Chicago, IL – The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that a toilet paper design was functional and not subject to trademark protection. Georgia-Pacific began selling Quilted Northern toilet paper about twenty years ago and obtained trademarks, copyrights, and patents of the quilted design. Kimberly-Clark later began selling competing…
Indianapolis, IN – Trademark lawyers for Choice Hotels International Inc. of Silver Spring, Maryland filed a trademark infringement suit in the Southern District of Indianaalleging Shreya Pravin LLC, of Lebanon, Indiana, Vina Investments, LLC of Valrico, Florida, Riddhi, LLC of Corona, California, Sunil R. Patel of California and Shirish…
Indianapolis, IN – Judge Tanya Walton Pratt of the Southern District of Indiana denied summary judgment on what would have disposed of a dispute over the intellectual property rights to tax software used by many Indiana county governments. Nikish Software Corporation of Commack, New York had sued Manatron Incorporated…
Washington, DC – A popular topic among patent lawyers across the country is the proposed “patent reform” legislation being debated and considered by members of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Titled the “Leahy-Smith America Invents Act,” the pending legislation in the House, H.R. 1249, passed by a…
South Bend, IN – Trademark lawyers for Choice Hotels International, Inc. of Silver Spring, Maryland filed a trademark infringement suit in the Northern District of Indianaalleging SBQI, Inc. of South Bend, Indiana and eight Illinois individuals infringed trademark registration no. 0,886,881 for the mark QUALITY, which has been registered…
London, U.K. – The Guardian newspaper of London recently reported on the rash of BitTorrent lawsuits that have been filed in the United States. The Guardian reports on the claims of a blogger named TorrentFreak who has been vigorously tracking the BitTorrent lawsuits. Notably, TorrentFreak tracks that over 200,000…
Evansville, IN – Through its patent attorneys, Mead Johnson Nutrition Co., of Glenview, Illinois, has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Nestle S.A. of Switzerland; Nestle USA Inc. of Glendale, California; and Gerber Products Co. d/b/a/ Nestle Infant Nutrition of Florham Park, New Jersey. The complaint alleges infringement of…
Indianapolis, IN – The Indiana Court of Appeals examined Indiana’s criminal counterfeiting law in affirming a criminal counterfeiting conviction and sentence. The defendant was charged with five counts of counterfeiting, a Class D felony, after he filled out mail order forms and caused an Indiana State Trooper to receive…
Wilmington, DE – Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly & Company has won patent infringement protection of the drug Lilly’s drug ALIMTA drug, which is a chemotherapy drug used to treat mesothelioma and other lung cancers. Lilly co-owns the patent with Princeton University. The lawsuit arose from an Abbreviated New Drug Application…
Washington, D.C. – In an unusual decision; the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has affirmed attorney’s fees and sanctions against a plaintiff who filed a meritless patent infringement lawsuit and committed other litigation misconduct. The case was appealed from the Western District of Washington, which had awarded…