8 Ways To Avoid Inter Partes Review Estoppel

Inter partes review has become an enormously popular method of challenging patents. One important downside, however, is the potential for estoppel that could prevent a petitioner from raising invalidity defenses in parallel litigation or future litigation. The authors share eight strategies and practice pointers that IPR petitioners can implement to try to minimize possible estoppel.

Definition of "User" Unchartered Territory for 512(c) Safe Harbor

Section 512(c) of the U.S. Copyright Act creates a safe harbor for Internet service providers, limiting remedies for copyright infringement "by reason of the storage at the direction of a user" of copyrighted material. The Act's passage has been instrumental to the success of YouTube and other platforms that enable users to share content, but over time, the boundaries between service providers and users have become increasingly fluid. Two divergent circuit court decisions - Mavrix Photographs, LLC v. LiveJournal, Inc. and BWP Media USA, Inc. v. Clarity Digital Grp., LLC – highlight the evolution of the roles of service providers and users since the creation of section 512(c).

Asserting Trademarks and Available Remedies at the ITC

Trademark owners seeking non-monetary relief for infringement can turn to the U.S. International Trade Commission, which offers a variety of powerful remedies. This article discusses the process and potential remedies, with a statistical analysis of the 16 recent trademark-based Section 337 investigations, and an in-depth examination of two recent high-profile cases and the remedies achieved in those investigations.

Stopping Deceptive Trademark Solicitations

Applicants and registrants of trademarks are inundated with offers to perform potentially unnecessary services, often with false "due dates" or resembling official USPTO communications. Learn more about how trademark owners can protect themselves against these schemes.

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Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.

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