Insights

New York – January 27, 2022: Crowell & Moring secured a significant victory - a preliminary injunction against patent infringement through trial - on behalf of Lonza Walkersville, Inc., against Adva Biotechnology Ltd. in a case involving point-of-care cell-therapy technology.

New York – October 4, 2019: In October 2018, plaintiff Waters Corporation filed for a preliminary injunction against Crowell & Moring’s client, Agilent, for it to cease selling InstantPCTM reagent, which is used during the development of biopharmaceuticals or biologics. Oral arguments were held last December. On Friday, September 20, 2019, the District of Delaware denied Waters’ motion for a preliminary injunction. 

Washington – September 20, 2019: Super Lawyers has recognized 82 Crowell & Moring lawyers as leaders in their field in Southern California, Northern California, New York Metro, and Washington, D.C. The lawyers listed below were named in the corresponding issues of 2019 Super Lawyers Magazine, the Super Lawyers 2019 "Rising Stars" Edition, or the Super Lawyers 2019 Women’s Edition. Lawyers were identified through a peer nomination process and listed by respective practice areas for which they were selected.Los Angeles (Southern California)

Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in In Re: Forney Industries, Inc., held that a multicolored mark, when used on product packaging, can be inherently distinctive, and thus eligible for federal trademark registration. The proposed mark consisted of the use of black next to a yellow to red color spectrum as shown below on tools and accessories for welding:

The COVID-19 pandemic presents unique and unprecedented challenges to the ongoing need to protect confidential information and trade secrets. The massive business disruptions that enterprises of all kinds now face include (1) entire workforces forced to work remotely, accessing and using confidential information and trade secrets from home; (2) exigent circumstances created by the cessation or substantial slowing of commercial activity that may result in the disclosure of confidential information or trade secrets to third parties outside normal procedures; and (3) the off-boarding of remote employees who are accessing confidential information and trade secrets remotely.

On July 5, 2016, the Federal Circuit upheld claims for a method of preserving hepatocytes by freezing them, thawing and re-freezing them as more than a patent-ineligible law of nature under 35 U.S.C. § 101. Rapid Litigation Management Ltd., et al. v. CellzDirect, Inc., et al., No. 2015-1570 (Fed. Cir. Jul. 5, 2016) is the Federal Circuit’s first attempt to clarify the restrictive interpretation of the requirements of Section 101 for a life sciences patent established in the seminal case Mayo v. Prometheus, 132 S.Ct. 1289 (2012) and its progeny. It is also the first time that the Federal Circuit has rejected a Section 101 attack on a patent involving a natural phenomenon since the Supreme Court’s decision in Alice Corp. Pty. Ltd. v. CLS Bank International et al., 134 S.Ct. 2347 (2014). In CellzDirect, the Court held that the “[t]he end result of the [patent] claims is not simply an observation or detection of the ability of hepatocytes to survive multiple freeze-thaw cycles…[r]ather, the claims are directed to a new and useful method of preserving hepatocyte cells.”

The recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling in TC Heartland has resulted in a significant shift in how litigants in patent cases choose a venue. As the ruling redraws the map of patent litigation, it promises some relief for defendants and some new challenges for plaintiffs.

Learn basic principles of copyright, trademark, trade secret, and patent law, with emphasis on how micro-entrepreneurs should be advised as they develop their business ideas and confront the need to protect their own intellectual property assets and avoid infringing the intellectual property rights of others. The session will include discussion of the advantages of timely registration, practicalities of various search options, strategies for obtaining federal registration, and issues raised when the micro-entrepreneur’s business includes an online presence.

On March 31 and April 1, 2016, the Fordham Intellectual Property Law and Policy Conference will return to Fordham University School of Law in New York City.

Attend the premier event where the industry leaders from both branded and biosimilar companies convene to formulate solutions to the complex regulatory and patent challenges ahead as the first wave of biosimilars become a reality in the U.S.

There’s been an increase in the number of criminal prosecutions of trade secret theft under the Economic Espionage Act over the past several years, including the pursuit of those behind state-sponsored cyber intrusions as well as a renewed focus on insider cases involving both private sector companies and academic institutions.

In addition to reshaping how business is being done, COVID-19 has presented companies with unprecedented challenges and an increasingly remote work force, which has made it more important than ever for businesses to evaluate the security and protection of their trade secrets and confidential information. Join us for a discussion about the risks to trade secrets presented by the circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic and best practices for mitigating those risks.

Instituting and maintaining a trade secret protection policy is a challenge. If no policy is yet in place, it may be difficult to decide where to begin. For an existing policy, ensuring the policy’s efficacy and adequacy under the law is time-consuming. Regardless of your situation, the solution is to take purposeful and informed action to improve the protection of your highest priority trade secrets.