Our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, August 4, 2014 will be a discussion of a patent infringement case and a trademark opposition. Brief synopses of the cases appear below. Amdocs (Israel) Limited v. Openet Telecom, Inc., No. 2013-1212 (Fed. Cir. August 1, 2014) (available here). Amdocs sued Openet for infringing four of its [...]
Our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, July 7, 2014 will be a discussion of a Supreme Court case on copyright infringement and a California Appellate opinion on trade secrets. Brief synopses appear below. ABC v. Aereo (U.S. June 25, 2014) (available here). The Supreme Court held that Aereo's service, which provided subscribers the [...]
Our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, June 2, 2014 will be a discussion of a recent TTAB precedential case and state trade secret opinion. Brief synopses appear below. Chanel, Inc. v. Jerzy Makarczyk (TTAB May 27, 2014) (available here.). Here, Karczyk (“applicant"), filed an application pursuant to Section 1(a) of the Trademark Act to [...]
Our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, February 3, 2014 will be a discussion of the effect of damages in trademark infringement suits (15 U.S.C. §1117) – when damages are preferred over injunctions, attorney’s fees in various Circuits, attorney’s fees along with statutory damages for counterfeiters, and what a counterfeit is. Also, a brief [...]
In Herb Reed Enters., LLC v. Fla. Entm’t Mgmt., __ F.3d __. No. 12-16868, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 23938, *24 (9th Cir. Dec. 2, 2013), see the case here, the Ninth Circuit reversed the district court’s grant of a preliminary injunction against defendants’ use of the mark “The Platters” in connection with a vocal group, the panel held that [...]
Our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, October 21, 2013 will be a discussion of Singer-songwriter Pharrell Williams lawsuit for declaratory relief that his trademark "I am OTHER" company is not infringing on Will.i.am's "I AM" trademark. The complaint can be found here, and the Answer with Counterclaims can be found here. We will also [...]
Our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, September 30, 2013 will be a discussion of two recent Trade Dress cases. The first case is from the Sixth Circuit: Groeneveld Transport Efficiency, Inc. v. Lubecore International, Case Nos. 12-3545/3576 (6th Cir. Sept. 12, 2013) (available here). The key issue in this case is whether a company can [...]
Our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, September 16, 2013 will be a discussion of a recent Federal Circuit decision regarding design patents and a First Circuit decision regarding trademark infringement. Brief synopses of the cases appear below. Dorpan, S.L. V. Hotel Melia, Inc., Case No. 12-1679 (1st Cir. August 28, 2013) (available here). [...]
Our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, August 26, 2013 will be a discussion of a recent Central District of California decision regarding common law rights of publicity and a precedential case involving the patentability of "machine readable storage medium." Brief synopses of the cases appear below. Hebrew University of Jerusalem v. General Motors, [...]
Our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, August 19, 2013 will be a discussion of a recent 9th Circuit decision regarding player likenesses in games and a non-precedential case at the TTAB involving the Morehouse defense. Brief synopses of the cases appear below. Seltzer v. Green Day, Inc., Case No. 11-56573 (9th Cir. August [...]