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About this Blog

Welcome to the Snell & Wilmer intellectual property and technology litigation blog! Check here for useful news and information about patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret, and other IP and technology litigation developments.

First Amendment Free Speech Protection Is Alive and Well

By Jessica D. Kemper* and Andrew F. Halaby The First Amendment’s free speech guarantee has proved determinative in a variety of very recent Supreme Court decisions. In Matal v. Tam (see here), the Court held that the First Amendment precludes denial of registration of an allegedly offensive trademark.  In National Institute of Family and Life […]

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JK
Former Associate
AH
Former Partner

SCOTUS to Consider Copyright Registration Circuit Split

By Peter R. Montecuollo and David G. Barker The Supreme Court of the United States granted certiorari in Fourth Estate Public Benefit v. Wall-Street.com to resolve a long-standing split among the United States Circuit Courts of Appeals concerning whether copyright owners must wait to file infringement suits until the United States Copyright Office has registered […]

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PM
Former Associate

Supreme Court Opens the Door to Recovering Lost Foreign Profits in Patent Cases

By Peter R. Montecuollo and David G. Barker In a 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court of the United States has opened the door for patent owners to recover lost foreign profits under §§ 284 and 271(f)(2) of the Patent Act. Although the Court’s decision in WesternGeco LLC v. ION Geophysical Corp. represents a marked shift […]

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PM
Former Associate

Federal Circuit Considers Possible Tribal Immunity from Inter Partes Review

By Daniel S. Ivie and David G. Barker Last week, a Federal Circuit panel considered whether transferring patents to a tribal nation invoked the tribe’s sovereign immunity precluding inter partes review. The panel heard oral argument in Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe et al. v. Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc. et al., which concerns an appeal from the […]

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DI
Former Associate

Supreme Court Uproots Current PTAB Practice by Quashing Partial Decisions

By Trisha Farmer Lau and David G. Barker On April 24, 2018, in SAS Institute, Inc. v. Iancu, the Supreme Court held that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) must decide the validity of every patent claim challenged when it undertakes inter partes review under the America Invents Act (“AIA”).  In a 5-4 decision, […]

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TL
Former Associate

Supreme Court Confirms Inter Partes Review Is Constitutional

By Jacob C. Jones and David G. Barker In Oil States Energy Services, LLC v. Greene’s Energy Group, LLC, the United States Supreme Court held today, in a 7-2 decision, that the inter partes review process under the America Invents Act (AIA), 35 U.S.C. § 100 et seq. (2011), does not violate Article III or […]

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Billions Once Again on the Line After Federal Circuit’s Reversal in Oracle v. Google

By Rachael Peters Pugel and David G. Barker The Federal Circuit has reversed, for the second time, the much-followed copyright infringement case, Oracle America, Inc. v. Google LLC, which has been ongoing since 2010.  Oracle filed suit alleging Google copied and used 37 packages of Oracle’s Java application programming interface (“API”), as well as the […]

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The Supreme Court to Consider Patent Infringement Damages Accrued Abroad

By Robert A. Clarke and David G. Barker The Supreme Court has granted certiorari to consider whether damages for infringement of a U.S. patent include lost profits resulting from activities outside the U.S. In WesternGeco L.L.C., v. Ion Geophysical Corporation, the Federal Circuit affirmed a jury verdict that Ion infringed WesternGeco’s patent for a device […]

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