Category North America

Litigation Exposure, Brand, Data Security Top Concerns For US Consumer Products Companies

A new private-sector survey of large companies making consumer products showed their greatest concerns are exposure to litigation, followed by protection of brand equity and privacy/data security issues.

US Supreme Court Rules Inter Partes Review Legal

United States Patent and Trademark Office inter partes reviews are legal and do not violate Article III of the Constitution or the 7th Amendment, the US Supreme Court said today. While the decision was expected, practitioners before the USPTO’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board can now rest easy, as one patent lawyer put it.

USPTO Seeking IP Attaché In New Delhi

The United States Patent and Trademark Office has attachés around the world specialised in intellectual property issues, including but not limited to enforcement. The office today announced an opening for a new attaché to be located in New Delhi, India, a key post.

Music Creators Unite To Lobby US Congress On Music Modernisation Act

WASHINGTON, DC -- What better way to get the music community's message across than sending an army of creators to meet with policymakers. In a nutshell, that's the purpose of Grammys on the Hill, an initiative from the Recording Academy, which organises the prestigious US music awards, and which has also developed a strong advocacy activity.

China’s “Theft” Of Foreign Technology Prompts Unlawful US Response, Experts Say

This time Donald Trump was correct: China has, for years, unfairly obtained and exploited American intellectual property and technology. But Trump’s response – imposing $50 billion in tariffs annually on a wide variety of Chinese imports – is problematic, experts warn. The tariffs appear to violate World Trade Organization rules, undermine the international rules-based economic order that has served the West well for decades, and threaten to ignite a trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.

US House Judiciary Committee Approves Landmark New Copyright Package Seen Likely To Advance

American songwriters and performers achieved a rare feat in a highly polarized and partisan political environment: unite policymakers from all sides of the House of Representatives, and even get on board tech companies and broadcasters to support the most significant piece of copyright legislation in the United States since the 1998's Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Springtime Moves In The IP Community

The beginning of the year saw a particularly high number of changes at law firms and in the United States government. Also the World Trade Organization named a list of new chairpersons for its committees, the World Economic Forum named the head of its new cybersecurity centre, and Swiss pharma company Roche has a new head of research and development.

Decision In US Inter Partes Review Case Coming But Outcome Seen As “Highly Uncertain”

The United States Supreme Court is likely to affirm the constitutionality of US Patent and Trademark Office inter partes reviews when it rules in the closely watched matter of Oil States Energy Services, LLC v. Greene’s Energy Group LLC, according to Michael Best & Friedrich intellectual property attorney Marshall Schmitt. The end result of the decision, however, is hard to predict, he said.

US Imprisons Chinese Scientist For Theft Of Engineered Rice Seeds

A Chinese scientist has been sentenced to jail for more than 10 years for conspiring to steal samples of a highly developed variety of genetically modified rice seeds from a Kansas biopharmaceutical research facility, the US Justice Department said in a release.