Federal Courts of Appeal Cases on Trade Dress Infringement Jason Scott Collection, Inc. v. Trendily Furniture, LLC, 68 F.4th 1203 (9th Cir. 2023). The court affirmed copyright and trade dress infringement for furniture designs. Citing Wal-Mart Stores v. Samara Bros., 529 U.S. 205, 211–12 (2000), defendant argued that the furniture was not inherently distinctive so [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Please join us on Monday, April 4, 2022 at Noon , where we will discuss discovery in the United States District Courts. The presentation will cover suggestions for discovery in federal courts. Attachments include copies of Fed. R. Civ. P. 26, 30, 33, 34 and 37, corresponding local rules from C.D. Cal., and quotations from [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]