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On the Eve of Enacting The Defend Trade Secrets Act
The United States is about to enact The Defend Trade Secrets Act, an overwhelmingly bipartisan effort to provide a federal law civil claim for misappropriation of trade secrets. It is anticipated that President Obama will sign the bill, and it will b...
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Two New Right of Publicity Decisions Heighten First Amendment Tension
We go for months with nothing but the slightest right of publicity kerfuffle here and there; and then, in the space of less than two weeks, we get two major appellate decisions. Both the Eighth and Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeal recently handed down...
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What is "Actual Notice"? The Federal Circuit Weighs in for Purposes of Pre-Issuance Patent Damages Under 35 U.S.C. 154(d)
Since 1999, U.S. patent law provides for pre-issuance patent damages of a reasonable royalty measured as far back as the date of the patent publication date (of the issued patent) if: (1) the published patent claims are substantially identical to the...
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Justice Scalia and the Court's Patent Case Docket
The weekend's news about Justice Antonin Scalia's passing was a shocker. Justice Scalia always appeared so vigorous that he seemed much younger than his 79 years. His high level of legal scholarship was always on display. Justice Scalia was nothing i...
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Government Concedes that Recent Federal Circuit Ruling on Registration of "Disparaging" Trademarks Applies to "Scandalous and Immoral" Marks As Well
Here's an update to my comment on In re Tam published a couple of weeks ago.
In a letter to a clerk for the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in the pending Trademark Office appellate case In re Brunetti (CAFC No. 2015-1109), the U.S. Departme...
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Naughty or Nice, "Offensive" Trademarks Are Entitled to Registration: In re Tam
If you felt a rumble during the early hours of Tuesday, December 22, that was the earthquake touched off by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's holding that a long-debated and high profile portion of the nation's trademark law is unconstit...
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