"Burst Bubble." by jcgoforth is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 In the wake of the collapse of the Internet bubble circa 2000, a public outcry about patent trolls caught the attention of Congress and the federal courts. A wild mix of reforms of the patent system resulted between about 2005 and 2015. Sometimes Congress did [...]
Ford Motor Co. v. Montana Eighth Judicial Dist. Ct. 141 S.Ct. 1017 (2021) For our discussion, we will analyze how the Supreme Court expanded personal jurisdiction over out-of-state defendants. The majority held that a Court’s specific jurisdiction standard includes suits that sufficiently “relate to” a defendant’s forum contacts, even in the absence of a "causal [...]
For our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, November 13, 2017, we will discuss the following cases: Dan Farr Productions v. United States District Court, (9th Cir. October 10, 2017) (available here). In a trademark dispute over who may actually use the term "Comic Con", the Southern District of California gave a “Suppression Order” [...]
For our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, November 6, 2017, we will discuss the following cases: Savannah College of Art and Design, Inc. v. Sportswear, Inc. , (S.D. Ohio October 3, 2017) (available here). Defendant owned a website where it sold sports apparel affixed with the plaintiff’s trademark for “SCAD” and “SAVANNAH COLLEGE [...]
Please join us for our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, October 23, 2017. SoCal IP welcomes Ian Tollett of Williams Powell, an intellectual property firm in the United Kingdom. Mr. Tollett is a British and European Patent Attorney with an interest in the patenting of chemical polymers, agrochemicals and medical devices as well [...]
For our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, October 16, 2017, we will discuss the following cases: Aqua Products, Inc. v. Matal, (CAFC October 4, 2017) (available here). In a very fractured decision, the CAFC found 35 U.S.C § 316(e) requires the petitioner to prove all propositions of unpatentability, (including amended claims). Aqua sued [...]
For our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, October 2, 2017, we will discuss the following cases: Lombardo v. Dr. Seuss, (S.D.N.Y. September 15, 2017) (available here). Lombardo created a comedic play entitled “Who’s Holiday” based off of the Dr. Seuss book “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”. Lombardo sued for declaratory judgment which the court granted. The [...]
Please join us for our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, September 25, 2016. SoCal IP welcomes David Harris of Barker Brettell LLP, an intellectual property firm in the United Kingdom. Mr. Harris will lead a presentation addressing the impact of Brexit on EU and UK Intellectual Property Laws. All are invited to join [...]
For our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, September 18, 2017, we will discuss the following cases: Greg Young Publishing v Zazzle, (C.D. Cal, May 1, 2017) (available here). Zazzle is a website that allows customers to upload images and print them on merchandise. Greg Young Publishing (GYP) sued Zazzle alleging they publicly displayed GYP’s copyrighted images [...]
For our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, September 11, 2017, we will discuss the following cases: Disney Enterprises, Inc. v. Vidangel, Inc., (9th Circuit, August 24, 2017) (available here). VidAngel ran a service that would stream television and movies but removed objectionable content first. To operate their service, VidAngel purchased physical disks of the content they [...]