Insights

Washington – January 10, 2024: Crowell & Moring has published Litigation Forecast 2024: What Corporate Counsel Need to Know for the Coming Year. The 12th-annual Litigation Forecast focuses on trends in intellectual property, regulatory and other U.S. litigation, with special coverage of supply chain recovery and international litigation.

Last week, New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit against JBS USA Food Company and JBS USA Food Company Holdings (JBS USA), which together make up the American subsidiary of the world’s largest beef product producer, JBS S.A. The suit alleges that JBS USA engaged in “greenwashing,” misleading consumers about its environmental impact goals. The suit is one amongst many state attorney general lawsuits related to greenwashing or ESG claims, which have spanned across the aisle and been initiated by both Democratic and Republican attorneys general.

Europe’s biggest online fashion retailer, Zalando, recently agreed to dramatically and rapidly overhaul its sustainability marketing in the face of pressure by the European Commission. This is yet another example of why companies need to be extremely careful when making environmental claims in their advertising. Such claims are facing increasing regulatory scrutiny and activist litigation in the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States and elsewhere around the globe.

On November 7, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced it is challenging over 100 patents as improperly listed in the Food and Drug Administration’s (“FDA”) publication titled “Approved Drug Products with Therapeutic Equivalence Evaluations,” which is commonly known as the Orange Book. The FTC sent warning letters to ten drug and medical device manufacturers identifying patents for inhalers, autoinjectors and anti-inflammatory multi-dose bottles that the FTC believes are improperly listed. In the letters, the FTC indicated it is using the FDA’s regulatory dispute process to challenge the listing of these patents in the Orange Book because improperly listing patents may violate antitrust laws and impede competition. The FTC’s actions appear to be consistent with its recent and increased scrutiny of the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries.

A 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision limiting the reach of U.S. trademark law outside of the country could lead to further litigation by trademark holders looking to push back on those boundaries, says Crowell & Moring partner Preetha Chakrabarti, a member of the firm’s Technology & Intellectual Property Department and the Advertising & Brand Protection Group.

Preetha Chakrabarti, partner, will be a co-panelist at the 2022 ANA Masters of Advertising Law Conference. In her session, "Promoting ESG Performance: Risks and Rewards," she will explore the risks companies face with marketing and advertising ESG claims. As the largest advertising, marketing, and promotion law conference in the U.S., this event brings together top in house counsel from major brands, leading practitioners from America's foremost law firms, and important regulators to discuss key legal and regulatory advertising, marketing, and privacy topics.

Crowell & Moring looks forward to welcoming you to another installment of our Fashion & Beauty Breakfast Series.

Fordham Law School's Intellectual Property Affinity Group will host this panel highlighting women in intellectual property. Counsel Preetha Chakrabarti will participate as a panelist.

Join us for this third webinar in our series aimed at exploring best practices in mergers & acquisitions involving government contractors. In this webinar, we will focus on intellectual property-related issues and risks impacting transactions involving government contractors. Topics will include:

If you’ve heard about the metaverse, avatars, and NFTs but aren’t sure why they’re relevant to lawyers, you’ll want to join us for this webinar. We’ll discuss potential privacy, data security, and intellectual property issues associated with these emerging technologies and the laws that might apply to them.

Combine the COVID-19 pandemic with the already exponential rise in e-commerce, and what do you get? Innovation? Sure. Imitation? Absolutely. With it harder than ever to touch and experience products before purchase during the pandemic, 2021 is poised to be the "Year of the Knockoff."