Legal insights
Analysis from the front lines of IP & technology law.
Our attorneys write about the developments shaping intellectual property—from the PTAB and the Federal Circuit to the practical realities of protecting fast-moving technology.
Rule 502 and Inadvertent Production: Waiver, Clawback Agreements, and Why Every Case Needs a 502(d) Order
This article explains what happens when privileged material slips out in discovery and how Federal Rule of Evidence 502 decides whether the privilege survives. It traces the law from the strict-waiver era through the 2008 rule, reads the leading cases closely, and sets out the three elements of Rule 502(b) with real numbers from real productions. It explains why a Rule 502(d) order is usually the best protection available, where it still fails, and why a clawback agreement alone binds only the people who signed it. It covers the receiving lawyer's duties under Rule 26(b)(5)(B) and Model Rule 4.4(b), the unsettled splits among courts, and how technology-assisted and generative AI review fit into the reasonable-steps analysis. Two worked examples show how the rules play out.
Benefits of Federal Trademark Registration: A Practical Guide
You do not need to register a trademark to own one—but registering it federally on the Principal Register converts a modest, local, hard-to-prove right into a national legal entitlement backed by statutory presumptions and remedies. This guide explains, for business owners, litigators, and judges alike, exactly what registration buys you under the Lanham Act. It centers on the provisions that change the game: Section 22's constructive notice (15 U.S.C. § 1072), Section 7's constructive use (15 U.S.C. § 1057(c)), and the nationwide priority they create; Section 33's prima facie validity and incontestability (15 U.S.C. §§ 1115, 1065); access to federal court; recordation with U.S. Customs; and the punishing statutory and treble damages available against counterfeiters of a registered mark. It also covers the honest limits (the Dawn Donut Rule), the costs and maintenance obligations, and how the Principal Register compares with the Supplemental Register and state registration.
Customs, Tariffs, and Import Compliance: Classification, Valuation, and Country of Origin
An importer owes duties on the basis of three determinations it makes itself: what the goods are, what they are worth, and where they are from. Customs reviews those determinations after the fact and penalizes errors. This article explains the framework: the tariff schedule and the interpretive rules that govern classification, the valuation hierarchy beginning with transaction value and the additions that trip importers up, the country of origin rules and how they differ for duty, marking, and trade remedy purposes, and the reasonable care standard that makes all of it the importer's responsibility. It covers Section 301 and 232 tariffs, antidumping duties, forced labor enforcement, and the protest, ruling, prior disclosure, and penalty procedures.
Trademark Coexistence and Consent Agreement Checklist: A Practical Checklist
This checklist turns the negotiation, drafting, filing, and administration of a trademark coexistence or consent agreement into check-off tasks for both the party seeking consent and the party asked to give it. It is organized in nine phases, from the threshold assessment and rights mapping through core terms, protective covenants, long-term provisions, the USPTO consent, closing, and post-signing administration. Each item names the governing authority and adds a short practical note. Red-flag boxes highlight the problems that most often defeat agreements: naked consents, territorial promises that do not match the register, market-division terms, and accidental licenses. A deadlines table, a list of common failure points, and a short worked example close the checklist.
Post-Trial Toolkit: Rule 50 Renewals, New Trial Briefs, and Remittitur Analyses
This toolkit collects the working documents of federal post-trial practice, each introduced by its purpose, its owner, and when to use it, and each followed by drafting notes tied to the controlling rules and decisions. It starts with a post-verdict decision memo, a deadline calendar keyed to the entry of judgment, a written Rule 50(a) motion skeleton, and the preservation map that decides what a renewed motion may say. The briefing templates cover the notice of a combined Rule 50(b) and Rule 59 motion, a renewed JMOL memorandum with model standard language, a five-part module for each new trial ground, and the declarations that must be filed with the motion. The damages templates include a remittitur worksheet worked through for an $8.3 million trade secret verdict and a two-track punitive damages analysis. Later templates give the verdict winner an opposition outline, supply proposed orders with alternative paragraphs and remittitur election terms, frame the plaintiff's election, and package the Rule 59(e), Rule 60(b), bond, and notice of appeal filings. It closes with common drafting mistakes, an FAQ, and practical takeaways.
Choosing or Challenging Venue in a Patent Case: A Practical Guide
This guide takes both sides of a patent venue dispute through the decisions in the order they arrive. A patent owner learns how to map a defendant's entities and physical footprint from public sources, compare forums, stress-test the choice against a transfer motion, and plead venue with facts. An accused infringer learns what to do in the first days after service, how to audit employees, equipment, and servers, how to preserve the objection, and how to choose among Rule 12(b)(3), section 1406, and section 1404. It covers venue discovery from both perspectives, transfer evidence factor by factor, and when mandamus is realistic. Sample language, two worked scenarios, trade-offs, and a list of common mistakes are included.
Patent Post-Grant Proceedings: IPR, PGR, and Reexamination at the PTAB
Since 2012, the cheapest and fastest way to kill a United States patent has not been a district court trial. It has been an inter partes review at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, where a panel of technically trained administrative judges applies a preponderance standard, no presumption of validity attaches, and a final written decision issues within twelve months of institution. This article explains the full menu of post-grant options, inter partes review, post-grant review, ex parte reexamination, supplemental examination, and reissue, and shows how to choose among them. It covers eligibility windows, the one-year time bar of section 315(b) and how service of a complaint starts it, real-party-in-interest and privity traps, the discretionary denial doctrines built on Fintiv, General Plastic, and section 325(d), the mechanics of institution and trial, motions to amend after Aqua Products, and the estoppel that attaches under section 315(e) after California Institute of Technology v. Broadcom. It also addresses the parallel district court case: when to move for a stay, how the two proceedings interact, and what the different burdens of proof mean in practice. It closes with strategy for petitioners and patent owners, a worked example, an FAQ, and related reading.
Construction Project Toolkit: A Roadmap for Owners
An owner building a project is buying a promise about the future from parties whose interests diverge the moment anything goes wrong, and the owner's leverage is entirely front-loaded. Almost every construction dispute traces to a decision made before the first shovel: the delivery method, the completeness of the design when the price was set, the schedule provisions nobody enforced, and the lien waiver process that was never run. This toolkit follows the project in order: selecting a delivery method and understanding what each does to risk, engaging the design professional, structuring the price, the contract provisions that decide claims, insurance and bonds, running payment and change control, closing out, and resolving disputes. It is written for owners who build occasionally rather than continuously.
Producing a Film or Series: Rights, Talent, and Distribution Agreements
Producing a film or series is a rights assembly problem wrapped in a financing problem. Every element that appears on screen—the story, the script, the performances, the music, the locations, the artwork on a wall, a trademark on a coffee cup—must be licensed or cleared, and the resulting bundle must be documented well enough that a distributor's lawyer and an insurer will accept it. This guide follows the production chronologically: acquiring underlying rights and building chain of title, engaging writers and talent under guild and non-guild agreements, financing and the entity structure that supports it, the clearances that must be completed before delivery, and the distribution and sales agreements that determine whether anyone is paid. It closes with delivery, residuals, and the obligations that survive the production.
Getting Into or Staying Out of Federal Court: A Practical Guide to Jurisdiction and Removal
This guide walks plaintiffs and defendants through forum decisions in the order they arise, from choosing a court through fixing a defect after judgment. Plaintiffs get practical guidance on pleading into federal court, and on keeping a case in state court with tools that hold up after Royal Canin and Hain Celestial. Defendants get a day-by-day plan for the 30-day removal window, the consent and forum-defendant checks, and the filings that complete removal. Remand practice is covered from both sides, including what to do about snap removal, when to ask for fees, and when a post-removal amendment ends the federal case. A separate section explains what to do when a jurisdictional defect surfaces late. Worked hypotheticals, a trade-off table, sample language, and a list of common mistakes are included.
Serving Legal Documents to Chinese Defendants in IP Litigation: A Practitioner's Guide
For U.S. companies pursuing intellectual property claims against Chinese sellers, manufacturers, and counterfeiters, service of process is not a clerical formality—it is the load-bearing wall on which every downstream remedy rests. This guide is the IP-litigation companion to our general service overview, and it concentrates on the tools that make or break a cross-border IP case: the "Schedule A" counterfeiting playbook, court-ordered email service under Rule 4(f)(3), and the ex parte machinery—TROs, asset freezes under Rule 65, DTSA civil seizure under 18 U.S.C. 1836(b)(2), and anti-suit injunctions—that lets a rights holder strike before a Chinese defendant can move money or evidence offshore. We walk through the mandatory Hague Convention framework, the deep judicial split over emailing Chinese defendants, the landmark Schlunk, Water Splash, Rockefeller, and Luxottica decisions, and China's 2024 Civil Procedure Law. The throughline is a single hard question: how do you get sued papers in front of a defendant in Shenzhen, freeze the assets that matter, and build a judgment that survives challenge at home and abroad.
Settlement Negotiation Preparation Checklist: A Practical Checklist
This checklist organizes the preparation for a litigation settlement negotiation into twelve phases, from deciding when to negotiate through signing a term sheet. Each item is a concrete task, tied where possible to the governing rule, statute, or case, with short notes on how to carry it out. The phases cover case assessment, valuation inputs such as fee-shifting, interest, collectability, taxes, and liens, client interests and authority, the reservation price and target, procedural leverage such as Rule 68 offers, the choice of format and neutral, the opening and concession plan, the mediation statement, client preparation, conduct on the day, and closing. Red-flag boxes mark the problems that most often derail a deal, and a deadlines table collects the time limits that matter. A short worked example and a list of common failure points close the checklist.