Supreme Court Revisits Standard for Awarding Attorneys’ Fees in Copyright Cases Earlier this week the Supreme Court heard oral arguments addressing the relevant standard for awarding attorneys’ fees in cases involving copyright law. The Court’s ruling, expected later this spring, will likely have a significant impact on copyright litigation cases. Section 505 of the Copyright Act provides that a district court “may”award a reasonable attorney’s fee […] Continue Reading →
Trade Secret Law Update (House Passes the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016) Are You Ready? The Defend Trade Secret Act is Coming! Today, the House of Representative passed the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) of 2016 by a vote of 410-2, as previously anticipated.The Senate already passed the DTSA on April 4th. The next step for the DTSA to become law of the land is the signature […] Continue Reading →
UPDATE: Will the U.S. Enact a Federal Trade Secret Law? The Filewrapper® series relating to all things trade secrets has previously updated the status of proposed federal trade secret legislation (available here). As previously reported there appears to be sufficient legislative support to enact legislation to establish a single, national standard for trade secret misappropriation with transparent procedural rules. The Senate has taken the next […] Continue Reading →
USPTO Issues Rule Amendments for Trials Before PTAB The United States Patent and Trademark Office issued finalized amendments to the rules for trials before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. The updated rules were issued in a Federal Register Notice on April 1, 2016, which may be found here. The rules put into final form most of the amendments proposed on August 20, […] Continue Reading →
Tracking the Mayo Effect: Study Examines Personalized Medicine Patent Applications after SCOTUS Decision The US Supreme Court decided Mayo Collaborative Servs. v. Prometheus Labs. in 2012, effectively redefining the scope of patent eligible subject matter, particularly with respect to biotechnology and personalized medicine. Subsequent decisions by the Court in Myriad and Alice have confirmed what many prognosticators had predicted: a wide-spread broadening of the judicially-created exceptions to patent […] Continue Reading →
Do I have a trade secret, confidential information or patentable subject matter? (Part 5 of Trade Secret Series) In this fifth installment of the Filewrapper® series on trade secrets we begin to dive into the differences between confidential information, a trade secret and patentable subject matter. Here is a hint—they are not mutually exclusive. Moreover, the decision to should protect an asset as a trade secret as opposed to a patent may be […] Continue Reading →
Tracking the Mayo Effect: Study Examines Personalized Medicine Patent Applications after SCOTUS Decision The US Supreme Court decided Mayo Collaborative Servs. v. Prometheus Labs. in 2012, effectively redefining the scope of patent eligible subject matter, particularly with respect to biotechnology and personalized medicine. Subsequent decisions by the Court in Myriad and Alice have confirmed what many prognosticators had predicted: a wide-spread broadening of the judicially-created exceptions to patent […] Continue Reading →