For our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, October 31, 2016, we will discuss the following: Direct Technologies, LLC v. Electronic Arts, Inc. (9th Cir. September 6, 2016) (available here). Electronic Arts is the maker of a game called The Sims. EA contracted with a company to develop a flash drive in the shape of [...]
For our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, October 24, 2016, we will discuss the following: Poly America, L.P. v. API Industries, Inc. (Fed Cir. October 14, 2016) (available here). Plaintiff brought a patent infringement action, where the district court found that the patent and prosecution history "contain clear and unequivocal statements that the [...]
For our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, October 17, 2016, we will discuss the following: McRO v. Bandai et al. (Fed Cir. Sept. 13, 2016) (available here). We previously covered this case at the district court level here. It was one of the first substantive Section 101 cases following Alice. At the district [...]
Update: The date has been changed to October 17, 2016. We will have a visiting speaker on October 10, 2016. For our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, October 17, 2016, we will discuss the following: McRO v. Bandai et al. (Fed Cir. Sept. 13, 2016) (available here). We previously covered this case at [...]
For our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, August 22, 2016, we will discuss the following: Friedman v. Live Nation Merchandise (9th Cir. August 18, 2016) (available here). Plaintiff Glen Friedman is a photographer who took pictures of the hip hop band Run-DMC during the 1980s. Live Nation is a music merchandising company and is involved in [...]
For our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, March 28, 2016, we will discuss the following cases: Halo Creative & Design Ltd. v. Comptoir Des Indes, Inc. (Fed. Cir. March 14, 2016) (available here). A Hong Kong furniture manufacturer asserted Canadian defendants infringed their intellectual property and violated Illinois consumer fraud and deceptive business practices [...]
Our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, March 16, 2015, will be a discussion of the jury verdict in the Blurred Lines copyright infringement case. On March 10, 2015, a jury held that Robin Thicke's hit song titled, "Blurred Lines" infringed Marvin Gaye's copyrights. The jury awarded $7.4 million to Gaye's estate. The jury [...]
Our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, March 2, 2015 will be a discussion of: Ava Ruha Corporation dba Mother's Market & Kitchen v. Mother's Nutritional Center, Inc., Cancellation No. 92056067 (TTAV 1/29/15 (available here). In a precedential TTAB Opinion, Ava petitioned to cancel Mother's marks "Mother's" and "Mother's Nutritional Center" “Retail grocery stores that exclusively feature foods authorized [...]
Our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, September 22, 2014 will be a discussion of recent copyright cases. Brief synopses of the cases we will discuss appear below. Princeton Payment Solutions, LLC v. ACI Worldwide, Inc. et al, No. 1:13-vc-852 (ED Va. August 15, 2014) (available here). In this computer software copyright case, the Court granted summary [...]
Our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, April 14, 2014 will be a discussion of a recent copyright and trademark case: Brief synopses appear below. Peter Mayer Publishers, Inc. v. Shilovskaya, Case No. 12 Civ. 8867 (PGG) (S.D.N. Y 3/31/14, ) (available here). The issue was whether an eBook version of a commissioned English translation of a Russian novel [...]