Supreme Court Remands Toy Story “Lotso” Case to 9th Circuit By Melissa M. Mitchell Following the Supreme Court’s decision earlier this month in the Jack Daniel’s dog toy trademark dispute, the Supreme Court has remanded a case against Disney to the Ninth Circuit. Lots-o’-Huggin’ Bear (aka “Lotso”), the strawberry-scented, sadistic antagonist in Disney’s Toy Story 3, is also the alleged villain of Diece-Lisa Indus., Inc. v. Disney Store USA, […] Continue Reading →
Washington Commanders: So You’re Saying There’s a Chance? By Nicholas J. Krob “Registration of the applied-for mark is refused” are not exactly words a trademark applicant wants to hear from the USPTO. But are they as daunting as they sound? Over the past week, various news outlets have been reporting how “the Washington Commanders’ trademark has been denied by the USPTO” and asking questions such as “What’s […] Continue Reading →
Taco Tuesday Trademark Tiff Gets Spicy By Julie L. Spieker Taco Bell recently launched an ad campaign featuring LeBron James and the censored phrase Taco T***day. In a commercial, Lebron repeatedly attempts to say the phrase “Taco Tuesday,” but the “Tuesday” is consistently bleeped out. He then helpfully explains that there’s a trademark on Taco Tuesday and therefore it cannot be used in a commercial, […] Continue Reading →
USPTO Proposes New Rules that Would Create a New Design Patent Practitioner Bar By Joseph M. Hallman On May 16, 2023, the USPTO published proposed rules that provide for the creation of a new design patent practitioner bar. The proposed design patent practitioner bar would provide for a new designation of practitioner able to practice before the USPTO. This newly proposed designation allows individuals to be classified as design patent practitioners wherein […] Continue Reading →
Gilead Defeats Federal Government Lawsuit Alleging Patent Infringement for HIV Prevention Drugs By Julie L. Spieker On Tuesday, May 9, 2023, a jury found that Gilead did not infringe on three patents held by the federal government, and furthermore, that the patents at issue are invalid. The government was seeking more than $1 billion in damages related to the sale of Truvada and Descovy for an HIV prevention regimen call pre-exposure […] Continue Reading →
Federal Circuit Affirms Non-Infringement in Cannabis Extraction Patent Dispute By Brian D. Keppler, Ph.D. In a recent decision, the Federal Circuit affirmed a non-infringement ruling in a case involving Canopy Growth Corporation and GW Pharmaceuticals, two major players in the cannabis industry. At issue was Canopy’s U.S. Patent No. 10,870,632, which covers a method of extracting cannabinoids from cannabis using carbon dioxide (CO2) in liquefied form under subcritical pressure […] Continue Reading →
American Bar Association Announced Data Breach, More Than 1 Million Accounts Impacted By Sarah M.D. Luth The American Bar Association (ABA) announced on April 21 that it experienced a data breach in March 2023, resulting in the exposure of over 1.5 million member accounts. According to the ABA, an unauthorized user accessed its systems between February 28 and March 2, 2023, gaining access to member account information, including names, contact information, […] Continue Reading →
Celebrating World Intellectual Property Day 2023 By McKee, Voorhees & Sease, PLC is proud to support World Intellectual Property Day on April 26, 2023. This day celebrates the role intellectual property rights play in encouraging innovation and creativity and the many inspiring inventors and creators around the world who are working to provide for a better tomorrow. The theme for this year’s […] Continue Reading →
Court Battles in U.S. End for AI Inventorship By Kirk M. Hartung On April 24, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to accept the case to consider the question of whether artificial intelligence can be the named inventor on a patent application. Dr. Stephen Thaler, who filed two patent applications in 2019 naming his computer (whom he calls “DABUS”) as the sole inventor, had petitioned the Supreme Court […] Continue Reading →
First-Time Patent Filer? The USPTO Wants to Make You Special By Melissa M. Mitchell As part of ongoing efforts to create a more equitable and diverse patent system, last month the USPTO and its Council for Inclusive Innovation (CI2) announced the First-Time Filer Expedited Examination Pilot Program. The goal of the program is to increase accessibility to the patent system for inventors who are new to the patent process. […] Continue Reading →