed, the agency must agree... Read more →