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.

Intellectual PropertyTrademark Litigation

Damages Apportionment in Trademark Cases: A Practical Guide

When a defendant infringes a trademark on one product but runs a much larger business, how much can the plaintiff actually recover? The answer lies in the doctrine of apportionment, which limits recovery to the profits and damages actually attributable to the infringement rather than the defendant's entire revenue. This guide explains, in plain language for lawyers and business owners alike, how apportionment works under Section 35 of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1117(a). It maps the unusual burden-shifting structure—where the plaintiff proves the defendant's infringement-related sales, the defendant proves its costs and the share of profit not caused by the infringing mark, and sales are treated as profit until the defendant proves otherwise. It covers the two layers of apportionment, the proximate-cause requirement, the Supreme Court's 2025 narrowing of recoverable profits to the named defendant in Dewberry, the equitable factors the Second Circuit weighs, the role of willfulness after Romag, the alternative measures of actual damages (lost profits, reasonable royalty, and corrective advertising), and when courts exclude damages testimony as speculative. It closes with a worked example and practical takeaways for both sides.

AdminAugust 17, 202640 min read

Intellectual PropertyCopyright

Copyright Registration of Books, Manuscripts, and Speeches

Books, manuscripts, and speeches are "literary works" under U.S. copyright law, and registering them with the U.S. Copyright Office unlocks the right to sue, statutory damages, attorney's fees, and a public record of ownership. This guide explains how registration works for written and spoken expression, including the all-important fixation requirement that decides whether an extemporaneous speech is protected at all. It walks through published versus unpublished status, the deposit and best-edition rules, single versus standard versus group registration (including the GRTX option for short online literary works), preregistration for at-risk manuscripts, and the special wrinkles of ghostwriting, pen names, and anonymous authorship. A running worked example follows a debut novelist from first draft to certificate. The article closes with an FAQ, key takeaways, and a reminder that an ISBN is not a copyright.

AdminAugust 17, 202654 min read

Intellectual PropertyTrademark Litigation

Filing a TTAB Notice of Opposition: A Practical Checklist

An opposition is a challenge to a pending trademark application before it registers, filed with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board within thirty days of publication in the Official Gazette. This checklist walks an opposer and its counsel through monitoring publication, securing extensions of time, confirming entitlement to a statutory cause of action, selecting and pleading the grounds, filing through ESTTA, and preparing for the institution order, the mandatory discovery conference, and the proceeding that follows. It explains the Board's narrow jurisdiction over registrability, the 15 U.S.C. Section 1063 deadline structure, and the strategic stakes of a Board proceeding after B&B Hardware. WHY notes and traps accompany each phase. Verify current TBMP guidance, 37 C.F.R. Part 2 rules, and fees before filing.

AdminAugust 15, 20267 min read

Intellectual PropertyTrademark

Trademark Overview: Infringement and Related Rights Under Trademark Law

This is Part 4 of a four-part overview of United States trademark law, covering what happens when a mark is misused and how owners enforce their rights. It explains the core test for infringement--likelihood of confusion--and the multifactor analyses the federal circuits apply, then walks through the related federal causes of action: dilution of famous marks under the TDRA, cybersquatting under the ACPA, false designation of origin and false advertising under Section 43(a), counterfeiting, gray-market imports, and contributory liability. It maps the major defenses, including descriptive and nominative fair use, the expressive-use limits the Supreme Court reset in Jack Daniel's Properties v. VIP Products (2023), and equitable defenses such as laches. It closes with the full remedial toolkit--injunctions, profits, damages, enhanced and statutory awards, attorney's fees, seizure, and customs recordation--plus a practical enforcement framework and FAQ. Read it alongside Parts 1 through 3 of the series on subject matter, substantive standards, and obtaining and licensing rights.

AdminAugust 14, 202646 min read

FinanceWorkouts

Debt Restructuring and Workout Toolkit

A troubled loan is a negotiation conducted in the shadow of remedies neither side wants to use, and the outcome is largely determined in the first thirty days by whether the lender preserved its rights before talking, whether the borrower produced credible information, and whether the collateral position is what the loan file says it is. This toolkit runs the sequence from both sides: recognizing default and preserving rights, the file audit that determines what the lender actually holds, the pre-negotiation agreement and the information package, structuring a forbearance with real milestones, the restructuring alternatives and their tax consequences, and then the remedies — Article 9 dispositions with their commercial reasonableness requirements, real property foreclosure and its anti-deficiency traps, receiverships, assignments for the benefit of creditors, and what changes when the borrower files. Written for both sides, it emphasizes the two asymmetries that govern: the lender's leverage is highest before it says anything accommodating, and the borrower's leverage is entirely in the quality of its information. It closes with the borrower's playbook and the trust fund tax exposure that is personal and non-dischargeable.

AdminAugust 10, 202615 min read

HealthcareTelehealth

Telehealth Law: Licensure, Prescribing, Reimbursement, and Privacy

Telehealth is not a distinct legal category. It is ordinary clinical practice conducted across a distance, which means every rule that governs a medical practice still applies and several of them apply differently. This article covers the questions that determine whether a telehealth business can lawfully operate: where the practitioner must be licensed and which compacts help, what establishes a valid practitioner-patient relationship and what modalities a state will accept, when a controlled substance may be prescribed without an in-person examination under the Ryan Haight Act, how Medicare and commercial reimbursement actually work after the expiration of pandemic-era flexibilities, and how the corporate practice of medicine doctrine constrains ownership and management of the clinical entity. The unifying principle is that the patient's physical location at the time of the encounter determines which state's law governs nearly every question.

AdminAugust 9, 202624 min read