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Intellectual Property Law

By Sheppard Mullin

Post Frequency: 1/day

Last Entry: March 21, 2011 at 13:19:17

California Passes New Electronic Discovery Act Effective Immediately

Posted on July 01, 2009
On June 29, 2009, Governor Schwarzenegger signed into law California's Electronic Discovery Act, which is effective immediately. All discovery propounded or responded to must now comply with the new law. These rules are very similar to the recent revisions to...

Employers Should Carefully Consider Whether To Sue Former Employees For Threatened Trade Secret Misappropriation Based On Recent California Court of Appeal Decision Awarding Over $1.6 Million To Former Employees

Posted on June 19, 2009
A recent decision by a California Court of Appeal should give employers pause before they use California's trade secret laws to try to stifle competition in violation of California law. In the case of FLIR Systems, Inc. v. Parrish, the...

An Advertising Face-Off: Images and the Right of Publicity

Posted on June 19, 2009
The California Supreme Court heard oral argument on June 3 in an important 'right of publicity' case, Christoff v. Nestle USA Inc. Issues included whether the single publication rule applicable to mass communication-based torts applies to right of publicity claims;...

Does Edwards v. Arthur Anderson Bar The Use of Employee Confidentiality Agreements?

Posted on June 19, 2009
In Edwards v. Arthur Andersen, the California Supreme Court reaffirmed California's strong public policy against covenants not to compete. The primary issue in Edwards was whether the Ninth Circuit's "narrow restraint" exception was a proper interpretation of California law...

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Effective Immediately, Trademark Owners Need To Protect Their Trademarks From Registration As Usernames On Facebook

Posted on June 11, 2009
Social network Web site Facebook announced that, beginning this Saturday, June 13, at 12:01 am U.S. EDT, all Facebook users will be allowed to choose a personalized username for their Facebook profiles. This username will replace the numerical string that...

Limiting Liability in Clinical Trials: Non-Lawyers, Lawyers Beware

Posted on May 13, 2009
Clinical trials are the lifeblood of biotech. Finding the right service providers (CROs, safety, IVRS, consultants, contract manufacturers and many others), as well as the right clinical investigators and sites, results in a complex web of legal obligations and potential...

Developing a Foreign Filing Strategy

Posted on May 13, 2009
The ever-increasing reality of the global marketplace has, for many years, driven U.S. companies to seek intellectual property protection beyond the nation's borders. Unfortunately, the reality they face is that global patent protection, and even multi-jurisdiction protection, is prohibitively expensive...

Ninth Circuit Report: Raymond Edwards II v. Arthur Andersen LLP

Posted on May 13, 2009
In Raymond Edwards II vs. Arthur Andersen, the California Supreme Court has broadly interpreted the California Business and Professions Code to further prohibit employee noncompetition agreements which seek to prevent a former employee from working for a competitor, subject to...

California Court of Appeals Rejects Anti-SLAPP Motion in Trade Secrets/16600 Case

Posted on May 13, 2009
In World Financial Group, Inc. v. HBW Insurance & Financial Services, Inc. the Court of Appeal for the Second Appellate District rejected an Anti-SLAPP motion to strike in a breach of contract, theft of trade secrets, and unfair competition case....

Copyrights: First Amendment Trumps Copyright Restoration

Posted on April 16, 2009
On April 3, 2009, the District Court for Colorado entered a groundbreaking copyright decision, treading on new judicial territory by directly applying the First Amendment to invalidate a provision of the Copyright Act. The case, Golan v. Ashcroft, Civil Case...

The US Federal Trade Commission considers issues in patent damages awards

Posted on April 14, 2009
With the median damages award in the millions of dollars, a patent infringement lawsuit in the US can be a boon for a patent owner or a headache for an accused infringer. In support of such awards, patent owners often...

Second Circuit Resolves Split Between the Circuits Regarding Sale of Keywords to Trigger Sponsored Links and "Use in Commerce" Under the Lanham Act

Posted on April 10, 2009
On April 3, 2009, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals handed down its decision in the matter of Rescuecom Corp. v. Google, Inc., reversing the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York's dismissal of Rescuecom's complaint...

For Artists with Original Works, It's Buy Now or Pay Later

Posted on April 10, 2009
The pressure to cut production costs for media works is larger than ever. One expense that should not be slashed, however, is the expense of registering a copyright in the work soon after it is created — whether that work...

Gibson's Patent Action Against Activision Hits Wrong Chord With Court In "Guitar Hero" Dispute: Summary Judgment Granted

Posted on April 10, 2009
Activision licensed the Gibson trademark and trade dress in November 2006 in connection with Guitar Hero's "custom guitar controller peripheral." Activision paid a one-time fixed license fee to cover the term of the license and Gibson agreed to help promote...

The Digital Countdown

Posted on March 10, 2009
The upcoming conversion to digital television will be one of our most important historic dates. No president will be sworn into office. No one will land on the moon. Instead, television in the United States, as we know it, will...

Hot News Meets DMCA

Posted on March 06, 2009
Hot News! ... for IP lawyers. Hot news is still good law. After 90 years, a dusty 1918 Supreme Court case (International News Service v. Associated Press, 248 U.S. 215 (1918)), often overlooked and generally ignored, was resurrected from the...

Case Study: Protecting Your Brand in China

Posted on March 06, 2009
China has a bad reputation for IP protection, but the reputation might not be fully deserved. People often focus on occurrences of IP infringement in China and mistakenly conclude that there is little IP protection here. China's present IP dilemma...

UMG Records v. Veoh Networks: Central District Decides Certain Activities Fall Within A DMCA Safe Harbor

Posted on February 26, 2009
In a recent case, UMG Recordings, Inc. v. Veoh Networks, Inc., 89 U.S.P.Q.2d 1449 (C.D. Cal. 2008), the Central District decided a question of first impression—whether certain activities of a website operator fit within the section 512(c) safe harbor of...

Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down California Law Banning the Sale or Rental of "Violent Video Games" To Minors

Posted on February 25, 2009
On February 20, 2009 the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a California law banning the sale or rental of "violent video games" to minors and requiring such games to be labeled "18" (the legal age for adults). While...

Implications of Aristocrat v. IGT for Software Patents

Posted on February 17, 2009
The law governing U.S. software patents sometimes shifts like the ground here in California – a point illustrated by the recent decision of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) in Aristocrat Technologies Australia PTY Ltd. v. International...

Federal Circuit Awards Permanent Injunction to Patentee in "Close Case"

Posted on February 17, 2009
As a result of the Supreme Court's decision eBay Inc. v. MercExchange, L.L.C., a patentee no longer can expect an automatic grant of a permanent injunction after patent infringement and validity is established. Instead, the patentee must satisfy a four-factor...

Ninth Circuit Finds Genuine Issues Relating to Possible Walker Process Fraud Arising from Counsel's Omissions in Patent Application Process

Posted on February 17, 2009
The Ninth Circuit recently affirmed in part and reversed in part the entry of summary judgment for defendant Abbott Laboratories, Inc. ("Abbott") on claims brought under Section 2 of the Sherman Act. The Ninth Circuit found that genuine issues of...

Ninth Circuit Limits the Scope of In-Term Covenants Not to Compete

Posted on February 17, 2009
In Comedy Club v. Improv West Associates the Ninth Circuit held that an in-term covenant not to compete (a covenant that continues during the term of a contract or relationship) in a Trademark License agreement was overbroad, but enforced a...

Federal Circuit's Egyptian Goddess Decision Polishes Analysis Used to Determine Design Patent Infringement

Posted on January 13, 2009
Design patent owners have reason to celebrate the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals' recent decision in Egyptian Goddess, Inc. v. Swisa et al. 543 F.3d 665 (September 22, 2008). The Federal Circuit streamlined design patent infringement analysis by disposing of...

Summary of U.S. Chamber of Commerce Recommendations to the Incoming Obama Administration Regarding the USPTO

Posted on January 13, 2009
How can the Obama administration fix a patent system in crisis? The United States Chamber of Commerce has some ideas. In its December 11, 2008, report entitled "Recommendations for Consideration by the Incoming Administration Regarding the U.S. Patent and Trademark...

Brave New Web: Trademark Rights in the Expanding Internet

Posted on January 13, 2009
In June 2006, the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) approved a plan that would allow for the creation of hundreds of new domain names. The Internet as we know it currently operates using 12 generic top-level domain...

Ninth Circuit Clarifies the Scope of Immunity for Website Operators Under the Communications Decency Act of 1996

Posted on January 13, 2009
The Communications Decency Act of 1996 (codified at 47 U.S.C. § 230) provides immunity to interactive computer services, e.g., websites, against liability arising from content created by third parties. This immunity only applies if the interactive computer service provider is...

Questions Unanswered: The Application of California's New Trade Secret Jury Instructions

Posted on December 08, 2008
In December, 2007, the California Judicial Council published sample jury instructions for trade secret misappropriation claims. Some of the instructions were revised and others added in April, 2008 (the Table of Contents directs the reader down to Section 4400 of...

The Google Book Digitization Settlement: The Fair Use Question Remains

Posted on December 08, 2008
In December 2004, Google announced its plan to digitally scan the entire contents of four university libraries and one public library, with the ultimate goal of enabling Internet users to search that content online. In exchange for permission to digitize...

What To Do When Your .CN Domain Name Is Already Taken

Posted on December 08, 2008
When looking into registering domain names in Asia, companies often encounter the problem that their .cn domain names in China have already been registered by someone else. Companies who are zealous about protecting their brands should consider reclaiming their ...

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