Iowa Governor Signs into Law Comprehensive Consumer Privacy Law

By Sarah M.D. Luth

On March 28, 2023 Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signed into law Senate File 262 (SF 262). SF 262, scheduled to go into effect January 1, 2025, makes Iowa just the sixth U.S. state to pass a comprehensive state privacy law. The new law is a “global” consumer rights privacy law focused largely on general consumer […]

Stealing Home: MLB Attempts to Trademark “Boston,” “Houston,” and “Seattle”

By Nicholas J. Krob

Boston. Houston. Seattle. What comes to mind? The Boston Red Sox, Houston Astros, and Seattle Mariners? Major League Baseball sure hopes so. Last week, the MLB filed federal trademark applications for “Boston,” “Houston,” and “Seattle” with the USPTO on behalf of the aforementioned teams. Naturally, this raised some eyebrows. How can a baseball league or […]

Federal Circuit Confirms “Known-Technique” Rationale as an Indicator of a Motivation to Combine

By Joseph M. Hallman

In KSR Int’l Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 419 (2007) (“KSR”) the U.S. Supreme Court criticized rigid application of the so-called “teaching, suggestion, or motivation” test (“the TSM test”) which, prior to KSR, had often been applied by courts when determining obviousness of patent claims. Under the TSM test, “a patent claim is […]

Celebrating International Women’s Day

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As part of International Women’s Day and since this is the 50th Anniversary of the National Inventors Hall of Fame we thought it would be fitting to recognize the following women who have been inducted into this prestigious organization: Mary Anderson-Windshield Wiper; Lynn Conway-Very Large-Scale Integration (VLSI); Margaret E. Knight-Machine for Making Flat-Bottom Paper Bags; […]

Copyright Law Tips for In-House Counsel

Copyright law can be complex. Issues are usually fact specific, require significant interpretation and a case-by-case analysis. The answer to most copyright law related questions is some iteration of “it depends” but some simple education is often the best tool to avoiding issues and combating copyright myths and misinformation. 1. Copyright Law Does Not Protect […]