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Aesthetic Appeal of a Patent’s Claimed Design Is Inadequate to Render It Functional

By R. David Donoghue on Posted in Uncategorized
My partners Steve Jedlinski and Anthony Fuga recently wrote a valuable article about a new Federal Circuit decision dealing with functionality and exhaustion issues for design patents. It is republished below with permission. In a relatively rare opinion regarding design patents, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit weighed in recently on the … Continue Reading

No Irreparable Harm Where Plaintiff Delays Seeking Injunction

By R. David Donoghue on Posted in Uncategorized
Real-Time Reporters, P.C. v. Sonntag Reporting Servs., Ltd., No. 13 C 5348, Slip Op. (N.D. Ill. Der-Yeghiayan, J.). Judge Der-Yeghiayan denied plaintiff Real-Time Reporters’ (“RTR”) preliminary injunction motion in this Lanham Act matter involving RTR’s REAL-TIME REPORTERS trademark.  Defendant Sontag Reporting Services (“SRS”) use of the name “Chicago-area Realtime Reporters” alleged infringed RTR’s REAL-TIME REPORTERS … Continue Reading

Benefits of Parallel District Court Litigation and Patent Office Review

By R. David Donoghue on Posted in Uncategorized
I wrote this article for IP Law360.  I am cross-posting it here with permission — thank you Law360 — because inter partes review (“IPR”) is increasingly a valuable strategy for patent defendants in Chicago, as it is for defendnats across the country. Inter partes review has become a popular, powerful tool for patent defendants. In many … Continue Reading

7th Cir. Judicial Conference: Northern District Judges Offer Practice Tips

By R. David Donoghue on Posted in Legal Seminars, Uncategorized
With a hat tip to the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin’s coverage of the 7th Circuit Judicial Conference, Northern District Judges Durkin, St. Eve, and Tharp offered several valuable practice tips for litigating before federal courts, that apply as well for IP litigators as for any litigator. Judge Durkin: Reduce litigation costs.  For example, there is … Continue Reading

Court Sua Sponte Orders Production of Evidence and a Hearing on a Copyright Issue

By R. David Donoghue on Posted in Local Rules, Uncategorized
Flava Works, Inc. v. Momient, No. 11 C 6306, Slip Op. (N.D. Ill. Apr. 1, 2013) (Shadur, Sen. J.). Judge Shadur, after reading plaintiff FlavaWorks’ answer to defendant’s copyright counterclaims, sua sponte ordered FlavaWorks to produce a copy of the Commission Work Agreement that FlavaWorks alleged assigned all rights in the videos and photographs at … Continue Reading

CLE: Loyola University Program on Patents, Innovation & Freedom to Use Ideas

By R. David Donoghue on Posted in Legal Seminars, Uncategorized
On Thursday, April 11 at Loyola University Law School, the Loyola University Chicago Law Journal is putting on a program called:  Patents, Innovation & Freedom to Use Ideas.  Click here for the program brochure.  The program has an interesting mix of theoretical and practical discussions.  Among the more interesting topics are: Chief Judge Holderman discussing … Continue Reading

Is There a Fox in the Henhouse: Inhouse Counsel and Protective Orders

By R. David Donoghue on Posted in Uncategorized
Autotech Techs. Ltd. Partnership v. Automationdirect.com, Inc. 237 F.RD. 405 (N.D. Ill. 2006). (Cole, Mag. J.). In this impressively detailed opinion, Magistrate Judge Cole grants defendant’s motion for a protective order limiting plaintiff’s in-house counsel’s access to sensitive customer information and communications.  The parties faced a common problem, they had agreed that customer information, including … Continue Reading

Reconstruing Claims

By R. David Donoghue on Posted in Uncategorized
Cummins-Allison Corp. v. Glory Ltd., __ F.Supp.2d __, 2006 WL 2931999 (N.D. Ill. Oct. 13, 2006) (Kendall, J.). Judge Kendall performed a very thorough claim construction in this opinion, but what is most interesting about it is the procedural history.  The Court (with another judge presiding) initially construed the claims at issue in March 2005, … Continue Reading

The Lanham Act is Going to the Dogs

By R. David Donoghue on Posted in Uncategorized
Gail Green Licensing & Design Ltd. v. Accord, Inc., No. 05 C 5303, 2006 WL 2873202 (N.D. Ill. Oct. 5, 2006) (St. Eve, J.). Judge St. Eve dismissed plaintiffs’s Lanham Act false advertising claim, but refused to dismiss plaintiffs’s breach of contract claim, among others.  Both claims are based upon defendants’s receipt of plaintiffs’s copyrighted … Continue Reading
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