Latest from The IP Law Blog - Page 2

It’s not surprising to hear talk of flowers in February, but it is unusual when that discussion is in a Federal Circuit opinion.  This month the Federal Circuit decided a case involving whether the display of a flowering plant constitutes an invalidating prior public use.

Wingen LLC (“Wingen”) applied for a reissue of its utility patent for a Calibrachoa plant,

The recent Reilly v. Wozniak 9th Circuit decision upheld a 1950s ruling that requires a promise to pay to be present for an implied contract to exist. Scott Hervey and Josh Escovedo discuss this case and how the Desny decision applies to idea theft cases in California in this episode of The Briefing by the IP Law Blog.

Listen to this podcast episode here.

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (“CDA”) provides immunity to “interactive computer services” providers against certain types of legal claims, such as when harmful material is posted on their site by third parties. Until recently, the Ninth Circuit had not decided whether to extend the protections of section 230 immunity to a website domain registrar such as GoDaddy.com. On

Design patents and utility patents are two different things. Design patents protect ornamental designs, such as the shape of a perfume bottle or the design on flatware. Utility patents protect four categories of functional inventions: machines, articles of manufacture, compositions of matter, and processes (methods).

To be patentable, however, both designs and functional inventions must satisfy two requirements. First, they

In Pictometry International Corp. v. Roofr, Inc., 1-21-cv-01852 (DDE Jan. 19, 2023) (Richard G. Andrews), the court found that plaintiff’s three aerial roof measurement patents encompassed unpatentable subject matter and that claim 1 in each of those patents was directed to an abstract idea and therefore granted defendant’s motion to dismiss on those grounds.

Patentability under 35 U.S.C. § 101

It’s always good to start off the year with an overview of trademark and copyright cases to watch. This year, we have a couple of cases that we’ve previously discussed on our podcast The Briefing, when they were on appeal with the circuit courts, but now the Supreme Court will bring finality to the issues.

We’ll start with Andy Warhol