Intellectual Property Law

Breyer Uses Bike Hypo to Oppose Backpedaling on Patent Doctrine

Several U.S. Supreme Court justices appear ready to limit patent holders’ ability to demand license fees from multiple companies in a manufacturing process. Stephen G. Breyer was among the justices who appeared to favor limiting patent rights, the Associated Press reports. He suggested during oral arguments yesterday that an electronics…

Jan 17, 2008 1:09 PM CST

Corporate ‘Photonapping’ Raises Legal Issues

Corporations that are “photonapping” snapshots posted by private individuals on websites are running into legal problems, the Washington Post reports. In one case, the family of Dallas 15-year-old Alison Chang sued after a photo of her flashing a peace sign and a goofy grin became part of an ad campaign…

Jan 9, 2008 5:05 PM CST

Attorney Avatars Create Virtual Bar, Virtual Law & Virtual CLE Courses

In many ways, it looked like a standard bar association meeting. But the woman clad in an orange tutu and thigh-high black stockings offered one clue that the attorneys attending the Oct. 20, 2007 meeting in the Second Life Bar Association’s conference room were actually avatars—animated characters created to represent…

Jan 8, 2008 8:29 PM CST

Seinfelds Sued Over Cookbook Spat

The author of a children’s cookbook called The Sneaky Chef, with healthy recipes for kids using pureed vegetables, has filed a suit that contends a cookbook written by Jerry Seinfeld’s wife infringes her copyright. The plaintiff, Missy Chase Lapine, had done extensive research to find ways to camouflage fruits and…

Jan 8, 2008 7:50 PM CST

BigLaw Associate Moonlights as ER Doc

As if being a BigLaw associate wasn’t more than enough work for any ordinary attorney, one such California lawyer is moonlighting at a night job … as an emergency room physician. Okey Onyejekwe earned his M.D. degree in 2000 from Ohio State University, and began working in the emergency room…

Jan 7, 2008 10:52 PM CST

Apple Accused of Muscling Microsoft Out of Digital Music Market

In a case one blogger at Fortune notes is “rich in irony,” a San Diego lawyer has filed an antitrust suit against Apple, claiming it is illegally maintaining a monopoly because it doesn’t support Microsoft’s Windows Media Audio format. Stacie Somers, who has retained class action counsel, claims in a…

Jan 4, 2008 10:35 PM CST

Kirkland & Ellis Named ‘Litigation Department of the Year’

Kirkland & Ellis won the distinction of being American Lawyer magazine’s “Litigation Department of the Year” for its courtroom victories. What sets Kirkland apart from the pack “is the number of high-stakes, high-impact trials its lawyers have won since the start of 2006,” the magazine opines. Indeed, American Lawyer notes…

Jan 2, 2008 8:35 PM CST

Due to Copyright Law Generation Gap, Future Protection is Murky

Once upon a time, as far as relative old-timers at least in their 40s and 50s are concerned, many Americans felt that certain obvious copyright violations were not only illegal but wrong. A subsequent sea change in technology, though, has not only made the moral issue of copying much murkier,…

Dec 20, 2007 11:28 PM CST

Blogger Settles With Apple Over Think Secret Site

Nick Ciarelli hasn’t yet graduated from college, but the seasoned blogger has already reached what is being described as a favorable settlement with a global computer Goliath. The editor and publisher of ThinkSecret has agreed to shut down his Apple-focused computer gossip site, in settlement of a three-year-old lawsuit brought…

Dec 20, 2007 10:14 PM CST

eBay Owes $30M for ‘Buy It Now’ Patent Infringement

A $30 million payday is pending for a Virginia company that owns a patent on the “Buy It Now” mechanism that allows online eBay auction bidders the alternative of purchasing an item immediately at a preset price. A federal judge in Norfolk, Va., declined yesterday to overturn a previous jury…

Dec 12, 2007 10:43 PM CST

Former Judge v. ‘Sopranos’ Creator

A former prosecutor and judge is squaring off in federal court with the creator of the Sopranos television series, contending that he is entitled to compensation for coming up with the idea of the show. Jury selection was to begin today in Trenton, N.J., in the culmination of a five-year…

Dec 12, 2007 9:08 PM CST

MoFo Acts Quickly After Discovering a Conflict

An expert says Morrison & Foerster took the right steps after a client’s bankruptcy objection revealed a sale of a patent to a second law firm client. Client Novell Inc. was a creditor in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy of SCO Group Inc., the Recorder explains in its story on the…

Dec 6, 2007 11:25 AM CST

IP Exits

62% of patent examiners surveyed say they are dissatisfied with the time allotted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to achieve their production goals.

Dec 1, 2007 8:23 PM CST

Patent Pushback

The Federal Circuit gets the message, may be loosening patent protections

Dec 1, 2007 5:52 PM CST

Oregon ‘Ground Zero’ in RIAA Battle Against File-Sharing

Updated: Oregon’s attorney general is going to bat, yet again, for university students being targeted by the U.S. recording industry. In filings this week, Attorney General Hardy Myers’ office said the Recording Industry Association of America’s litigation tactics may violate his state’s data-mining laws, Bloomberg News reports. And his office…

Nov 30, 2007 8:47 PM CST