Intellectual Property Law

Take a gander at our favorite 2019 slideshow galleries

From famous celebrity prenups to groundbreaking black lawyers to First Amendment milestones, the ABA Journal presents our favorite slideshow galleries from this year. Which gallery was your favorite? Love Hurts: 13 Famous Prenups Kicking off 2019 was a gallery for Valentine’s Day about famous celebrity prenups, which are used to…

Dec 23, 2019 9:50 AM CST

Lawyer who reacted to judge’s question with incredulity is ousted from 2nd Circuit courtroom

A New York lawyer was ordered to leave a federal appellate courtroom Wednesday, just days after he was in the news for losing his bid to cancel a restaurant’s registered trade dress because it was demeaning to goats.

Dec 12, 2019 1:34 PM CST

Afternoon Briefs: SCOTUS won’t review abortion ultrasound law; 9th Circuit edits its Taylor Swift decision

Supreme Court won’t review Kentucky abortion law requiring ultrasounds The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to hear a challenge to a Kentucky law requiring doctors to display fetal ultrasounds and describe the images to women who request abortions. Doctors who challenged the law claimed that it violated their First Amendment…

Dec 9, 2019 4:36 PM CST

Afternoon Briefs: Alex Kozinski returns as litigator; judge blocks firm’s defamation suit against ex-partner

Alex Kozinski returns to the 9th Circuit on the other side of the bench After retiring in 2017 amid allegations of sexual misconduct, former Judge Alex Kozinski is returning to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at San Francisco to argue a copyright case. Kozinski will contend that the…

Dec 6, 2019 4:20 PM CST

Afternoon Briefs: Judge who won’t perform same-sex marriages gets warning; hemp growers no longer seen as suspicious

Judge gets public warning after claiming religious exemption to performing same-sex weddings A Texas justice of the peace who refuses to perform same-sex weddings has received a public warning from the State Commission on Judicial Conduct. The judge, Dianne Hensley, has said she is entitled to a religious exemption. When…

Dec 4, 2019 3:52 PM CST

Open Access: SCOTUS will consider whether publishers can copyright annotated state codes

Carl Malamud’s latest battle, with Georgia, is set to go before the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 2. It stems from a 2013 move by the nonprofit organization that he founded, Public.Resource.Org, to purchase a set of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, scan it and put it on the web.

Nov 27, 2019 11:35 AM CST

Afternoon Briefs: Law firm settles age bias suit; SCOTUS reviews Oracle’s $9B copyright claim

Pryor Cashman settles associate’s age bias suit Pryor Cashman has settled a lawsuit by an associate who said the firm violated the Age Discrimination in Employment Act when it fired him after 18 years on the job. The associate, Alan Laufer, was 61 when he was fired. The law firm…

Nov 15, 2019 4:37 PM CST

Lawyer didn’t lie to judge about grandfather’s death but fudged the date, letter reveals

A lawyer who has filed 2,000 lawsuits for copyright infringement got little sympathy from a judge Wednesday during a court hearing to determine whether he should be jailed for failing to provide proof of his grandfather’s death.

Nov 15, 2019 2:40 PM CST

Does adding ‘.com’ to generic name create protectable trademark? Supreme Court to decide

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to decide whether a generic word can be given trademark protection when it is part of a “.com” domain name.

Nov 11, 2019 12:02 PM CST

Afternoon Briefs: Author sues Trump for defamation; court tosses bias suit by white male lawyer

Author files defamation suit against Trump for denying he raped her Author and advice columnist E. Jean Carroll has filed a lawsuit accusing President Donald Trump of defaming her when he denied raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the 1990s. The suit claims Trump’s denial was accompanied…

Nov 5, 2019 4:20 PM CST

Afternoon Briefs: Judge tosses suit against Mueller; PTAB appointment process struck down

Judge tosses suit against Mueller U.S. District Judge Ellen Huvelle of Washington, D.C., has tossed a lawsuit against former special counsel Robert Mueller by Jerome Corsi, a conservative author and conspiracy theorist. Corsi claimed Mueller tried to coerce him to testify falsely that he acted as a liaison between WikiLeaks…

Nov 1, 2019 4:35 PM CDT

Commercial landlords increasingly found liable for actions of rogue tenants who sell counterfeit goods

Counterfeits are big business, estimated at $509 billion worldwide in 2016. Increasingly since the 1990s, brands are finding a strategy in going after commercial landlords, who often have deeper pockets than the sellers.

Nov 1, 2019 2:30 AM CDT

Afternoon Briefs: Judge bans trick-or-treat warning signs; Johnny Depp settles fee dispute

Federal judge sides with sex offenders in battle over trick-or-treat warning signs A federal judge in Macon, Georgia, has granted a request by three sex offenders to stop a county sheriff from placing signs in the front of their homes warning trick-or-treaters to stay away. U.S. District Judge Marc Treadwell…

Oct 31, 2019 4:22 PM CDT

Afternoon Briefs: Andrew Yang didn’t last long in BigLaw; suit against Taylor Swift revived

Andrew Yang lasted only five months in BigLaw Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang left Davis Polk & Wardwell in 2000 after spending only five months as an associate. He had scored 178 out of 180 on the LSAT and attended Columbia Law School before joining the law firm, but he…

Oct 29, 2019 5:23 PM CDT

Small claims program for copyright violations? ABA-supported legislation passes US House

The House of Representatives approved earlier this week a measure that would establish a copyright small claims program in the U.S. Copyright Office to address some of the violations of copyright and intellectual property.

Oct 24, 2019 12:25 PM CDT