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Eliminating Judicial Exceptions: The Promise of the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act
The Patent Eligibility Restoration Act (PERA) proposes a solution to a complex debate: What can be patented, and when do nature and thoughts become property? This article provides an overview of the PERA bill, examines the current issues with Section 101 of the Patent Act, the specific proposals of PERA, and the existing pros and cons of the bill.
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Exploring Generative AI’s Impact on Intellectual Property
This article highlights some of the challenges GenAI presents, and recent developments in copyright law and trademark law in this quickly evolving space.
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Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Customers: Developments on ‘Conquesting’ from the Ninth Circuit
In a recent decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit addressed the issue of whether purchasing market competitors’ search engine keyword terms, known as “conquesting,” constitutes trademark infringement.
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Pleading Importation: ITC Decisions Highlight Need for Adequate Evidentiary Support
The International Trade Commission is empowered to block the importation into the United States of products that infringe U.S. intellectual property rights, In the past, the ITC generally instituted investigations without questioning the importation allegations in the complaint, however in several recent cases, the ITC declined to institute an investigation as to certain proposed respondents due to inadequate pleading of importation.
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Ex Parte Trademark Appeals to District Court — Lessons Learned from the Front Lines
Although pursuit of an appeal to the Federal Circuit may under some circumstances prove to be quicker and less expensive, appeals to district courts are becoming increasingly attractive given recent changes in the law and USPTO practice in defending these actions.
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Federal Circuit Decision Clarifies Obviousness-Type Double Patenting and Patent Term Adjustments In Allergan v. MSN Laboratories
On August 13, the Federal Circuit issued a precedential ruling that reversed the District of Delaware's application of the Federal Circuit precedent in In re: Cellect to invalidate a claim in an earlier-filed parent application over admittedly patentably indistinct claims in later-filed (and earlier-expired) child patents. This decision has resolved some substantial questions about the application of obviousness-type double patenting that had been raised by last year's In re Cellect decision.
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Proactive Brand Defense: Why Warren Buffett's Advice Matters More Than Ever
Warren Buffett's wisdom rings true: "It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently." In our current landscape of social media and viral content, a brand's reputation — its most valuable asset — can be severely damaged in mere seconds.
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Blockchain Domains: New Developments for Brand Owners
Blockchain domain names offer decentralized alternatives to traditional DNS-based domain names, promising enhanced security, privacy and censorship resistance. However, these benefits come with significant challenges, particularly for brand owners seeking to protect their trademarks in these new digital spaces.
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Trade Secret Protection Plans Provide Certainty to Employers
The protection of trade secrets has long been understood to be a legitimate business interest, and, traditionally, companies have used non-competition clauses to protect their trade secrets. Now, with non-competition agreements in doubt and facing greater scrutiny, companies will need to rely on other protection mechanisms.
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Early Impact of the CHIPS Act
This article describes certain key developments in the period from passage of the CHIPS Act through the present day, and provides a brief survey of key grantmaking and investment activity by U.S. government agencies since passage of the Act.
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