(Originally appeared in Los Angeles Daily Journal Dec. 30, 2015) Can the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office refuse to register trademarks that are racist, offensive, and disparaging to minorities, religious groups, and others? For over a hundred years, the well-established answer to that question has been “yes.” Under Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act and…
(Originally published in Los Angeles Daily Journal 10/23/2015) On Monday Oct. 19, 2015, the Supreme Court decided to review the standard for determining willfulness and enhancing damages in patent cases. The Court granted certiorari in a pair of cases in which enhanced damages were rejected by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit,…
(Originally published in Los Angeles Daily Journal 9/28/2015) On Sept. 18, in SCA Hygiene Products Aktiebolag SCA Personal Care Inc. v. First Quality Baby Products LLC, the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued an en banc decision, holding that the equitable defense of laches remains a permitted defense to a damage…
By Rick Neifeld, of Neifeld IP Law, and Ben Davidson, of the Davidson Law Group 1 I. INTRODUCTION In the short time since it was created by the America Invents Act, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) has become one of the busiest venues for challenging issued U.S. patents. Companies accused of infringing patents…
PDF (link opens in new window) Monday was a good day for companies facing allegations of patent infringement. The U.S. Supreme Court issued two major decisions that reverse rulings by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that had favored patent owners. In Limelight Networks Inc. v. Akamai Technologies Inc., 12-786, the…
By Rick Neifeld, of Neifeld IP Law, and Ben Davidson, of the Davidson Law Group 1 I. INTRODUCTION In the short time since it was created by the America Invents Act, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) has become one of the busiest venues for challenging issued U.S. patents. Companies accused of infringing patents…
Ben Davidson explains the Supreme Court’s rejection of the short-lived “good faith” defense to inducement infringement in Commil USA LLC v. Cisco Systems Inc. Los Angeles Daily Journal (May 27, 2015). More…
(Originally published in Los Angeles Daily Journal (May 27, 2015) On Tuesday, in Commil USA LLC v. Cisco Systems Inc., the U.S. Supreme Court held that a defendant’s good faith belief that a patent is invalid is not a defense to a claim of induced infringement. The case involves a patent holding company’s lawsuit against…
On February 27, 2015, The American Lawyer asked Ben Davidson to explain a trademark dispute between the legal blog “Above The Law” and CNN, which aired a legal segment using the same name (“Even though the blog has a sophisticated and specific consumer base, ‘not every consumer has to be confused for there to be…
E-Commerce Traffic Patent Invalid Under Alice, Judge Rules (Law360, February 12, 2015)(“Ben M. Davidson of Davidson Law Group LC, representing Crakmedia, told Law360 that the ruling represented the “promise” of the Alice decision. ‘You don’t have to suffer through summary judgment, expert discovery and trial to get out of a frivolous case,” he said. “The…
