Banner Witcoff

Neil Ziegman and NPZ Inc. recently requested rehearing of a Feb. 24 Patent Trial and Appeal Board decision denying a petition for inter partes review of inventor Carlis Stephens’ patent on a raccoon trap. The denial was based solely on the fact that some of the issues had been addressed in the original patent prosecution.…

Joseph M. Potenza has received the 2015-2016 Charles Fahy Distinguished Adjunct Professor Award from the Georgetown University Law Center. The award, which is named after the noted Georgetown Law alumnus who served as U.S. Solicitor General and U.S. Court of Appeals judge, is given each year to adjunct professors who have provided “exceptional service to Georgetown…

R. Gregory Israelsen discusses the potential impact of the “Venue Equity and Non-Uniformity Elimination Act” or VENUE Act, introduced in the Senate on March 17, in Law360. Mr. Israelsen says the bill, which allows suits to be filed where the accused infringer has its principal place of business or is incorporated, or has a facility that…

In its article, “Law360 Reveals Largest IP Boutiques,” Law360 names Banner & Witcoff as one of the largest intellectual property boutique law firms in 2016. Law360 also points out that Banner & Witcoff experienced a 6.4 percent rise in attorney headcount in the past year. Please click here to read the article.

Ross A. Dannenberg discusses the importance of intellectual property protection in the April edition of the Russian magazine, Legal Insight. Mr. Dannenberg, who was in Moscow to present “IP Protection Strategies in the U.S. for Russian Companies” at PriceWaterhouse Coopers, also discusses Apple’s ongoing patent disputes and issues with patent trolls. Please click here to read…

Bradley J. Van Pelt examines when patent applicants may want to consider obtaining a continuation patent in the Law360 article, “4 Times To File A Continuation Patent Application.” In the article, Mr. Van Pelt explains that if prosecutors work with inventors to predict where technology is headed and capture that in their initial application, they will have more flexibility…

On March 15, 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit entered judgment in favor of firm clients Skype Technologies S.A. and RTX Telecom A/S. The Federal Circuit affirmed the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s March 2014 final decision in two inter partesreexaminations initiated by Skype Technologies and…

R. Gregory Israelsen offers his reaction to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit’s recent decision in In re Simon Shiao Tam in the April/May 2016 edition of World Trademark Review. The Federal Circuit reversed the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s refusal to register THE SLANTS as entertainment in the form of a…

FEDERAL CIRCUIT PANEL NOT SWEET ON TC HEARTLAND’S PETITION TO CHANGE RULES FOR PATENT VENUE By R. Gregory Israelsen “Boy, doesn’t this feel like something a legislature should do?” So said Judge Moore on March 11 in the oral argument on the pending petition for a writ of mandamus in In re TC Heartland LLC.1…

PATENT AGENT PRIVILEGE CONFIRMED BY FEDERAL CIRCUIT By Ernest V. Linek Yesterday, in a 2-1 mandamus decision in the case In re Queens University, the Federal Circuit ordered the district court to withdraw its order compelling discovery of communications with non-attorney patent agents. The decision here recognizes “patent agent privilege:” [W]e find that the unique roles…