IP Litigator articles from May 2003

IP Litigator archives from May 2003

Trade dress: always in style?
May 1, 2003... The US Supreme Court has addressed trade dress cases four times in the last ten years. (1) Few intellectual property torts have received this level of persistent interest from the US Supreme Court. Although case law has curtailed trade dress...

Identity intercepted.(college sports video games and infringement of student athletes' right of publicity)
May 1, 2003... By the sixth week of the season, University of Southern California's quarterback Carson Palmer (#3) had thrown for 2,300 yards and the third-ranked Trojans were hosting the California Bears in a heated Pac-10 match-up. The Trojan faithful...

Standard setting and antitrust: the intersection between IP rights and the antitrust laws.(intellectual property)
May 1, 2003... IP today is often a company's most valuable asset, particularly for high-tech firms. Perhaps not surprisingly, therefore, issues at the intersection of antitrust and IP are of increasing importance. The US antitrust enforcement agencies, the...

The relevant market in IP and antitrust litigation.(intellectual property)
May 1, 2003... In general, competition benefits consumers. When firms compete with one another, each strives to offer better products at lower prices than other firms. A competitive market allows consumers to enjoy a greater selection of products of...

Protecting trade secrets from employee theft.
May 1, 2003... It is a problem many companies recognize only after it is too late--man employee with legitimate access to the intricacies of a company's software application or a company's technology-enhanced manufacturing process (for instance) abruptly...

Contracts, copyrights, and patents for protecting software.
May 1, 2003... The Federal Circuit recently addressed the effect of copyright law on shrink wrap license agreements in Bowers v. Baystate Technologies, Inc. [302 E3d 1334.] The plaintiff Bowers sued Baystate Technologies for breach of contract, patent...

Long arm jurisdiction of the English Courts in Menashe.(patent infringement)
May 1, 2003... The English Court of Appeal has handed down judgment in the Menashe case that will have profound implications for infringement and jurisdiction when any part of a system or business method is deliberately sited outside the English...

Grilling the expert - what should I ask?(in patent infringement cases)
May 1, 2003... Many lawyers practicing today are shocked to learn that the extensive expert discovery now permitted by the Federal Rules is a relatively recent phenomenon. Until the amendments of 1993, expert discovery was often limited to a carefully and...

To catch a thief: back to the basics.(trademark counterfeiting)
May 1, 2003... Not again! Nancy Johnson, IT director for Customer Corporation, experienced another set of failures of Fanciful Corporation brand toner cartridges. Ms. Johnson insisted that all toner cartridges for Fanciful printers be purchased from...

Dot your I's and cross your T's, for standing defects cannot be retroactively cured.(patent infringement claims)
May 1, 2003... To invoke the power of a federal district court to adjudicate a claim of patent infringement, a plaintiff must show that it has legal standing to assert its infringement claim. Typically, this requires that the plaintiff show it holds an...

National governments seek.com addresses.
May 1, 2003... In response to a WIPO Report calling for expansion of the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) to provide additional protection for country names, a growing number of national governments have filed UDRP cases against the...