Banner Witcoff

On February 12, 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in an en banc opinion, ruled in favor of Banner & Witcoff client Lexmark International, Inc., finding the “first sale” doctrine under patent law does not apply to: (1) patented articles sold subject to restrictions on resale and reuse communicated to the buyer…

Banner & Witcoff remembers our friend and partner Frank Wolffe, who died on February 3, 2016. A native of Washington, D.C., Mr. Wolffe graduated from the University of Maryland in 1954 with a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering. Upon his graduation, Mr. Wolffe held a position as research engineer with the Sun Oil Company,…

Binal J. Patel discusses why banks are not only obtaining more patents, but also higher-quality patents, in Bloomberg Businessweek. Please click here to read the article, “Wall Street Is Trying to Beat Silicon Valley at Its Own Game.”

Katie L. Becker, Matthew P. Becker, Joseph J. Berghammer, Aaron Bowling, Scott A. Burow, Marc S. Cooperman, Azuka C. Dike, Louis DiSanto, Katie Laatsch Fink, Shawn P. Gorman, Michael J. Harris, Audra C. Eidem Heinze, Sean J. Jungels, Kevin C. Keenan, Michael L. Krashin, Erik S. Maurer, Timothy C. Meece, Janice V. Mitrius, Jon O.…

Ross A. Dannenberg discusses the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s rejection of Sony’s attempt to trademark the words, “Let’s Play,” in Gamasutra. Mr. Dannenberg says it’s interesting that the trademark was rejected based on someone else’s trademark — “Let’z Play” — and not due to undescriptiveness. Please click here to read the article.

Banner and Witcoff is recognized as a top firm in the 2016 edition of the World Trademark Review 1000, the premier standalone research directory that focuses exclusively on trademark practices and practitioners. Helen Hill Minsker also received a top individual ranking in trademark prosecution and strategy in the 2016 edition. According to World Trademark Review:…

Banner & Witcoff welcomes associates Daniel Douglas and Nigel Fontenot to its Washington, D.C., office and Pei Wu to its Boston office. Mr. Douglas focuses his practice on patent prosecution in the fields of computer software, user interfaces, business methods, algorithms, wearable devices, networks and signal processing, voice recognition, artificial intelligence, and computational linguistics. He…

Mr. Iwanicki discusses the significance of Ariosa Diagnostics Inc. v. Sequenom Inc. in the Law360 article, “Patent Cases to Watch in 2016.” In this case, a Federal Circuit panel invalidated a patent on Sequenom’s prenatal DNA test as patent-ineligible because it is directed to a natural phenomenon. The full Federal Circuit decided not to review the case. It is now expected…

TAM TRADEMARK VICTORY MAY PROVIDE GAME PLAN FOR WASHINGTON REDSKINS By R. Gregory Israelsen Last week, the Federal Circuit held en banc that the disparagement provision of Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act is unconstitutional in violation of the First Amendment. Writing for the majority in In Re Simon Shiao Tam on December 22, Judge…

John M. Fleming discusses how focusing on intellectual property could potentially help negotiate the price of a company down in Mergers & Acquisitions. Please click here to read the article, “How Intellectual Property Affects M&A Valuation.” Registration is required.