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  Highlights of Design Day 2018 By Robert S. Katz and Bradley J. Van Pelt Several Banner & Witcoff attorneys and staff spoke at and/or attended Design Day 2018 at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Design Day brings together design patent examiners, other USPTO representatives, design patent applicants, in-house and outside counsel, and others.…

  Monkey See, Monkey Do: Ninth Circuit Declines to Go Bananas over “Monkey Selfie” Copyrights By Richard S. Stockton Ten years ago, a professional wildlife photographer’s camera captured some “selfies” of Naruto, a crested macaque living deep in the rain forests of the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. After the photographer published the photos, People for…

Banner & Witcoff was named in the 2018 edition of Chambers and Partners as a top intellectual property law firm. The firm received a top ranking for patent prosecution in the District of Columbia and a top ranking for intellectual property law in Illinois. Marc S. Cooperman, Timothy C. Meece and Joseph M. Potenza also received…

  Is Functional Similarity Between Compounds Sufficient to Create a Prima Facie Case of Obviousness? By Sarah A. Kagan Anacor Pharmaceuticals, the dissatisfied patent owner in an inter partes review (IPR), and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) as intervenor participated in an oral argument at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal…

Robert S. Katz comments on design patent lawsuit involving Tesla and Nikola, a hydrogen-powered truck startup, in Bloomberg Technology. Mr. Katz explains the significance of design patents, and why it’s rare for automakers to sue each other over designs, in the article. Click here to read, “Startup Sues Tesla for $2 Billion Over Electric Truck…

Helen Hill Minsker is recognized in the  2018 edition of Managing Intellectual Property‘s “Top 250 Women in IP.” The annual publication recognizes female practitioners in private practice around the world who have performed exceptionally well for their clients and their firms. Ms. Minsker has been recognized with the honor each year since 2013. Click here to…

SAS Institute, Inc. v. Iancu: Raising the Stakes to an All-Or-Nothing Game at the PTAB By Justin M. Philpott and Eric A. Zelepugas In a 5-4 decision rejecting the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB)’s practice of partial institutions of inter partes reviews (IPR), the Supreme Court placed strict statutory interpretation over PTAB efficiencies. What will be…

Banner & Witcoff remembers our friend and former name partner George B. Newitt, who died on April 18, 2018. George spent most of his career at the Chicago law firm that eventually became Allegretti, Newitt, Witcoff and McAndrews. George grew up in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, and graduated from Wayne State University with a degree in…

Justin M. Philpott and Eric A. Zelepugas examine the Supreme Court’s SAS decision and what it potentially means for future Patent Trial and Appeal Board practice in Law360. Click here to read the article, “High Court Raises The Stakes At PTAB.”  

Oil States: Patents Are Public Rights, IPRs Are Here to Stay By Charles W. Shifley In the much-anticipated Oil States case,[i] the U.S. Supreme Court decided on April 24, 2018, that patent inter partes reviews (IPRs) are constitutional. Knocking the wind out of those who considered the opposite result possible, the decision garnered a majority of seven…