Banner Witcoff

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.

Ernest V. Linek reviews the significance of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit’s decision in The Authors Guild et al. v. Google, Inc. inIntellectual Property Magazine. Linek says in the article that the Oct. 16, 2015, decision “highlights the fact that the fair use deference to a charge of copyright infringement requires…

HEIGHTENED PATENT PLEADING STANDARD, DISCOVERY PROPORTIONALITY, AND OTHER RECENT AMENDMENTS TO THE FEDERAL RULES OF CIVIL PROCEDURE By Jeffrey H. Chang Amendments made by the Supreme Court to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (Rules) took effect December 1, 2015. The amendmentsfundamentally change litigation in federal courts, including heightening the standard for pleading direct patent…

FEDERAL CIRCUIT HEARS ORAL ARGUMENTS INMCRO V. NAMCO BANDAI: WILL PATENT-ELIGIBILITY OF COMPUTER SOFTWARE SURVIVE? By Ross A. Dannenberg In the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2014 decision in Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank, courts have been struggling to define the line between abstract idea and patent-eligible invention. The Federal Circuit on Friday, December 11, heard oral…

John M. Fleming explains that buyers and sellers can both use due diligence to determine benefits and potential issues with patent assets in the December/January 2016 issue of Today’s General Counsel. Please click here to read, “How Due Diligence Analysis Drives a Negotiation.”

REVISED FEDERAL RULES OF CIVIL PROCEDURE ABROGATE RULE 84 AND ELIMINATE APPENDIX OF FORMS By Saranya Raghavan The revised Federal Rules of Civil Procedure contain changes that may impact patent litigation at the district court level. The revised rules went into effect on December 1, 2015. The revised rules were approved by the United States…

On November 24, 2015, the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada issued an order adopting all of Banner & Witcoff’s proposed claim constructions in connection with the patent infringement suit by Rembrandt Gaming Technologies, LP against Banner & Witcoff, Ltd.’s clients WMS Gaming, Inc., Aria Resort & Casino Holdings, LLC, Bellagio, LLC, Caesars…