Our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, November 10, 2014 will be a discussion of two older cases. The first is a patent case regarding standing and the second is a TTAB case on registering descriptive trademarks.

Autodesk, Inc. v. Lee, (E.D. Va. Oct. 30, 2014) (available here).  Here, Autodesk appealed the Trademark Office’s decision denying registration of Autodesk’s “DWG” trademark. The district court affirmed the Trademark Office’s decision finding that Autodesk’s mark had not acquired distinctiveness.

Azure Networks and Tri-County Excelsior v. CSR, et. al, (Fed. Cir. November 6, 2014) (available here). Plaintiff Azure Networks and Tri-County Excelsior sued numerous defendants for infringing plaintiff’s patent. The district court granted defendants motion to dismiss Tri-County holding that Tri-County lacked standing. On appeal, the Federal Circuit affirmed the dismissal of Tri-County.

All are invited to join us in our discussion during the SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, November 10, 2014 at Noon in our Westlake Village office. This activity is approved for 1 hour of MCLE credit. If you will be joining us, please RSVP to Noelle Smith by 9 am Monday morning.