SoCalIP Law Institute Weekly Meeting – November 7, 2022 – Circuit Conflict over Trade Dress and Parody vs State Police Power Immunity

Please join us on Monday, November 7, 2022 at 12:00 pm, where we will discuss the following:   Sulzer Mixpac AG v. A&N Trading Co., 988 F.3d 174 (2d Cir. 2021) (decision here) - A&N petitions the Supreme Court for cert based on a final judgment and permanent injunction by the 2nd Circuit on TM [...]

SoCalIP Law Institute Weekly Meeting – August 8, 2022 – Inherency of Negative Claim terms and Trade Dress in the 5th Circuit

Please join us on Monday, August 8, 2022 at 12:00 pm, where we will discuss the following: Novartis Pharm. Corp. v. Accord Healthcare, Inc., 38 F.4th 1013 (Fed. Cir. 2022) (rehearing decision here) - Novartis prevailed in the 5th Circuit on the validity of its claims under the Written Description Requirement based on a negative [...]

USPTO Crackdown on Trademark Scammers Amazon Crackdown on Counterfeiters

Please join us 9/27/2021 at 1:00pm for a discussion: United States Patent and Trademark Office Crackdown on Scammers. For years, owners of United States Trademark Registrations have been plagued by scam letters requesting payments to renews trademark registrations. Though trademark registrations must be renewed, these letters did not come from the actual USPTO but a [...]

Prosecuting Chinese Counterfeiters: New Enforcement Strategies Learned from Fendi v. Yilang at Shanghai Higher People’s Court

The FENDI Decision is out! After 5 long years, the Shanghai High Court issued its final judgement in the case of Fendi v. Yi Lang. Defendant Yi Lang (no relative of this week's presenter, SoCal IP Partner Marina Lang) can no longer operate his "Fendi" stores in China, stocked with parallel goods.  We will discuss [...]

SoCalIP Law Institute Weekly Meeting – August 2, 2021 – The Intersection of Trade Dress and Patents

For our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, August 2, 2021 we will discuss the following: The intersection between the three types of IP protection available for products.  As set forth by the Supreme Court in the TrafFix case in 2001 (here), product configuration cannot be protected as trade dress if the product feature [...]

By |2021-08-02T09:53:12-07:00July 29th, 2021|Patent, Trade Dress, Functionality|0 Comments

SoCal IP Institute :: May 8, 2017 :: Means-Plus-Function Standard and No Summary Judgment for Trade Dress Infringement

For our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, May 8, 2017, we will discuss the following cases: Williamson v. Citrix Online, LLC (Fed. Cir., June 16, 2015) (available here).  In the original panel opinion for this case, the majority held that use of the word “module” does not invoke means-plus-function language in patent claims, such that the [...]

SoCal IP Institute :: April 18, 2016 :: Mark Fails to Prove Acquired Distinctiveness at TTAB; Google Adwords Don’t Infringe

For our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, April 18, 2016, we will discuss the following cases: Ayoub, Inc. and Ayoub Supply, LLC v. ACS Ayoub Carpet Service (TTAB March 31, 2016) (citable decision) (available here).  In an opposition proceeding, applicant could not demonstrate that "Ayoub" had acquired distinctiveness due to lack of substantially exclusive use, [...]

SoCal IP Institute :: April 11, 2016 :: Functionality of trade dress and Patent claim construction

For our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, April 11, 2016, we will discuss the following cases: Millenium Laboratories, Inc. v. Ameritox (9th Cir. April 4, 2016) (available here).  Millenium sued its competitor Ameritox for trade dress infringement, alleging that Ameritox's visual layout of its urine-test result data infringed Millenium's trade dress. At the district [...]

SoCal IP Institute :: March 28, 2016 :: Forum non conveniens in intellectual property dispute and standing to sue for infringement of Disney’s Haunted Mansion flickering candle patent

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 [...]

SoCal IP Institute :: June 1, 2015 :: Commil v. Cisco & Apple v. Samsung

Our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, June 1, 2015 will be a discussion of the following cases: COMMIL USA, LLC v. CISCO SYSTEMS, INC.   (Sup. Ct. May 26, 2015) (available here). Petitioner Commil sued Cisco Systems for direct infringement of its patent for a method of implementing short-range wireless networks.  As stated in the Supreme Court's case synopsis:  "After two trials, [...]

By |2015-05-29T12:14:37-07:00May 29th, 2015|Litigation, Patent, Trade Dress, Dilution|0 Comments
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