General IP News

In a fascinating turn of events, Ben Crump, the prominent civil rights attorney who represented the family of Treyvon Martin and Breonna Taylor, is representing the family of Henrietta Lacks, a deceased African-American woman.  Ms. Lacks’ cells were used without her consent to develop a cell line at Johns Hopkins ... Read More

On July 15, 2021, the U.S. State Department announced that up to $10 million rewards would be provided to informants with information concerning cyberattacks sponsored by or on behalf of foreign governments.  Details of the program can be found here and here.   Notably, today, the White House has announced that ... Read More

On July 9, 2021, the Biden Administration released an “Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy” that literally will touch almost every part of the U.S. economy.  The Executive Order can be found, here.  Concerning SEPs the Executive Order states: To avoid the potential for anticompetitive extension of ... Read More

Nicole Perlroth's "This is How They Tell Me the World Ends" is a very engaging and entertaining book of around 470 pages concerning cybersecurity.  Ms. Perlroth is a New York Times reporter who covers cybersecurity issues.  This book is a whirlwind tour of why we are where we are at ... Read More

NFTs are getting a lot of press.  For sure, NFTs have made a big splash in the art world.  I had an interesting conversation with a friend today about financing young athletes through the monetization of their right of publicity since the NCAA (and states) have begun allowing collegiate athletes ... Read More

 OxFirst is 10 Years old! Celebrate with Us.  Oxfirst 6th IP And Competition Forum:Standard Essential Patents & FRAND  1 p.m. UK time – 6 p.m. UK time = 2 p.m. – 7 p.m. CET In this conference, policy makers, law makers and IP and Competition practitioners will be discussing the Future of FRAND.Ballet dancers ... Read More

Free Webinar June 11 14h00 -15h00 GMT = 15h00-16h00 CETRegister for free at: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_0IbL2HJ6QemEMIEV20UKow   What this Event is About:  The recent 1.2 billion trademark backed loan American Airlines obtained, the valuation ... Read More

 Date & Time:  23rd-25th June, 2021; 13:00 BST – 18:00 BST   https://www.oxfirst.com/6th-ip-and-competition-forum/ For the sixth time in a row, we are inviting to discuss the interplay of IP, Competition, and Public Policy. With several key questions to be addressed, such as the adequate level of licensing or the challenges presented ... Read More

Mario Gaviria and Burcu Kilic have published an interesting article titled, “A Network Analysis of Covid-19 mRNA Vaccine Patents.”  The article helpfully provides information concerning the relationship between entities, patents and licenses concerning mRNA vaccine patents.  Notably, the article identifies foundational patents from the University of Pennsylvania and the University ... Read More

There’s been a lot of commentary going around regarding the Biden Administration’s support of South Africa and India’s proposed WTO waiver of COVID-19 related IP.  I thought I’d weigh in with maybe a bit of a slightly different angle [These are my personal views and certainly do not represent other ... Read More

President Biden’s administration is making a major mistake by its top trade advisor, Katherine Tai, advocating a waiver of patent rights for Covid-19 vaccines.While all who are involved, or would like to be, should move heaven and earth to increase Covid-19 vaccine supply until everybody worldwide who wants to be ... Read More

This is an excellent idea—and with bipartisan support!  Over US $100 billion for innovation.  It would benefit from additional funding and this is the time to do it. Love the title! The press release follows.  April 21, 2021 Washington, D.C.— Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senator Todd Young (R-IN), Representative ... Read More

IPwe is attempting to create a marketplace for patents through the utilization of blockchain technology, specifically NFTs. I heard a somewhat similar idea floated about five or so years ago concerning blockchain.  It is an interesting proposal, and we will have to see how it works out.  I am excited that ... Read More

The U.S. Tax Court released an opinion concerning the dispute between the U.S. Government and Michael Jackson’s Estate concerning the valuation of his image and likeness.  Notably, the court stated that the estate valued his image and likeness at $3,078,000, and the government valued it at $161,307,045.  That’s quite a ... Read More

On April 22, 2021, the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions held hearings on “Protecting U.S. Biomedical Research:  Efforts to Prevent Undue Foreign Influence.”  The Committee heard testimony from representatives from various governmental entities, including the National Institutes of Health [NIH] and the Government Accounting Office.  In written ... Read More

Dr. Janice Denoncourt, Associate Professor at Nottingham Law School, has let us know about an exciting upcoming event titled, “IP Strategy for FinTech Start-ups and SMEs.” The details are below:On behalf of Nottingham Law School's Intellectual Property Research Group, the Board of the Intellectual Property Awareness Network (IPAN) and the ... Read More

 Key Take Away AI systems label a specific model of innovation that benefits from a wide range of contributors; be they inside or outside the firm. The role of patent law as an organizational principle of this type of ‘networked innovation’ remains yet to be adequately governed. In AI business ... Read More

The U.S. National Security Commission, chaired by Eric Schmidt, has released its final report, over 750 pages, titled, National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence.  The Report outlines how the United States may be falling behind on certain artificial intelligence research, particularly compared to China.  The opening letter from the Chair ... Read More

In news that has raced across general as well as patent specific news, a Texas jury has awarded VLSI Technology over US $2.1 billion for patent infringement (two patents)--the defendant is Intel.  Of course, this will be subject to post trial motions as well as appeals. We'll have to wait ... Read More

Tech companies and other employers note: H1-B cap registration opens March 9, 2021. Full details are available at this blog post by my partner Catherine Wadhwani, published on Fox Rothschild’s Immigration View . ... Read More

EUIPO has issued a report “China EUTM and RCD Focus” on 10 years of China trademark (TM) and registered community design (RCD) filings in the EU.  The report also details the impact of the pandemic on Chinese filings. The report makes for useful comparisons  with the recent USPTO report on ... Read More

Notwithstanding China’s civil law tradition, China’s use of anti-suit injunctions (ASI’s) in FRAND disputes  has begun to be selected for adoption into the body of “typical cases” 典型案例 that may be referred to by Chinese IP judges when encountering cases with similar fact patterns.    Last year, the SPC issued ... Read More

In December of 2020, my coauthor, Jack Hobaugh, and I published teaching materials in a casebook concerning Cybersecurity Law with West Academic Publishing [available, here].  I will likely include additional cybersecurity and privacy material as part of the content of the IP Finance blog because of the growing importance of ... Read More

The European Intellectual Property Office and the European Patent Office conducted a joint study analyzing the impact of patents, design rights and trademarks on firms.  Interestingly, the study finds that firms with patents, design rights and trademarks pay more to employees and generate more revenue per employee than those firms ... Read More

The National Security Commission Report on Artificial Intelligence has been released. Chapter 12 covers IP-related issues, focusing on China. The report calls for greater interagency coordination, more stability in patent-eligible subejct matter, and a critical view of China's SEP-contributions. ... Read More

China's Supreme People's Procuratorate has set up a specialized IP office, with several local counterpart offices. Trade secret prosecution is a focus. 23,000 cases were prosecuted in the last five years. ... Read More

Chief Judge Pallmeyer issued her tenth amended COVID General Order last week. As with the last several amended orders, there are no additional blanket case extensions. The General Order basically extends existing restrictions, including ordering that no jury trials — both civil and criminal — may begin until, at least, April 5, ... Read More

A forthcoming lecture by Mark Cohen on Weaponization of Intellectual Property Against China at UCSD. ... Read More

I always enjoy these and recommend the free GALA webinars to those interested in advertising law; I joined in progress due to some technical difficulties on my end. Joseph Lewczak: FTC v. Teami ($15 million settlement, all but $1 million suspended), where there were other bad things like fighting cancer ... Read More

In a February 17, 2021 Order, Chief Judge Pallmeyer set out a COVID testing protocol to allow for safe in-person proceedings, in particular jury trials. The order requires the following: Court employees working in the court facilities will be tested for COVID no more than twice per week using saliva tests. ... Read More