IP & Technology Law Trends
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USPTO Switches Gears on Registration of Disparaging Marks, but Not on Scandalous Marks
On June 26, 2017, a week after the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held that the "disparagement clause" in Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1052(a), violates the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment in Matal v. Tam, the U.S. Patent and...
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The Supremes Have Spoken: The Defense of Laches Does Not Apply to Patent Infringement Suits...
...but can only collect damages for six years prior to filing suit.
In a stunning upset of years of jurisprudence (Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, prior patent act), the U.S. Supreme Court determined that laches (an equitable remedy) cannot be appl...
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The Supreme Court Hears Oral Argument in Portland Band The Slants' Trademark Case
On Wednesday, January 18, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in Lee v. Tam, a case reviewing the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's en banc decision in In re Tam holding that the disparagement provision in Section 2(a) of t...
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Free Speech and Functionality
The Founding Fathers ensconced intellectual property rights into the fabric of the original Constitution. Article I, Section 8, Clause 8, of the United States Constitution grants Congress the power "to promote the progress of science and useful arts,...
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Justice Scalia and the Court's Patent Case Docket
The weekend's news about Justice Antonin Scalia's passing was a shocker. Justice Scalia always appeared so vigorous that he seemed much younger than his 79 years. His high level of legal scholarship was always on display. Justice Scalia was nothing i...
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