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When Business Relationship Information is Not a Trade Secret: Review by the Federal Circuit

By Sarah M.D. Luth

On March 12, 2021 the Federal Circuit provided a precedential opinion affirming a Florida district court’s decision declining to seal information regarding a business relationship between two businesses where the party seeking redaction failed to prove that the information was a trade secret. Plaintiff DePuy and Defendant Veterinary Orthopedic Implants, Inc. (VOI) are competitors in […]

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Federal Circuit Judge Evan Wallach Taking Senior Status

By Gregory Lars Gunnerson

Seat 9 of the Federal Circuit is being vacated by Judge Evan Wallach, who was appointed by President Barack Obama and will take senior status. President Joe Biden will thus be tasked with nominating the seat’s next holder. The seat will be officially vacated on May 31, 2021. The last seat to open up on […]

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Right to Repair: Infringement or Exhaustion Part 3

This post is part 3 of a series of posts relating to a person’s right to repair their purchased products. Parts 1 and discussed the general background and several policy arguments surrounding both sides of this issue and the main patent laws and legal doctrine related to the right to repair. This part will discuss […]

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Congress Rescues Injunctions for Trademark Owners

By Kirk M. Hartung

On December 27, 2020, as part of stimulus package approved by Congress, the Trademark Modernization Act (TMA) was signed into law.  This law revived the presumption of irreparable harm for trademark owners against trademark infringers. Prior to 2006, trademark owners enjoyed a presumption of irreparable harm when infringement was proven.  Then the U.S. Supreme Court […]

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Has the Federal Circuit Made It Nearly Impossible to Maintain Genus Claims?

By Blog Staff

A recent denial by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) to hear an appeal by Merck’s Idenix Pharmaceuticals LLC (Idenix), leaves unanswered questions regarding the overall validity of genus claims, particularly within the biopharma field. The SCOTUS denied a petition for writ of certiorari to clarify certain Section 112 requirements with respect to […]

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USPTO Report on Intellectual Property in China: Value, Validity, and Volume

By Sarah M.D. Luth

Last January the U.S. and China signed an Economic Trade Agreement which required China to overhaul its scheme of intellectual property protection. In October of 2020 the National People’s Congress passed new amendments to the Patent Law, which will come into effect on June 1, 2021. The most significant amendments to China’s patent law relate […]

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Federal Circuit affirms introduction of evidence in IPR petitioner’s reply briefs

By Joseph M. Hallman

On November 25, 2020, in VidStream LLC v. Twitter, Inc., the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“Federal Circuit”) affirmed an appeal from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) holding evidence introduced by the petitioner in a reply brief of an inter partes review (“IPR”) proceeding, after the petition had been […]

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“Naked” at the Federal Circuit

By Julie L. Spieker

On December 4, 2020, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“Federal Circuit”) denied petitions by Naked TM, LLC for a panel rehearing and a rehearing en banc of the decision in Australian Therapeutics Supplies Pty. Ltd. v. Naked TM, LLC, 965 F.3D 1370 (Fed. Cir. 2020). The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board […]

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Roll Call: Are all Inventors Accounted for in a Foreign Filing with the EPO?

By Blog Staff

Earlier this month, the European Patent Office (“EPO”) explained why it upheld a decision revoking a patent applied for by Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard (“Broad Institute”) related to CRISPR gene editing. In particular, the decision cited a lack of novelty due to an invalid claim to priority—for inadvertently failing […]

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What IP Experts Are Saying About the 2020 Election

Many patent professionals expect the Biden administration to parrot Obama-era patent policy. Such a view however seems quite simplistic, and several experts seem to think otherwise. First, intellectual property is a relatively niche issue in politics, and most politicians pay little attention to it. Notable exceptions to this rule are Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC), Chairman […]

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